The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, one of the largest medical associations in the United States, has launched its "Adopt-A-Village" initiative to provide health services to rural India.
Among attendees of the virtual launch, which was held on Saturday, 28 August, were Indian consul generals of Chicago, New York, Houston, and Atlanta, Deputy consular from San Francisco along with Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the Indian ambassador to the US, reported The Times of India.
The Adopt-A-Village program is a rural health initiative wherein the AAPI proposes to adopt 75 villages in India to mark 75 years of Indian independence. Under the programme, people would be offered free health screenings for conditions like anaemia, obesity, kidney and cholesterol issues among others. After which, results will be analysed by GTC and follow-ups would be conducted.
AAPI's initiative, in collaboration with Telangana's Global TeleClinics, has planned to focus on villages in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, the report added.
Dr Satheesh Kathula, chairman of Adopt-A-Village, noted that India has about 7,00,000 villages with a major share of the country's poor population. He spoke about the rural poor's need for clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. "By adopting one village at a time and working with the government and NGOs, NRIs can make a difference,” he said, reported the daily.
The AAPI leadership believes that if NRIs make an effort to adopt and sponsor their native villages in India, they can help bring progress to their native states. Many of them, like Dr Jagan Ailinani and former president of the association Dr Suresh Reddy have already taken up the task to contribute to their birth villages.
The initiative is being seen as an effort to give back to the motherland by these doctors of Indian origin.
(With inputs from The Times of India.)
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