India has nearly 700,000 villages. Three out of four Indians and about 77 percent of the poor live in villages. Forty percent in India live below the property line with less than a Dollar a day. The adult literacy rate is 61 percent. The infant mortality rate is 56 per 1,000 live births. The majority of the population has no access to safe drinking water and sanitation. The needs in these rural areas are unlimited and the scope to work are endless.
“An individual can make a tremendous difference in the lives of many in India by adopting a village,” says Jagan Ailinani, M.D., FACR, who was instrumental in founding this noble program and set an example by adopting his own birth village in the state of Telangana in India. “A majority of the NRI’s hail from villages and would like to do their part to bring progress to villages in our state and country.”
AAPI has been part of the Adopt-A-Village Project, which enables Physicians of Indian Origin to adopt the village they hail from, and make a significant contribution towards its development. “Under the new AAPI leadership team, which assumed office during the 36th annual convention, we want to strengthen the ADOPT-A-VILLAGE Project. Through our efforts and coordinating with Dr. Ailinani’s initiative, we will be able to help bring healthcare and basic needs and progress in the lives of millions of people in our home country, India,” said, Dr. Naresh Parikh, President of AAPI.
Dr. Jagan Ailinani, a pioneer and partner with AAPI in ADOPT A VILLAGE Project
Dr. Ailinani, a former President of AAPI, established the Project by adopting his native village of Motha (population 4,000) in Jagtial District, in Telangana state. In Motha, he funded and established safe drinking water, trash disposal and built funeral shelter with showers and toilets at the cremation site, maintaining proper hygiene and landscaping. He helped expand and upgrade the village school from 7th to 10th Grade with digital classrooms, library and hired an English teacher. He was instrumental in setting up scholarships to needy deserving students. Dr. Ailinani ensured proper nutrition by enhancing mid-day meal with extra eggs and safe drinking water to all the students in school, while teaching personal hygiene and built and maintaining hygienic toilets.Another priority for Dr. Ailinani was to provide periodic free medical, dental and vision checkups and offering free eye glasses if needed to all school children
His financial support helped construct a 2 kilometer long road from Mothe villlage to Jagtial in 1995 under the Janma Bhoomi Project. His another initiative is to construct a community center with matching funds from the Telangana state government.
He donated land for the construction of a primary health center in the village and established partnership with regional medical college PIMS to provide obstetrician and pediatricians 3 days a week to improve prenatal and childcare.
Through ADOPT A VILLAGE program, protection gear for farmers against pesticide spray being provided
Dr. Ailinani helped establish a Preventive Health Clinic in Jagtial in 2005 with a mission to improve health and wellness of the rural population of Jagtial and surrounding villages. This clinic conducted health camps in several villages with emphasis on awareness, education and prevention focusing on safe drinking water sanitation, proper prenatal care, child health and education, diabetes, hypertension, prevention, early detection of cervical cancer, educating them about evils of smoking (lung cancer)and chewing tobacco (oral cancer), and free diabetic blood pressure and cholesterol screening. and provide free basic medications.
Free ENT surgeries are performed at local government hospital by ENT specialists from Hyderabad. Dr. Ailinani helped organize Rehabilitation camps, providing with artificial limbs. To those who needed. The healthcare camps also served as a platform for the educating the farmers about the health hazards of toxic chemical exposure to pesticides spray and which easily prevented by wearing personal protective gear which include masks, eye goggles and sturdy reusable gloves, and hundreds of kits were distributed to the farmers at the camp .
Dr. Ailinani provided the first ever free ambulance in Jagtial in 2001. Another contribution of this philanthropist was establishing a Girls Orphanage Center in Jagtial and donated money for the construction of a permanent home.
Dr. Ailinani has not limited his services to his native village alone. His urge to serve humanity took him to initiate services in several other states and across India. Dr. Ailinani is a founding board member of Prathima Institute of Medical Services-PIMS with a mission to provide specialty services/Tertiary care to rural population of northern Telangana. He was instrumental in establishing a BLS-basic life support training center as well as a center of excellence for Sickle Cell center, which is only among the four centers in India and He was instrumental in obtaining affiliation with the Southern Illinois School of Medicine, USA organizing student and faculty exchange programs on a regular basis.
Dr. Ailinani conducted several CME programs including radiology through AAPI and Medical Council of India in AP, Karnataka, Kerala, Pune, and Delhi, and Assam. He raised and donated $55,000 for Tsunami relief through AAPI Charitable Foundation.
He was instrumental in raising $250,000 from the US Alumni for the establishment of a state of the art Digital Library at his alma mater, Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad.
He, along with AAPI-Charitable Foundation raised $55,000 for the relief of to help the victims of the Tsunami in India.. . He has been promoting adopt-a-village programs across all the states in India, which include safe drinking water, sanitation, maternal/child care and childhood education, farmers welfare,, vocational training for youth and women.
Mother and child care under the Project
“NRIs can adopt the village they hail from originally and make a significant contribution towards its development,” the veteran AAPI leader says. “There is a real will and desire on the part of governments, both at the state and the center to work with NRIs and NGOs to bring development to rural India. There are more NGOs today in India that are professionally run, transparent and accountable, which reach all parts of India and deliver a variety of services, than in the pasThere is a real will and desire on the part of governments, both at the state and at the federal levels to work with NRIs and NGOs to bring development to rural India. There are more NGOs today in India that deliver a variety of services, than in the past. There are more millionaires in India and the United States today and the number of people taking on philanthropic activities in India is only growing. While they are enthusiastic about initiating new programs, they are also concerned about their long-term sustainability.
Many of these projects and programs need regular finding, and management of resources. Adopting a village costs money and an ongoing commitment for investment. The cost for adopting a village depends on various factors, including the population of the villages, the services that are required and what one is willing to commit to foir the welfare and progress of the village one is committing to adopt.
In a Memorandum being submitted to Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, Dr. Ailinani, while explaining the premise of Adopt-a-Village, said, “By adopting one village at a time and working with the government and NGOs, NRIs can make a difference. After identifying worthwhile, need-based projects, an NRI will contribute 30 percent of the monies required. The other 70 percent of funding will come from the Government of India. Planning, execution and maintenance of the project will be done by a reputable, transparent and professionally managed NGO or an autonomous body consisting of respected individuals. Each project will involve a tripartite partnership between the NRI, state government and an autonomous body.”
According to the tripartite model he suggests, 30 percent of funding for the project comes from the NRI and the other 70 percent comes from the government, while planning, execution and maintenance is taken on by a reputable NGO – will only contribute to the development of rural India. Dr. Ailinani suggests that the plan is to set up a semi-autonomous body, which is completely transparent and is accountable to those who invest and to those who benefit from these services.
There is no instant solution for rural India’s myriad problems. But by adopting one village at a time and working with the government and NGOs, NRIs can make a difference. Over time, an improved village could lead to an improved region, state and country.
Physicians of Indian origin are well known around the world for their compassion, passion for patient care, medical skills, research, and leadership. They have excelled in their fields of medicine, and thus have earned a name for themselves through hard work, commitment and dedication to their profession and the people they are committed to serve. Not satisfied with their own professional growth and the service they provide to their patients around the world, they are in the forefront, sharing their knowledge and expertise with others, especially those physicians and leaders in the medical field from India.
“I want to urge AAPI members to consider joining this movement and adopt a village. May be your own village of origin. AAPI will work with you in coordinating the efforts and through the support system we have in several states, will help you achieve this goal of ‘giving back to our motherland,” urges Dr. Naresh Parikh, President of AAPI. For more details, please do visit: www. aapiusa.org
