India: Varanasi

More than 5,000 years old, Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world – and also the holiest city in the world to Hindus. (There are 23,000 temples in Varanasi.)

Located on the banks of the sacred Ganges River also contributes to its prestige as an important site of pilgrimage. Hindus believe that dying here and getting cremated along the banks of the “holy” Ganges river allows one to break the cycle of rebirth and attain salvation, making it a major center for pilgrimage.

Varanasi is also very sacred to Buddhists because this is where Buddha gave his first sermon and where Buddhism was born around 528 years before Christ was born.

Bodies are cremated here 24-hours a day, seven days a week. The richest man in Varanasi is the man who sells the wood for the cremation fires.

The city is known worldwide for its many ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims come and bath in the waters of the Ganges and perform ritual “ablutions” which is Latin for purification, dedication and “washing away.”

The Ganges is one of the oldest rivers in the world, and is India’s most sacred.

According to myth, the Ganges comes from the goddess Ganga, who fell to earth and liberated the souls of many caught in sin. Indians believe that it’s a crossing point between heaven and earth—and that washing in the holy water cleanses them of sin.

More than 5 million people a year visit Varanasi and most of them come for a small dip in the river. In most cases, people will come with small containers to take water from the Ganges, back to their homes.

Unfortunately, the Ganges is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. More than half of Varanasi’s waste flows into the river, along with the bones and ashes of the dead, and in some desperate cases, simply the dead. On my first visit here, a dead cow floated by our boat as we were watching bodies be cremated.

While Varanasi has a very rich history, it is one of the poorest areas of India where people are struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day.

Malnutrition stunts the growth and development of than 50% of the population. And severe burns kill and injure tens of millions of children and adults.

Due to poverty, hundreds of millions of Indians still cook, heat and light their homes with fires that children and adults fall into. They use kerosene lamps that tip over. Cheap cookstoves that explode. Stolen electricity that can lead to horrific, accidental electrocutions. And acid that disfigures, destroys and maims.

Today, we will meet 800+ severely burned children who have come from all across India, some from hundreds of miles away, to G.S. Memorial Hospital, one of our best partners, in the hopes of receiving free surgery. Each one of them has come here desperately in search of their “salavation” – and a second chance at life.

When we arrive at our partner hospital, there are already hundreds of patients waiting . We wade through the crowd slowly, with one of the best burn surgeons in all of India leading the way.

One by one, we hear their stories.

Unlike cleft lip or palate, club foot, or any of the many birth defects that plague poor children in developing countries, burns are very different. While everyone who has a birth defect gets it the same way – they’re born with it – everyone who has a severe burn also has a story.

Burns are caused by accidents, attacks, fights, explosions, depression, bad judgment and freak occurrences . Every patient with a burn has their own story and most are utterly heartbreaking.

We meet a young mother who was 8 months pregnant when her sari caught fire while she was cooking.

A pair of sisters who were sleeping in the same bed when their hut caught on fire.

A 3-year-old boy, who was left alone at home because both his parents had to work in the fields. His hut caught on fire and there was no one there to save him. His parents rushed him to a major hospital, but they had no money to pay for treatment so they were turned away.

A young woman who had an epileptic seizure while she was cooking and fell face first, unconscious into a pot of boiling water.

A beautiful, 11-year old girl who went to the local kiosk to buy some fruit as her mom had asked. The kiosk owner asked her to hold a candle while he switched gas tanks. There was a leak. An explosion. And in a flash, her future went up in flames.

A young man who was working in a factory when someone mixed the wrong ingredients, creating a big explosion.

A little girl whose friend set her on fire. Her mother cried when she told us her family spent all the money they had to get treatment for their daughter, but none of it helped. Then they borrowed money for surgeries and they are paying 10% interest.

And many, many children who were caught in fires caused by a kerosene or oil lamp that was tipped over by mistake.

As we listened to heart-wrenching stories and met so many severely disfigured children, we had a hard time not crying.

But our partner surgeon, Dr. Subodh Sing, was solid as a rock.
He would put his hand on their shoulder, gently explaining to each child and parent that things are never as bad as they look. Then he would patiently explain what he could do.

He is not just a surgeon – he is a magician.

He can build eyelids, noses, ears, and mouths.

He can separate a chin fused to a chest, a hand with all the fingers melted together, eyelids that have been sealed.

No matter how grim the prognosis, he was always smiling, confident and optimistic that he and his team could deliver a good result for each of these patients.

He gave them a hug. And then he gave them hope.

It was remarkable to be there and see how he handled each and every patient. He treated each one with love and respect.

We asked each one, “How far did you come?”

Their answers shocked us: 100 kilometers, 300 kilometers, 500 kilometers.

Their answers showed how desperate they were and that no one else would help them. None of these families owned a car or motorcycle. They walked. Took buses. Trains. Some had to sell their rickshaws or other property to raise money to travel to this burn camp.