Lynae Byler

Whether it was giving injections and taking vital signs on the health mobile van, teaching slum children how to play soccer and other outdoor games, volunteering at the HIV hospital, or loving on the girls at the orphanage, Lynae Byler never had a dull moment during her six week internship in India. For the first four weeks Lynae lived with a host family in a village, Naya Bans, in the outskirts of the capital Delhi. She volunteered with a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Child Survival India and got to experience all the different programs that this NGO offered for the community. On an average day she would ride with the health mobile van to two different slums where she would learn and implement numerous nursing and people skills including giving injections, assessing vital signs, getting blood and urine samples, documenting, and giving prenatal checkups. Once a week instead of going on the health mobile van Lynae would volunteer at an HIV center and Tuberculosis center, both of which are very common diseases in India. Once a week Lynae would also travel to a neighboring village Tikri where she would teach, or at least attempt to teach, around 60 slum children how to play soccer and other outdoor games. For the last two weeks Lynae moved to Ghaziabad village where she volunteered with the NGO Udayan Care at a girl’s orphanage. At the orphanage she was the didi (sister) to eight girls from the ages of 5-12. Since Lynae was only there for two weeks, she focused on the girl’s hygiene and taught them all how to correctly brush their teeth, take baths, and live a healthy lifestyle. She also assembled a first aid guideline packet for the care home so that they would have knowledge of what to do when someone gets a cut. Lynae was also able to travel and see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal. She attended numerous, fascinating religious festivals and learned to love eating the Indian vegetarian diet including Rotis and daal.