They began, in the 80's, by offering lifts to the hospitals in Mysore to tribal folk who needed to get there but were unable to. From these modest beginnings, they have built a tremendously inspiring institution which caters to the health care, community health, educational and community development needs of not only the tribal society around them, but also the whole district, surrounding districts, and Karnataka state. Many of the ideas for HIV care and ART management adopted by the Indian government as standard policy for the country were first developed by them. They have developed innovative practices for community treatment of diarrhea, anemia, mental health and more recently, palliative care for cancer patients, for whole-family counseling about death and resumption of normalcy in a family after the death of a family member. But they also have the sophistication and skills to work with the government to scale-up these practices so that they may be disseminated to the general public.
I was blown away by the people, the work, the vision, the achievements and the institution as a whole. When we think about health care systems in Bangalore, large corporate hospitals like Fortis or Apollo come to mind. But these practices are not ethical, neither are they particular patient-oriented (see this, this and this). But when an average person thinks of a doctor, or the ideal of a doctor, they think of someone who is caring, trustworthy, who uplifts not just the sick individual but also the whole family and the whole community. We shrug and say, well, that's not the way things work these days, but I felt, for the first time, that in SVYM, that ideal may be present and thriving.
Today, we visited their main office in Mysore city as well as their hospital in a small village called Sargur. They also have a healthcare center within the forests for the tribal population at a place called Hosahalli, as well as mobile hospitals that set forth from Sargur 5 days a week. At Mysore, the focus seems to be on training and research. Their training programs are vast and varied: they have an HIV fellowship for doctors; they conduct courses on counseling for people working with HIV+ or high risk populations; they have a center ("V-Lead") for training NGOs on leadership and how to work with the government as well as with motivated individuals to embark on developmental activities in rural areas ; their institute ("Graam") focuses on grassroots public policy and advocacy.
Sargur, which is about an hour away from Mysore, has this hospital:
Looks like any other hospital, right? Wrong. This deceptively simple building is a monument to brilliance.
Firstly, they practice ethical medicine here: compassionate, low-cost, value-driven, appropriate. This is a place where true community medicine is practiced. For example, somebody presents to a doctor with a problem of diarrhea. What is the usual practice? The doctor treats the diarrhea, perhaps offers some counseling on safe drinking water and that's that, right? What if this patient has no access to safe drinking water? What if he has no access to proper cooked food? Then what's the point of all the counseling in the world? This place goes many steps further. They visit the patient's home, they find out about the patient's access to nutritious food and clean drinking water, they test the water, they offer water-purification services. One of the engineers in this hospital has designed multiple low-cost desalination and purification plants, which has improved the water quality in the whole region. They are strong advocates for organic farming and in addition to having their own farms, partner with neighboring farms. The guiding philosophy here is not that the hospital has to make money, but that it offers the best quality of care possible.
Nearby, they have started a CBSE residential school only for kids of tribal folk, and a day school for anybody who wants it. The school is another inspiring place. It teaches about 500 kids from nursery to 10th standard. It has the kind of atmosphere and space that only the most elite and exclusive schools in Bangalore can think of. They have two teachers per class, the classrooms are spacious and well-lit, they have playgrounds etc. But the best thing about the school is that it is actually also a science park. Have you ever visited a science center or a planetarium in India, or a children's museum in the US? You know how they have various entertaining things that all have a deeper scientific basis- compound pendulums, sympathetic swings, a water turn-wheel, one of those maze-like things that contain a ball going up and down in various ways that's supposed to be depicting potential-kinetic energy conversions? This school has all that! It is the first of its kind in the whole state, and possibly the whole country! They have a guy from IIT Madras, who lives there and who keeps thinking up of all these ideas to teach scientific concepts to kids! They use innovative techniques to teach Maths- I saw small-group discussions in a classroom, on maths. Who in the world ever discussed maths in school? We just ratta-marofied some tables, and went gada-gada-gada down a memorized protocol of steps. This school costs about Rs1000 a month and the kids who go here are not just the kids of the doctors and nursing staff at the hospital but are also from within a 25km radius from this village.
The hospital has a radio program every evening and morning, where they talk about health issues and concerns, announce which doctors are available at the hospital on that day and their specialities, which markets have fresh produce and so on.
There are quarters for the staff from the hospital and schools to live in, just a two-minute walk away. Big quarters, with gardens in front of them.
This is why I said this hospital is like a monument to brilliance. Just see what these folk, with some vision, have built: an idyllic lifestyle, noble, worthwhile, where the hospital is like a living creature, constantly expanding and altering. Their driving philosophy, expounded by Swami Vivekananda, is an expansive and inclusive one. They live in a scenic, unpolluted area, with no commute to work; they have great schools for their kids; they try out their own desalination, water purification, organic farming and all that great stuff, and best of all, they are actively building and uplifting the community as a whole.
This is an organization I HAVE to be part of.
We couldn't go to see their actual tribal care centers in Hosahalli, unfortunately. That's a trip for another time.
We couldn't go to see their actual tribal care centers in Hosahalli, unfortunately. That's a trip for another time.
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