RuralHealthCARE India - An Introduction

Exciting changes and internship opportunities at RuralHealth CARE India 

Firstly, let me introduce myself – I am Kirsty Major the Programme Coordinator of RuralHealthCARE  - Rural Health Community Action Research and Development (RHC).

I would like to inform alumni and future interns about some of the recent changes here at RHC. I have recently taken on the post, as Programme Coordinator, and it is my task over the coming year to research, and re-develop RHC from its former entity IHealCare. IHealCare ran as a individual project under the guidance of EduCare India, an organisation which aims to create sustainable change in the areas of environment, health and finance for marginalised groups in Northern India. However, the project has recently been developed into an autonomous programme to act as a subsidiary NGO under EduCare India that aims to bring appropriate healthcare programs to the unreachable, vulnerable and needy people living in urban slums and rural communities.

RHC is primarily managed by interns with mentorship support from the Programme Coordinator.  It seeks to leverage the passion, will and skills of young interns to create positive change within migrant and rural communities. The foundation of our innovation seeks to demonstrate that young people can voluntarily self-organise and be the main drivers of community welfare, development and change.

Our vision is to create more healthy communities by empowering and enabling disadvantaged people to achieve their best potential health. The RHC mission is to improve access to quality health services and ultimately improve health conditions particularly for difficult to reach communities; and innovate successful and self-sustainable models of direct action and intervention in health care and provide a caring environment where our disadvantaged and vulnerable people can develop their capabilities with dignity.Keeping these principles in mind, we have developed ideas for a few projects at a very small level with a hope to progress and develop and expand them further into good examples for other communities. It is important to note at this point that these projects are still in their nascent stages. We are looking for interns to jump on board and help research and develop these projects with the help and mentorship of their Programme Coordinator.

1.    EnRICH Access - Enhance Rapid Improvement of Community Healthcare Access
Our objectives are to:·      Increase the health habits and behavior of families·      Strengthen their confidence in government services·      Supplement and energize the government’s rural healthcare program for improving the delivery of primary community health services to improve health outcomes·      Organize mobile health teams to regularly visit and provide health services to marginalized communities and mobilizing the un-served or marginalised communities to participate in responding to their identified health needs·      Respond to basic needs of the people through education, training and services

2.    Community TAYU– Community based Traditional, Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani and other Health care systemsObjective setting depends on the felt needs of the community.·      Assist the rural and marginalised communities define, organize, and learn to manage their indigenous, culturally appropriate and acceptable form of health care system·      Capacity-building for community resources e.g. traditional birth attendants, home-based volunteers, religious leaders, grandmothers and mothers-in-law to adopt revised program guidelines for self-reliant community-based delivery of some family planning (FP), maternal and child health (MCH), and disease prevention and control (DPC) services, including adoption of appropriate syndrome management of prevalent diseases.The objectives of the community-based approach are to:• Deliver direct and immediate responses to health needs of communities most dis-connected from existing health providers• Improve effectiveness of community-based capabilities for fertility management, health protection, disease prevention and primary treatment of illnesses• Increase the positive association of tradition, culture and religion with improved health of mothers and children• Link community-based health provisions with the organized health services

3.    SafeMother - Safe Motherhood and Child Health Program:Various studies showed that maternal and child mortality rate is high among the marginalized communities or those with low educational attainment.To help overcome these issues, our objectives include:·      Increase literacy and health awareness of women·      Improve their health care practices and knowledge·      Reduce pneumonia, diarrhea and other such ailments·      Promote personal hygiene and routine health checks and pap smears·      Improve antenatal care / prenatal care·      Access to mid-wifery support for home-delivery·      Improve the health and nutrition status of children through improved health awareness of families and communities·      Improve breastfeeding practices·      Promote healthy parenting·      Increase fully immunized children·      Improve home management of childhood illnesses·      Improve micronutrient supplementation

4.    FamilyPlan – Family Planning Program·      Increase the knowledge and information regarding Family Planning within communities·      Increase traditional and modern contraceptive use·      Promote routine reproductive health checks and pap smears·      Increase access to various family planning clinical services

5.    PublicSanitation – Public Sanitation and Hygiene for Prevention of Disease·      Cleanliness, waste management, excretal disposal·      Well-Ventilated and clean housing·      Clean Water supply

6.    Code AIDs –  Communicable Diseases & AIDS Program·      Provide guidance materials and educational services to schools, childcare programs, and the public about how to control the spread of germs·      Aid in the control of communicable diseases by educating people about appropriate hygiene, providing medicine and vaccine to prevent disease among persons exposed to certain communicable diseases, and providing infection control guidance to facility administrators·      HIV-AIDs awareness and social support program·      Anti IV Drug addiction program

In order to develop these projects we are currently recruiting short term (3 – 6 months) and long term (6 – 12 months) interns to take on Project Management and Project Assistant Management Roles!

As these programs are still in their development and initiation phase, these internship positions will be responsible for the planning, development and delivery of the projects. With us, you will get to experience and be part of a range of exciting and innovative projects. You will be part of a team that will bring ideas from all over the world to demonstrate that everyone can make a change. Unlike working for an establishes Western NGO you will be asked not to complete pre-assigned tasks and contribute to the running of an established project, but rather to be an innovator and a leader, creating and managing your own projects. This is a great opportunity for those wishing to hone their academic research skills, gain experience in fieldwork and project management. Rather than being afraid of such responsibilities RuralHealthCARE seeks its interns to see the projects as a great career and self-development opportunity! Every NGO has to start from somewhere, and you get the chance to be a part of that process!

We seek interns that are serious about their job role and who are passionate and committed to development work.  We take our work seriously and unlike many other organisations, we are not a holiday volunteer-internship program.  We are actively developing and pioneering a new way of doing community welfare and development. In this sense, your internship will surely be challenging, but to the dedicated and passionate people, it will also be a once in a life time opportunity to be part of something totally different and exciting, as well as providing a platform for personal and career development.

If you are interested please contact hr@ruralhealthcareindia.org for more information about our application process!