Moving Hospitals for poor Widows and Children in Rural Haryana
The pilot project has been launched in rural Haryana with Able Charities Hospital as the implementing partner. Smile-on-Wheels, the other programme, comprises of 10 well-equipped mobile hospitals to be stationed at various part of the country. It will take affordable health services to more than 1 lakh deprived people annually in the unreachable areas through various partners. Smile on Wheels pilot project was launched with the same partner from Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre, New Delhi. Dr. Naresh Trehan, Executive Director, Escorts
Heart Institute & Research Centre, New Delhi was the Chief
Guest and inaugurated Smile-on-Wheels pilot programme. He
cut the ribbon and handed over the key of the first such mobile
hospital. Dr. Trehan also handed over the Health ID Cards
symbolically to 30 select widows and announced the launch
of SAMVEDNA. “Finding genuine organizations and working with them on the part of Smile Foundation is also praiseworthy. Escorts would like to be partner in this nation-wide initiative in near future,” said Dr. Naresh Trehan, famous Cardiologist.
To begin with, the first such partnership,
Smile Foundation is entering into is with ABLE Charities Hospital
& Foundation, Faridabad, a non-governmental organization
with a well-equipped Hospital at Behrola near Palwal, Haryana. For widows in rural areas health concern doesn’t even come in their priorities. Smile Foundation and one of its partner NGOs, ABLE Charities, have found out in a survey of 90 villages in Haryana that 80% of the widows are below 40 years of age. The average income of each of them is as meager as Rs. 300 per month, which they earn out of grass-cutting, farming jobs and manual labour. Many widows of the same age group have died not being able to afford even minor health expenses like Rs 3,000/-, leaving their children orphans. SAMVEDNA is a special healthcare programme which aims to cover those needy widows and their children round the year. SAMVEDNA, a unique health agenda – begins with a comprehensive healthcare support project for the benefit of 6000 underprivileged widows and their children initially in Haryana. The Project seeks to provide preventive, diagnostic and curative medical (including surgical) services for to such women. The services are proposed to be provided through both – On-wheel Clinic and the static Hospital of the ABLE Foundation. “Smile makes people Able, and Able makes people Smile,” echoed Squadron Leader (Rtd.) P K Khullar, the man behind ABLE. |
Smile-on-Wheels, a mega project launched
by Smile Foundation across 10 centres across the country,
aims to take comprehensive health care services (preventive,
promotive and curative) to rural remote villages. The project
will reach out to the most underprivileged. Under the Scheme,
Smile Foundation is entering into partnerships with credible
NGOs, charitable hospitals, corporate foundations and development
organizations across India.