- Health Care Programs
- General Health Care
- Eye Care
- Dental Care
- Community Health
- HIV/AIDS
- Sustainable Development
- Disaster Relief
Kids bring creativity, awareness to World Environment Day
Ganeshpuri, India— On June 5, the people of Ganeshpuri celebrated World Environment Day with activities organized by representatives from PRASAD Chikitsa, and from local schools and youth groups. At the Primary School of Ganeshpuri, enthusiastic children created drawings and Rangoli to express how trees benefit both people and the environment. Read more…
Donate now and we’ll DOUBLE it!
Click here
Donor, Margareta Blix, is celebrating the life of her beloved late sister, Gudrun, with a grant of up to $20,000 that will provide a dollar-to-dollar match for new donations to PRASAD Children's Dental Health Program (PRASAD CDHP) received through October 31, 2010. Read more...
“Paddlers for Humanity” Open Ocean Paddle to benefit PRASAD Children’s Dental Health Program
Sunday, September 5th
(rain date September 6th)
Save the Date & Register!
Read more...
Jitendra Garekar rediscovers strength in his heart… and a love for school
Jitendra Garekar spent most of his childhood in bed.
While his friends played cricket and went to school, Jitendra found that even the slightest of exertions left him fatigued and tired. Many thought he was just a sickly kid. The village medicine men could do little to improve his condition. It was only much later, when his family took him to a government hospital, did they learn that Jitendra suffered from a rheumatic heart ailment.
Rheumatic heart disease is caused by rheumatic fever, which begins with a throat infection or strep throat (caused by the bacteria Streptococcus). The fever damages the valves of the heart. The government hospital informed Jitendra’s parents that both his heart valves would have to be replaced. The double valve replacement surgery would cost Rs 150,000 (around $3300). The sum was beyond their reach. And since they did not technically fall below the government-defined poverty line, they could not qualify for free surgery either. That’s when they brought Jitendra to the Anukampaa Health Centre. PRASAD’s volunteers intervened at Nair Hospital and brought the cost of surgery down to Rs 83,000 ($1800); they also helped the family raise funds.
The surgery was successful. Today the 23-year-old Jitendra is studying in the 12th standard, making up for the years when he couldn’t go to school.
PRASAD Chikitsa’s health care programs are helping hundreds of people like Jitendra Garekar in the Tansa Valley, in Maharashtra, India, every day.
PRASAD General Health Care Programs, India
The Tansa Valley in Maharashtra is about 100 miles from Mumbai. Despite its proximity to India’s financial capital, quality health care was virtually non-existent in the region until about two decades ago.
Most of the people in this predominantly tribal area led hand-to-mouth lives (on an average per capita income of less than $50 per month), working as laborers in farms and brick kilns or doing odd jobs. Children were malnourished; adults battled tuberculosis and heart disease without access to medicines and care; and many endured a life of blindness caused by cataracts.
The six government-run Primary Health Care Centers and a handful of private clinics were woefully inadequate to look after the needs of the 200,000 people spread across 250 villages in the area.
To bridge the widening gap between the demand and supply of health care, PRASAD Chikitsa started offering medical services in the area through a mobile hospital in 1978. Over the years, the Tansa Valley population has grown to its current size of about 250,000 people, and PRASAD Chikitsa’s health care facilities have expanded as well. Today, its doctors and volunteers run a full-fledged hospital and diagnostic center, a modern eye-care clinic, a dental care clinic, TB programs and a number of community health programs.
Gurudev Siddha Peeth Anukampaa Health Center
Since it was set up in June 2003, the Anukampaa Health Center has played a pivotal role in delivering much-needed health care to the people of the Tansa region. Today, the center treats 3,000 patients a month, most of them free, for a host of diseases and conditions.
The hospital is open six days a week. It has a daily general OPD (Out Patients’ Department), and specialists visit on designated days to treat complicated cases -- for example, ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) on Wednesdays, cardiac care on one Saturday each month and surgery on alternate Wednesdays. Other specialist areas include orthopedics, ultrasound, psychiatry, male health and audio-speech therapy.
Treatment and medicines are provided at nominal charges, and free for those who can’t afford them.
Anukampaa also runs a TB program. TB claims a life every minute and accounts for more casualties than any other infectious disease in India. In the Tansa Valley, the problem is particularly acute because of the poor nutritional levels of the tribals, and the high levels of ignorance about the disease.
Doctors at Anukampaa treat 60-70 TB patients at any given time. Thanks to their close involvement with patients and consequent follow-up, Anukampaa doctors have achieved a cure rate of 96 percent in TB cases against the government’s target of 85 percent.
Heart disease is another major area of concern. Though Anukampaa does not have facilities for heart surgery, it helps locals with early detection through its diagnostic facilities and by offering the services of a visiting cardiologist.
PRASAD volunteers also help patients through the bureaucratic maze at government hospitals and ensure that they get the treatment they are eligible for. Anukampaa has, so far, helped 17 cardiac patients at the Nair Hospital in Mumbai.
PRASAD Chikitsa started the diagnostic center in 2001. It has evolved into a state-of-the-art facility today, and caters to nearly 400 patients a month. The diagnostic center offers blood, sputum, urine and semen testing, and also has an X-ray facility.
Shree Muktananda Mobile Hospital
The mobile hospital is one of the earliest health care programs provided by PRASAD Chikitsa in the Tansa Valley. Started in 1978, the idea of the mobile hospital was to take health care where it was needed most: to people in remote and inaccessible places of the Tansa region.
The mobile hospital still continues, and serves two purposes. One, many of those living in the remote parts of the valley cannot spare the time or the money to visit the health care center. As a result, they visit a doctor only when their disease is at an advanced stage, making treatment difficult.
The mobile hospital not only provides on-the-spot treatment, but also has trained medical professionals who can diagnose patients with more serious problems and bring them to the Anukampaa center for treatment.
The Shree Muktananda Mobile Hospital makes trips two days a week, and treats 500-700 patients a month.
PRASAD Chikitsa's Muktananda Mobile Hospital Celebrates 30th Anniversary!
- Click here to read about our Eye Care, Dental Care, Community Health and HIV/AIDS programs in Tansa.