Smile Foundation rolled out its first Smile on Wheels mobile hospital for the state of Bihar in association with Siemens Ltd. This mobile healthcare initiative is providing comprehensive healthcare services for the underprivileged in the villages of Madhepura district of Bihar. The project is a first of its kind in the state and will is initially benefiting over 25,000 people in 10 villages of Madhepura, namely Sahugarh-1, Sahugarh-2, Bhatutola, Mithai, Balam, Shripur, Chakla, Sabela, Puniyahi and Sukhasan. This Project in Madhepura is being supported by the Corporate Citizenship initiative of Siemens Ltd.
“We are proud to partner with Smile Foundation on this initiative. Basic healthcare is an integral part of our lives and with this initiative; we hope to touch the lives of the people living in the villages. We are sure this initiative will lead to much improvement in the healthcare services in the villages that ‘Smile on Wheels’ touches. This is an important milestone for Siemens too as we strive to be an integral part of society through sustainable corporate citizenship initiatives,” said V K Menon, Head of Corporate Communications, Siemens Ltd.
The initiative aims to meet the primary healthcare needs of the underprivileged population through preventive, promotive and curative services. It focus on improving coverage of ante-natal care amongst pregnant women to ensure safe motherhood thereby reducing infant and maternal mortality, improving immunization and general healthcare services. It also provides respiratory tract infection case management, awareness of HIV/AIDS and sanitation. The aim is to improve reporting and management of infectious diseases amongst the people of the district.
This is the 20th Smile on Wheels project in India by Smile Foundation. Smile on Wheels programme is a national level healthcare programme by Smile Foundation which is catering to the healthcare need of the underprivileged people of Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Odisha.