reaching out far and deep into the profound rural labyrinth

The first and the most moving experience was caring diligently for the Leprosy disabled.

An endemicity that did not spare children and adults alike in several parts of Salem, Dharmapuri, Erode, Bhavani and bordering villages of Karnataka. Our first sixty files from the Government director's office were school children. In six years, fifteen thousand school children were screened six times and cured of ailments completely, including disabilities. 

It was a concentrated effort by our team of fifteen health and paramedical workers that we achieved control from over 200 per 10000 to 8 per 10000 in six years. This effort is satisfying beyond words when you bring the Leprosy disabled into mainstream reality.

Then came the COVID pandemic in 2020. 

For the first time, our reach extended to remote places with little accessibility. 

We visited villages in Gharoh, Rakkar, Sidhbari, Dharamshala, Tosh, Barsheini in Himachal Pradesh, Faridabad in Haryana, Tening and Dimapur in Nagaland, Toribari, Siliguri and Shantiniketan in W. Bengal, Simplipal in Odisha, Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and Karumandurai in E. Salem, Tamilnadu. 

It was carried out in a way where the grassroots were directly met and their concerns addressed to have maximum impact. Just the board of the organisation travelled the distance with volunteers employed from each of those villages and conducted outreach clinics and educational activities for a year during and after the global lockdown period.