Providing healthcare for villages in rural India

Dear Supporters,

We want to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year! I am reporting to you live from India right now, and I want to first start by thanking all of you for your very generous support. The doctor has moved in to the clinic's attached quarters and has begun work towards the end of last year, and these villagers in India who previously did not have any access to healthcare now do. And this would not have been possible without your help.

We've had cases ranging from body pains and joint pains in an unsettlingly large number of middle aged people to pneumonia and Ludwig's angina in children. We've also diagnosed cases of diabetes and hypertension. Beyond simply offering healthcare, we are planning community engagement and education programs to further improve health outcomes. I'll be working with the doctor in the coming couple of weeks to deploy a pilot program for health education at the local schools. We're hoping to use this as a platform to further engage the community this coming summer.

We also grew our team in recent months: Laura Ucik and Allen Kramer have joined me, Susan, and Catherine on the Milana team. Check out their bios on our website! We also were awarded a Starr Sustaining Grant this past December for further capacity building, which is very exciting. 

On behalf of the entire Milana team, I would like to thank all of you once again for your kind support which is making all of this possible. 

Dear Global Giving Supporters,

The summer is drawing to a close, and the Milana Foundation has made a lot of exciting progress! The Milana Foundation's founder, Nikilesh Eswarapu, has spent most of the summer in India working with Milana while on the C.V. Starr Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship. Milana's Susan Kuruvilla also spent several weeks in India working on this project. These are a few of the things we have accomplished since the start of summer:

-Completed construction of the clinic, as well as interior furnishings, electrical work, plumbing, etc. We also dug a bore well and, thankfully, struck water!

-Completed the first phase of our research project measuring current health and economic conditions in both our villages and a baseline group of villages. Next phase would be to measure the same criteria six months after the clinic opening.

-Spent a few days shooting video footage for a short documentary video that we are producing. We'll let you know as soon as it's released!

-Visited local schools, spoke with village elders and village chiefs. Also created initial program plans for community engagement and education on areas of general well-being, hygiene, and sanitation.

-Interviewed and selected a doctor who will be permanently residing in the clinic's attached housing quarters. He will be moving in and starting full-time work on September 28th!

-Finalized our legal services agreement and en route to receiving 501(c)(3) status.

In the coming few months, we will be beginning and smoothening out our clinic operations, further developing our community engagement plans and implementing the early phases of them as well, reviewing and examining the research data that was collected this summer as well as preparing for our next phase of data collection, and exploring how we can further draw upon our resources to create effective and sustainable change for this community.

Your very generous support has made all this progress possible, and we would like to sincerely thank you for enabling us to do the work we're doing and for making the lives of the impoverished and underprivileged a little bit better.

Yours, The Milana Foundation team