Karuna Trust
Biligiri Rangana Hills, Karnataka, India
<https://www.karuna.org/>
The Karuna Trust (KT) is an NGO that manages healthcare clinics throughout India – in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Manipur. Established in 1986, it is headquartered in the Biligiri Rangana Hills (BR Hills) of Karnataka. Its prime objective is for ‘reaching the unreached’, and so it provides healthcare to underserved and impoverished people in remote areas.
Karuna Trust Health Centre in the BR Hills.
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Healthcare delivery in Soliga villages.
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Initially established to respond to the widespread prevalence of leprosy in the Yelandur Taluk region of Karnataka, KT was very successful. In the course of 26 years, the prevalence of leprosy dropped from 21.4 per 1000 people to 0.28, a testimony to the success of their intervention.
Apart from primary healthcare, KT also focuses on dealing with the related issues of education, sustainable livelihood, and advocacy. It is affiliated in its work with Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK).
Apart from primary healthcare, KT also focuses on dealing with the related issues of education, sustainable livelihood, and advocacy. It is affiliated in its work with Vivekananda Girijana Kalyana Kendra (VGKK).
Karuna Trust and VGKK partnership in education and healthcare.
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Home visitation in Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh.
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KT not only manages its own care facilities, it has taken on management contracts for government agencies in Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Manipur. This work includes support for resident health aides in villages, visiting nurses and social workers, clinics, primary health centres, and hospitals.
Healthcare team in the village of Nenuliang, Arunachal Pradesh.
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Karuna Trust / VGKK coordinator Mousumi Gogoi, en route to Mayodia Pass, Arunachal Pradesh.
This outreach is often challenging. Villages are scattered and remote. Providers and patients often must travel over dirt roads and along trails that are subject to washouts and landslides during the monsoons. But the ability to serve the most needful and help them in self-empowerment is of high achievement
Staff of the Primary Health Centre, Umtrai, Meghalaya.
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Primary Health Centre and dentist at its dental clinic, Tezu, Arunachal Pradesh.
Barry Rodrigue visits with the mobile health care unit for Soliga villages, BR Hills, Karnataka.
Photographs from Barry Rodrigue, spring and summer 2018.
