LIVE Webinar

COVID FIELDWORK EXPERIENCES

Speakers’ Panel

Dr. Mukul Bhatia, Ekal Arogya Yojana Kendriya Pramukh, Ekal Abhiyan

Dr. Thakor Patel, Chairman, SEVAK Foundation, Retd. US Navy

&

Ms. Neena Jolly, Trustee, Adharshila Trust

Webinar Moderator

Mr. Bajrang Bagra, President, Ekal Abhiyan, Chartered Accountant & Social Entrepreneur

Webinar Chair

Dr. Raj Shah, WHEELS Health Care Council

COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the confidence and lifestyle as well as economy of all countries around the globe. This is a failure of the Public Health system and public policies that have caused more than a million casualties in addition to untold suffering at all levels of society. WHEELS Global Foundation in coordination with Capital IIT Alumni, PanIIT Alumni of USA, and Federation of Indian Physicians Associations, FIPA, has sent thousands of Oxygen Concentrators and medical supplies so that people in cities and villages alike can breathe.

We need more donations to what is feared to be the COVID-Third Wave yet to come. WHEELS has decided to devote 4 of its highly popular Global webinar sessions from last year to actual field experiences, lack of frontline workers’ training, and the role of Telemedicine in villages where no medical doctors are available to advise. This webinar will be followed by other monthly webinars on special projects WHEELS have initiated for R&D in IITs to design, and manufacture indigenous medical equipment and supplies to make India self-reliant as also Infrastructures like First responder system, etc and raising the awareness of the need to raise the role of Public Health in India — especially in Rural communities to avoid the tragedies that we experienced. We invite dedicated leaders who are working on these topics to join us as speakers and moderators to share with our Webinar loyal audiences so that we can stand united in serving those who need it the most.

Please join us LIVE on ZOOM, Saturday, JUNE 26th, 2021, from 10 AM to 11:30 AM US ET, (7:30 PM to 09 PM IST), in an open dialogue with the Panelists & Moderator. (Registration is Free).

Upon registration, you may send your questions in advance to info@wheelsglobal.org. The webinar will also be broadcast on WHEELS Facebook Page and other social media platforms. Attendees will also be able to post their questions during the webinar. You can join the webinar 15 min early (i.e. 09:45 AM ET OR 07:15 PM IST) to watch the slide show on WGF activities and related project videos. Past webinars have stressed the importance of collaboration among NGOs to scale operations and increase the impact. For more information visit: www.wheelsglobal.org

PANELIST’S OVERVIEW

Dr. Mukul Bhatia is an Ekal Arogya Yojana Kendriya Pramukh in Ekal Abhiyan.He is a Surgeon by profession. He is serving tribal and rural brethren with his present responsibility in Ekal Abhiyan. At that time 6 hospitals were established in different parts of tribal areas of Today’s Jharkhand. He completed his Master’s from SN Medical College, Agra. Just after his graduation in 1978, He joined Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and was state Organizing Secretary of Bihar for 5 years. He is RSS Karykarta. After doing MS surgery he rejoined the organization and worked for ten years in Arunachal Pradesh staying at the China border in the East Kameng District of that state. In 2004 he was sent to Andaman & Nicobar Islands for relief work after Tsunami by the Voluntary Health Association of India ( VHAI) where he worked for 8 years.

Ms. Neena Jolly is the co-trustee of Grassroots NGO Adharshila which was founded in 2004. She is a graduate in community resource management from Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, and an alumna of Harvard Business School Strategic Non-Profit Management Program. Prior to starting Adharshila, she has 15 years of nonprofit experience during which she compiled a research document of NGOs pan India along with co-trustee Geeta Arora under the aegis of Ford Foundation, which led to the realization that most of them were either non-existent or only existed on paper. She realized that there was a need for strong on-ground NGOs that would respond to the needs of the community where government and private sector both could not bridge the gap due to systemic issues.

Since its inception 17 years ago, Adharshila has touched the lives of 2,53,219 people through various initiatives in the field of Education, Health, and Skill Development. The beneficiaries include migrants and families below the poverty line in Delhi NCR. The organization is working closely with their communities on food relief, sanitation, and telemedicine during the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic and also strengthening partnerships with govt agencies, IndianDiaspora, National and international Foundations, and like-minded NGOs pan India. She is also the recipient of the distinguished alumni award from Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi.

Thakor G. Patel, MD, is a program director of the WHEELS ‘ Track on Health. He currently serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the uniformed health services of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Patel is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Nephrology and is a Master of the American College of Physicians. Following his training, Dr. Patel joined the US Navy where he served with distinction and received numerous awards for his service of 23 years.

On retirement from the Navy, Dr. Patel joined the Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, DC as the Program Director for Renal Diseases, Diabetes, and Oncology where he was instrumental in developing and implementing critical policies on cancer, vascular access for hemodialysis, and hemoglobin A1C standardization. He retired from federal service in March 2016 to devote time to public health projects in rural India.

