PRASAD
Growing up, I always questioned why the world seemed to have so much inequality. Purely by the circumstances of where and how I came into this world, my opportunities and prospects for life were so drastically different compared to a child born in a rural village in India. I felt compelled to do something with this opportunity I had been given, to help people who were bound and constrained by overwhelmingly difficult life circumstances. It’s the reason that I became a physician, and why I started volunteering with PRASAD.
Mobile Hospital 1978
When people can’t come to healthcare centers, we go to them.
In Maharashtra’s rural Tansa Valley, 265,000 Adivasi men, women, and children live across 225 remote villages. Poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and lack of healthcare are widespread issues in these communities. Many have no access to transportation, and even if they do, the distance, cost, and time to get to a medical clinic on dirt roads in questionable repair can be prohibitive.
In 1978, PRASAD Chikitsa - our Indian initiative - launched the Shree Muktananda Mobile Hospital, one of the first mobile hospitals in Maharashtra State.
Mobile Hospital today
The Mobile Hospital brings services right to the heart of Adivasi villages. Villagers receive health education, screening, and treatment for chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, malnutrition, and heart disease, and referrals for eye surgery. Healthcare workers and members of Women’s Self-Help Groups also do community outreach to ensure all who need treatment know how to access it.
To date, the Mobile Hospital has reached more than 1 million people living in remote villages who would not otherwise have access to healthcare. The Mobile Hospital provides services six days a week to 21 villages and completes more than 7,000 patient visits per year. It is an important component of our Tuberculosis program, which has a 95% cure rate, 10% higher than the national average, and for the community awareness/education initiative of our HIV/AIDS program.
Holistic and Life-Changing Programs
The Mobile Hospital has been a phenomenal success. Yet, as I became more immersed in nonprofit work around the world, it became clear that in addition to a lack of healthcare, people who are underprivileged face a multitude of challenges. Malnutrition, lack of hygienic waste disposal and access to clean water, and limited economic and educational opportunities, to name a few. To truly help uplift someone from these kinds of dire circumstances, addressing only one need isn’t enough.
And this is how PRASAD is different. PRASAD expanded to encompass a holistic approach. PRASAD offers a wide range of programs that collectively work to support and empower individuals, families, and communities to achieve lives of self-reliance and dignity. We design our programming to be sustainable with multiple benefits, helping people in the here and now and creating a better future for generations to come.
Currently, PRASAD programs include general and specialized medical and dental care, childhood nutrition, water security and sanitation, education, women’s empowerment, and sustainable agriculture and environment.
Images: Before and after photos
31 Years of Serving Those in Need
Mobile hospital: health care services: 1,069,098 visits
Milk & Nutrition Program: 1,414,250 servings
Eye care, screenings, and surgeries: 261,057
Medical Center: 1,005,124 visits
Achieved a 95% cure rate for TB
Kitchen Gardens: 11,030
Self-Help Groups currently active:
Number of SHG: 265
Number of SHG Members: 2,986
Arts & Crafts: 154,558
Tree Planting & Floriculture: 174,476 samplings distributed
I encourage you to learn more about PRASAD’s transformative work. Please visit our website www.prasad.org, or feel free to reach out to us directly at prasad@prasad.org or 845-434-0376. You might also like to join us for Being Together, our annual virtual event on Sunday, Nov. 5. Join us, in contributing to a meaningful impact for the world’s underprivileged. History of PRASAD: https://youtu.be/xt958khu1HU?si=Ieb9Cp_ypA0BgFr_
Vivek Panchapakesan MD FRCSC serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees for PRASAD. He is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon treating facial deformities in Toronto, Canada, who has been committed to philanthropic work his entire career.
