The Ihangane Project mobilizes community innovation in clinical care, community health, health systems management and social enterprise to create effective and resilient front line health systems that connect national protocols to local realities.
Aarohi
Approach
Target geography
Target Population
Target income level
- Bottom 20%
Health focus
- Primary care
- Secondary/tertiary care
Summary
Aarohi’s mission is to create development opportunities for rural Himalayan communities through quality healthcare and education, enterprise promotion, women’s empowerment, sustainable natural resource use, and the revival of traditional culture.Program goals
As part of its community health initiative, Aarohi is currently implementing the “Arogya” project.
The project's objectives are:
To improve maternal health
To enhance child health status and decrease child mortality and morbidity
To build capacities at all levels
To promote health awareness, general well being and preventive care
To establish linkages with government and other organizations
To promote goals of National Rural Health Mission
To improve the status of various social determinants of health
Key program components
Arogya Project Community Health Initiative:
The Arogya project brings systematic reforms to the state sponsored health care delivery mechanism, emphasizing the importance of health care to be simple, cost-effective, humane, and most-importantly self-sustained by communities. Located in the remote regions of Uttarakhand, India, the project area includes 30 villages, benefiting over 12,000 people. Aarohi works at both the household and community levels bringing together training, awareness and treatment, and linking with secondary and tertiary services provided by governmental and non-governmental institutions in order to achieve its aim. The Swasthya Karmis are trained in maternal and childcare, first aid, and treatment of common diseases. A detailed Health Management Information System has also been developed to track pregnant mothers, child growth, immunization coverage and morbidity and mortality for target groups.
In addition to collaborating with local health workers, Aarohi engages with local youth through the Arogya project’s BSPT (Bal Swasthya Prachar Team) program. This program works to educate children on various issues and sensitize the community by involving local students. The Arogya project’s approach to community health care is one that considers social and environmental determinants of health. As such, the Aarohi has partnered with communities to build smokeless cooking stoves, identify and test sources of drinking water and construct waste disposal pits.
Aarohi Arogya Kendra (Aarohi's cottage hospital in Satoli):
In addition to extensive programs in preventive health care, the Aarohi Arogya Kendra or cottage hospital at its village headquarters in Satoli, provides essential outpatient, in-patient, emergency and diagnostic services. 50 villages in the region are able to take advantage of these highly demanded curative services. The hospital itself has an inpatient capacity of 10 beds and includes an operation theatre, an in-house laboratory and fully equipped X-Ray facilities. The hospital charges on an average INR 50 (a little over US $1), which includes consultation, medicines and investigations, and provides care for over 4,000 patients every year.
A unique activity of the Aarohi Arogya Kendra is the numerous health camps offered throughout the year. These camps bring in specialists to offer services in Gynaecology, ENT, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Paediatrics, Internal Medicine, Dentistry, Radiology, and to conduct surgical operations. Doctors from various parts of the country and abroad offer voluntary services and the benefit is passed on to the rural population as highly subsidized care.
Mobile Health:
To reach patients in the region’s more remote areas, the hospital runs mobile clinics, where hospital staff and visiting doctors travel to villages, treating populations in areas with little or no access to proper health care services
Scale
Technology
Financials
Related Programs
E-swasthya is a Social Initiative of Primal Healthcare Limited, a first-of-its-kind telemedicine-based model for providing primary care in Rajasthan, India that aims to address the absence of doctors.
Tierra Nueva (New Earth) is a non-profit organization founded in 1992. Its mission is to provide protective services, education and health, in order to guarantee quality of life through activities aligned with the spiritual beliefs of its founder, Father Jose Carollo.
SEWA Rural is a voluntary development organization involved in health & development activities in rural tribal area of South Gujarat at Jhagadia since 1980. The activities were initiated by a group of young professionals based upon the ideals & ideas of Swami Vivekananda & Gandhiji.
Aga Khan Development Network eHealth Resource Centre drives improvements in access, quality, cost, efficiency and safety of health care through Information and Communication Technologies. The Centre supports the assessment, development and implementation of eHealth activities in Asia and Africa.