To accomplish this, he created the Sevak Project to bring access to care by utilizing the Navy ‘corpsman’ model, similar to the use of physician assistants in the medical office.  The selected individuals are trained and supported by the staff of Baroda College in implementing education, screening, and health care tracking programs in the assigned village. This project, in place since June 2010, is now in over 110 villages in four states of India and has now expanded to ten villages in Guyana. 

Initially funded personally by Dr. Patel and family members/friends, the Sevak Project has now garnered funding from the GOPIO and AAPI organizations. WHEELS Global Foundation, USA became a partner in this unique and preventive healthcare monitoring as also constructing 10 RO plants in villages with poor quality water. The joint partnership also built 100 toilets in the Sevak villages in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity, India. The Sevak Project has also treated special needs patients with blindness, insulin-dependent diabetics, and those with high Blood pressure. Sevak Project has a plant to manufacture sanitary napkins and sell them at a discount– employing 10 women in the village. In another village, a classroom is acquired to teach sewing and fashion design to create jobs for local girls and women who dropped out of school. In another partnership with CETI, Sevaks screen for active TB patients to make Sevak Villages TB-free. In partnership with WIN Foundation, Sevaks screens for anemia in girls age 10 to women 40 years old to prevent maternal/infant morbidity/mortality. Sevaks must live in the village and get a monthly stipend and travel allowances.

Mr. Bajrang Bagra, a Chartered Accountant, is a social entrepreneur since 2013. Before that had a cherished career as a Corporate Manager from middle to Board level, for 36 years in various fields of the economy- Power, Seeds, Mining and Metal, Railways, and Consultancy. He worked as CFO of Botswana Railways, Director (Finance) of RITES and of NALCO, and when bidding bye to corporate career was CMD, NALCO.

Bajrang Bagra has been active with CII, as Chairman, C I I, Odisha, Member, Development Council for Affirmative Action, Member, National Committee on CSR and Sustainable Development and Chairman, National Committee on CPSUs.

After leaving his corporate career prematurely, he has been pursuing community service since 2013, as President, Ekal Abhiyan, in empowering tribal and rural communities through primary education with values, health, skills, organic farming, digital literacy, and empowerment. The reach of the movement extends to 102,400 villages. Students enrolled in its free primary schools as of April 2021 were above 28.7 lakh.

Health vertical of Ekal, Arogya, rendered varied services during the Covid pandemic from running a nationwide helpline, isolation centers at 25 remote places, awareness for preventive measures and vaccination and diagnostic services in over 112,000 villages.

Dr. Raj Shah is a member of the Board of WHEELS Global Foundation and a Program Director of its Track on Health, is a practicing cardiologist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur based in Philadelphia. He is educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Temple and Drexel University faculties. He is a pioneer in the field of telemedicine and the creator of the SmartCareDoc telemedicine system which was deployed at “The Clinic at Wal-Mart” in 2012-14: The first telemedicine clinic in a retail store in America. He established a TeleRetinopathy screening program at the Temple University Health System in 2016 and a teaching Teleclinic at the School of Nursing at Rutgers University. He is also a Research Fellow at the Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center at Rutgers University for the study of Pharmaceutical Management and Healthcare and lectures about Telemedicine. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Kean University College of Business and Public Management and Global Business School, a Trustee of S.M. Shah Law College, and Sarvajanik School in Mehsana, India.

WHEELS Global Foundation(WGF), “An Initiative of IIT Alumni, USA” with the mission of Technology-Enabled Philanthropy. WHEELS has also been selected by NITI Aayog, Govt. of India as a member of the Committee for Innovation and Technology Transfer. WHEELS has also signed an MOU with the Ministry for Panchayati Raj for a technology partnership in Rural Development.

key Take-Aways & Lessons Learned

• Public-Private-Partnerships must work with open and effective communications between Sarpanch, Block developers, NGOs, etc.
• Adopt Uniform Standards for Healthcare facilities, worker training, and patient care across ALL Public Health Facilities.
• Provide ‘at-home care to screen and monitor the early onset of diseases and prevent chronic illness.
• Leverage social media and mass communications (TV, Radio, etc.) to educate people on the prevention of communicable diseases and updates on pandemics.
• Develop better infrastructure for first responders and healthcare workers: transportation, diagnostics, access to drugs, and treatment with standards for quality control.
• Better holistic development of rural areas with an emphasis on clean water, sanitation, and prevention of common ailments like kidney stones, diabetes, etc.
• Rural areas are best served by trained medical nursing staff with access to urban health centers with doctors and specialists through Telemedicine or Telehealth.
• Equal emphasis must be placed on AYUSH and locally accepted practices.