| GUIDE
TO CHRISTIAN MEDICAL COLLEGE, VELLORE, INDIA,
AND INFORMATION FOR OVERSEAS VISITORS, VOLUNTEERS AND OBSERVERS.
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This
guide offers information on day-to-day life for visitors,
visitor-observers and volunteers at the Christian Medical
College (CMC), Vellore, South India. CMC welcomes overseas
visitors, volunteers and observers, (all described hereafter
as ‘visitors’), and we want to help you enjoy
your stay. Often, our first time visitors discover this
environment to be an astounding profusion of energy, substance,
and spirit that can be shockingly different from what they
have known. Feeling at ease takes time, but India and CMC
are friendly and hospitable. |
1.
THE HISTORY OF C.M.C.
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In 1900,
the Christian Medical College was started by Ida S. Scudder,
an American missionary, as a one-bed clinic to serve women.
In 1902, she built the 40-bed Mary Taber Schell Memorial
Hospital for women and children, named after the donor’s
wife. The site is now CMC Schell Campus, which houses the
Eye Hospital and Low Cost Effective Care Unit (LCECU). The
main hospital moved to the present location in the Thottapalayam
area of Vellore in 1924 and treatment was extended to men
as well. At present CMC has 2300 beds on four sites, with
all specialities. Patients from all over India and the world
come for treatment.
The Christian Medical College Association is a non government,
private, inter-denominational Christian organisation. The
object of the Association is the establishment, maintenance
and development of a Christian Medical College in India
where women and men shall receive an education of the highest
grade in the art and science of Medicine and Nursing or
in one of the Allied Health professions, to equip them in
the spirit of Christ, for service in the relief of suffering
and the promotion of health.
The CMC community today is made up of an interesting and
diverse group of people,- students and faculty come from
all over India. Visitors come from Australia, Britain, Canada,
Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Kenya, the Middle East,
New Zealand, USA and many other countries. The interchange
between varied people and cultures provides a rewarding
and stimulating experience.
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