Sircilla: Project Madad pushes for Covid-resilient villages
Covid-19 vaccination in Rajannapet village
Sircilla: Project Madad, a citizens' initiative, has announced a model to make India's villages Covid-resilient. In coordination with the government, Project Madad has achieved a Covid-resilient village, Rajannapet, in Rajanna Sircilla district in Telangana State.
A five-pronged model devised by Project Madad and piloted by the district health team has transformed Rajannapet with a population of 2,253 into a village with universal vaccine coverage while embracing best practices in Covid-19 control.
Over the last three months, Project Madad's team of Indian diaspora doctors and professionals have shared globally-proven Covid-19 best practices with over 1,500 rural healthcare workers, countered Covid-19 misinformation and raised vaccine acceptance using graphics and AV content in the vernacular, supplied essential equipment (including PPEs, oximeters, and thermometers) to villages with high caseloads.
It also launched rural citizen-friendly websites including a real-time map for hospital rural patient management system MadadMaps.com and MadadCare.com. Project Madad has now successfully created an entirely Covid-resilient village using public health innovations that could serve as a model for every village in the country.
On July 31, Rajannapet achieved Covid-resilience status with the first dose vaccination of 1,328 eligible adults in a marathon 4-day campaign following ten weeks of public health innovations. Under the guidance of Project Madad, the vaccines were funded by Light A Life – A First American India Foundation and provided by Ripples of Kindness Foundation in association with CallHealth.
The model was a unique instance of the government-private sector- civil society collaboration in public health. Project Madad has thus created a successful documented model that can be replicated in other villages of India to not only efficiently vaccinate the entire population, but also effectively manage all aspects of the pandemic.
Project Madad is a voluntary group of doctors and professionals from India and from the Indian diaspora who are working in their personal capacities with no motive except to serve people in countering the Covid-19 crisis.