Drs. Abhay and Rani Bang founded SEARCH in Gadchiroli, one of the most undeveloped districts in Central Maharashtra. The vision for establishing SEARCH was articulated by Dr. Abhay Bang as follows:
“Our vision is to realise Arogya Swaraj: People’s Health in People’s Hands, by empowering individuals and communities to take charge of their own health, and thereby, help them achieve freedom from disease as well as dependence.”
Since then SEARCH under the leadership of the Bang couple has onbeen recognized as one of the most creative and effective organizations for delivering healthcare to rural areas in India and overseas. They started with the critical issue of infant mortality in these areas. In a few short years through rigorous research and experimentation they developed well-validated techniques that led to dramatic reduction in infant mortality reduction. Their work has been acknowledged by many prestigious awards around the world (selected as “Global Health Heroes” by Time magazine, 2005; received first MacArthur Foundation International Award, 2006). Over past 20 years SEARCH has expanded the scope of their work to include de-addiction treatment for alcohol and tobacco use, mental health analysis and non-communicable disease prevalence studies among rural and tribal population.
More information about the work of SEARCH can be found at their website:
Our Involvement
We have been supporting SEARCH activities financially since 2006. Over the years Chanda has visited SEARCH several times to assist in their surgery camps, has conducted professional development workshops for SEARCH nursing staff and participated in village Health Fair conducted by them.
Our Plans
We plan to provide financial support to several community health initiatives undertaken at SEARCH. They include:
- Surgery camps
- Tobacco de-addiction activities
- Supporting village health workers who take provide prenatal care to expectant mother and new born care to babies.
We will also facilitate any visits our volunteers may wish to undertake to SEARCH to directly participate in their education, action and research in community health.