Rural Health

Our primary focus is bringing healthcare to the rural and tribal areas. With this in view, we have conducted a number of health check-up, first aid training and health education camps in the rural areas near Mumbai.

We started training few literate people from the villages with basic first aid knowledge & donated kits for the villages. After a few camps we realized that mere check-up and screening wasn’t enough, we needed to empower the patients.

There's an open tap in a sink and water is overflowing. Do you sit wiping the water or do you close the tap? This is the basis of primary health care, the pillar of which is health education. Today, we, at Switch, want to not only screen people for diseases but also want to inculcate a basic knowledge of healthy living and disease prevention in people in an effective way.

We want to go down to their level, understand their perspective and inculcate this in them. We are not here to just inform them and take leave. We intend to use this tool with love and believe that when used powerfully, it can change the lives of 100s with just a few words.

“The village is the cell of the national body and the cell-life must be healthy and developed for the national body to be healthy and developed.” SRI AUROBINDO. Let’s switch to rural health!

Our New Model

In the lives of those we aim to serve, we always regretted being a one-time event. Today, following up on the patients that we screen has become an important part of Switch India.

This approach is for now restricted to the pediatric age group camps where phone number of the children are recorded. With prior consent, monthly calls are done by our volunteers for the children. To standardize the calls a questionnaire has been prepared which focuses on various problems ranging from malnutrition, vision, menstrual to behavioral problems. We allot one volunteer per child throughout and encourage them to form a bond.

On detecting a significant complaint, the volunteers further consult our doctors about the next line of action. Some cases are treated by home visits by the local volunteers while some are referred. For those who cannot afford the medications, Switch India provides them for free. With our telephone follow ups we are trying to use technology to bridge the gap in healthcare. Let’s switch to innovation!