Two Dunedin School of Medicine students will soon be helping some of the poorest people in India.
After completing their end-of-year exams, second-year students Hayleigh Miller, of Timaru, and Anna Clare O'Connor, of Wanganui, will travel to Kolkata as volunteers at the Institute for Indian Mother and Child next month.
The institute was a non-governmental volunteer organisation that promoted child and maternal health and literacy to those who could not access basic healthcare.
Miss Miller (20) said the work appealed because the institute had a long-term plan.
''It's very sustainable. It's not one of these things where they go in and build a well and then leave and when the well breaks, the people don't have the money to fix it.''
She had never visited a developing country before but was looking forward to the challenge.
''I'm a big believer in being the change that you wish to see.''
Miss O'Connor (24) said they were both fundraising for the trip. At a recent bake sale they raised $500 and both would have a fundraising website to provide updates and where people could give money.
''We get to see where it's goes because we are handing it over and bypassing the huge administration cost.''
Fellow student Sunniva Jones, of Nelson, said she volunteered at the institute last year.
Miss Jones (23) said she helped with injections, took patients' blood pressure and dressed wounds and infections.
The institute had 20 schools where volunteers could teach and had programmes which economically empowered women.
''The institute has given loans to about 20,000 rural women who have started businesses.''
The most uplifting moment at the institute was working with disabled children and handing over the $1200 she had raised to buy them school books, Miss Jones said.
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