Introduction

Health is wealth. As per the DALY Index report, developing countries lose a significant portion of their GDP only due to sickness, disease, disability and deficiency of their human resources. The foundation of a strong economy is a healthy workforce. Even at the household level, disease and disability send the entire household budget into disarray pushing the household into poverty. Thus, preventive healthcare has the potential to contribute to growth and development of the country. It needs systemic intervention starting from the grassroot level. Government is working through the National Health Policy under which various transformational programs like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Ayushman Bharat Abhiyan have been launched.

Background

In India, easily avoidable diseases have become big challenges.

Communicable diseases that India is most vulnerable to - diarrhoea, tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV-AIDS, Dengue, malaria, Japanese encephalitis, measles etc.

Non-communicable diseases that India is most vulnerable to – Diabetes, Heart related diseases, mental illnesses, Asthma, Orthopaedic problems, Accident related disabilities, occupational diseases

Why?

Communicable diseases	Non-communicable diseases
Lack of awareness about diseases and their risk factors	Lack of awareness about diseases and their risk factors
Poor health and hygiene practices due to attitudinal problem	Changing dietary pattern and consumption of tobacco and alcohol
Social stigma attached to diseases especially TB, AIDS	Sedentary lifestyle
Patriarchal mindset leading to neglect of girls’ and women’s nutrition; limited awareness about family planning	Unsafe use of plastic and other toxic materials in daily lives
High out of Pocket expenditure involved in treatment	High out of pocket expenditure involved in treatment

What Dhara for Sustaining Life does?

At Dhara for Sustaining Life, we take responsibility to understand the major challenges to good health facing the community. Based on the understanding, we collaborate with the responsible stakeholders, children, youth and women of the community to address those challenges. In the process, we not only create aspiration for change but can also sustain it through community ownership.

• Spread awareness about preventive and curative health within the community through interactive open sessions and campaigns
• Spread awareness regarding the benefits under government health schemes extended to the people through front line health workers
• Inform about the various cost-effective options to seek qualitative treatment
• With help of our member network, sponsor medical treatment of needy persons
• Leverage our volunteer network to get onboard noble doctors who can provide their services at subsidized rates, on holidays or in remote areas
• nform people about the bio-similarity of generic and branded medicines and the equivalency of their effectiveness
• Carry out campaigns to encourage people to opt for health insurance
• Organize free physiotherapy camps for needy persons
• Empower the communities to escalate their grievances to appropriate authority and to assert their rights and entitlements
• Promote alternative medicine systems like Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy among the community for long term wellness
• Carry out cleanliness drive, tree plantation drive and waste management drive in the communities

How you can help

• Donate to our projects related to Health. You can follow the ongoing and upcoming projects here
• Volunteer with us to help execute the ongoing projects and to help kickstart the upcoming ones
• Share your idea about how we can benefit the people more or how we can reach out to more people
• Partner with us and we can jointly work to create more impact

Contact

Drop us an e-mail at dharaforsustaininglife@gmail.com or call us at +91-9999-801-394 or drop by at our office in 10/70 Basement, Old Rajender Nagar, New Delhi-60.