One of the earliest project at the Rural Development Institute (Early 90s) was the primary health care and development project, a joint Indo canadian project. The Founder Swami Rama’s students (both medical doctors as well as psychologists) were part of the team that spearheaded the outreach activities of the Institute.
Principal among them were Dr.Martin Jerry who was the founding Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Cancer Control as well as his wife Dr.Marian Jerry, a clinical psychologist. They were also the founding teachers of the Foothills Yoga Society in Calgary and even after their retirement, they maintained an active interest in the medical and pyschological applications of yoga philosophy, psychology and practice and co-authored three books on yoga science.
That decade, the subsequent decade as well as now, the focus at the Rural Development Institute of the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust continues to build on the seeds laid at that time. The Himalayan Sanjeevani Initiative of the Institute runs programs both in the mountain regions of Uttarakhand as well as the plain areas where entire districts are chosen to enhance quality of life, especially in health care. The projects supported by various funding organisations establish an intensive, community-embedded, family centric primary health care system that ensures early risk identification, home-based service delivery, strengthened referral and continuum of care, and data-driven decision-making to improve maternal, newborn and overall population health outcomes. Our gratitude to all the enablers!
