HEALTHCARE

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Healthcare in developing countries is challenging at best, and confronted with many challenges at worst, but never impossible to deliver. We have explored and engaged in several avenues to improve and deliver healthcare. Our starting point has been India, where many of our founding members originate, with a view to developing a systematic method of local healthcare delivery, including annual health-camps, individual patient consultations and treatment, and tele-health assessments. Each health-camp is expanding in the scope of delivery and more surgical-medical specialties are being added each year. Once we are able to automate delivery in specific geographic areas, our aim is to expand to different states and different countries of need.

The commonest problems that present to such out-reach programs are patients with long standing debilities and deformities following birth or traumatic injuries, that were either locally treated or untreated, with poor results. Often the patient is poorly educated, and had no recourse to good treatment for various reasons, one of the primary ones being lack of funding for the care involved. When a local society fails its charge to keep its population healthy, its our responsibility to alleviate the suffering of our global family, because we are all ONE.

EDUCATION

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A basic need for a holistic society is shared values and education standards that allow each person to think and problem solve their path through life. Education does not generate short-term GDP, but is the most important aspect of societal well-being. With so many different demographics with a vast array of backgrounds, we have made our starting point rural and village schooling, with science and occupational education our focus. We provide science equipment, slide microscopes, dissecting microscopes, overhead projectors, white boards, science posters for the classrooms, funds for installing school internet connections, and repairing vocational educational equipment relevant for that particular village, eg. sewing machines etc.

We often taken education for granted, but all humans have an innate desire to learn. Some have the opportunity, and others don’t. We aim to provide the opportunity and empower the teachers and schools to unleash the potential of the children.

A secondary focus, coupled with the health-camps, is to educate the local post-graduate surgeons and physicians, and to provide them with equipment necessary to improve their non-profit hospital care delivery.

SHELTER

A basic need for a holistic society is shared values and  taking care of the most vulnerable aspects of the population, notably the young  and the elderly age groups.

The Young – are vulnerable for many reasons when within a nuclear/extended family or broken home, and are the most vulnerable when they are orphans and/or with disabilities. The Dharma Foundation’s third core vision of SHELTER, is to provide protected shelter for this vulnerable group in such a way to as closely as possible, restore childhood. Our definition of childhood incorporates safe shelter, good nutrition, holistic education combining national standard based curriculum  and a life-skill based combination. Most importantly, we strive to reintroduce the joy and happiness of childhood, in order that, by the time the children are ready for college at the age of 18, they will enter the world as well grounded, well educated, happy and confident young adults.

SAFE, NOURISHED, EDUCATED, HAPPY 

The Elderly – are vulnerable commonly due to lack of family support, lack of family funding, younger generations having moved away from the family home, and medical co-morbidities that are not treated or optimized due to financial difficulties. The Dharma Foundation plans to (1) create specific elderly care facilities that can house the elderly with minimal requirements to disabilities, those who are independent to those who require assisted living to those who need nursing care and (2) create a state by state national network of similar facilities with the aim of connecting these facilities for the betterment of elderly care, by sharing knowledge and encouraging each other to improve services through insights.

SAFE, NOURISHED, ENGAGED, CONTENT

SKILLS

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The skills program at the Dharma Foundation is based on the following key points and observations

  1) Local industries require certain skills

2) Not all regions require the same skills for local employment

3) Young adults have differing intellects and abilities when trying to gain employment

4) Correlating the ability of the young adult with the employment opportunity is critical

One of our early decisions has been to optimize our ability to help by consciously choosing to focus on potential local employment opportunities, and the infra-structure available, which we can augment and optimize. An example of this has been the repair of 10 sewing machines in a village high school, in which sewing classes had become observational and not practical. A key demographic of the underprivileged population that is often overlooked is the adult population who are not skilled enough to gain employment and feel forgotten.

More Information and How to Donate Enquiries – DharmaFoundationInc@gmail.com