Shakyamuni Buddha Community Health Programme Overview
The
health programme was established in 1991 as a home for the destitute, located on the Root Institute compound
in Bodhgaya. With encouragement from our Spiritual Director, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and support from many donors,
the programme as it exists today steadily developed over the past fifteen years. In 1996, a homoeopathic clinic
and polio rehabilitation programme were established.
Today the “clinic” has developed into a diverse community health programme with an emphasis on health promotion, enabling people to care for their own health with improved awareness through health education, and integrated health and development at the village level. We continue to provide care in our clinics for nearly three thousand persons monthly.
The current programme is a holistic blend of homeopathic and allopathic care offered with loving kindness and compassion to India’s most impoverished families and communities. The programme encompasses the following services:
- a general homeopathic clinic on site at Root Institute
- an allopathic medical practice for the management of tuberculosis, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, heart disease and other chronic and complex problems
- a mobile health programme serving villages in remote areas where there are inadequate health services
- a rehabilitation programme caring for children and adults disabled by polio, cerebral palsy and other neurologic disorders
- an Orthopedic Workshop for the fabrication of assistive devices for those with disabilities
- an integrated Reproductive and Child Health Programme targeting women and children, offering health promotion, disease prevention, monitoring of growth and development in children through an “Under Fives Clinic”, and management of acute and chronic diseases in these at-risk populations
- a Hindi-language “newspaper” with stories of health topics -- this is distributed in our clinics, in all villages targeted by our mobile health programme, and in selected schools
- an integrated, village-based health and development programme which focuses on creating village health committees which consider ways to improve health awareness and health practices in their villages
- a training programme for village health workers and traditional birth attendants
- a four-bed nursing home/hospital unit which provides extended care for persons requiring wound management, ongoing physiotherapy, nutritional rehabilitation, and management of other chronic diseases,
- a case management programme for persons with Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDRTb), HIV infection and AIDS, and for other at-risk populations
- a Peer Support Group for those affected by HIV/AIDS
- a computerized data-base tracking patient visits, diagnoses, treatments and progress
Looking to the Future
We plan to expand our project work to further address the underlying factors that contribute to illness and disease and act as a barrier to fulfilling healthy lifestyles. Social Enterprise programs will be designed to help our patients undertake
income-generating ventures.Poverty and social inequality are key factors in the lack of opportunities available to individuals and communities.
Encouraging and supporting young women through social enterprise. Without resources, people have fewer choices in diet, lifestyle, healthcare, education, and are more susceptible to social pressure. Women in India continue to face discrimination, limiting their options and reinforcing the poverty cycle. Encouraging and supporting young women through social enterprise will bring financial independence and benefit the wider community
See page 10 of our most recent newsletter for additional stories about the work.
