Looking at life from a different perspective

Reporting on the free medical treatment being provided for residents of Aba prefecture in Sichuan province has been demanding: I had to repeatedly warn myself not to portray the patients as beggars, or the doctors as saviors. It's a cliche that underscores too much coverage of philanthropic work.

Instead, I discovered a new angle in Aba: the relationship between the land and the people.

Many of the endemic diseases that affect Tibetan nomads are caused by their way of life, which is closely related to the land through their yaks. The time spent delivering free treatment also gave the urban doctors a chance to get to know the land and treat it with reverence out of respect for the religious beliefs of the local people.