India

I also spend several months each year in India, where I have founded a charity to provide medical care for poor villagers in rural Rajasthan - The Raven Charitable Trust - which is based in Udaipur.

The Raven Charitable Trust is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation with a mission to provide free medical care and a long-term Health Literacy programme to the village people of Bari District outside Udaipur in Rajasthan, India.

The Trust and subsequent charity (34/Dev/Udr/2009) was established in 2009, and has constructed a 4,000 square foot hospital - Disha - at Lio ka Guda, Udaipur, which officially opened on 31 October 2010 and will provide basic medical care, including treatment of minor illnesses and accidents on site. It will be staffed by fully qualified medical practitioners and in cases where patients need ongoing medical treatment and support they will be referred and transferred to Udaipur.

However, providing medical care is only the start of RCT's work. The long-term success of the project lies in our ability to educate the rural people of Rajasthan about the value of healthcare at the most basic level, so they will be sufficiently motivated to make decisions for themselves.

RCT will therefore be working in conjunction with other NGOs and we have incorporated a conference/teaching room and accommodation for visiting doctors at the hospital so we can implement our Health Literacy programme and offer on-site training in conjunction with local providers.

Our Health Literacy programme will ensure that medical experts work alongside existing local organisations and education providers, to ensure that the basic healthcare of rural communities is met by pooling knowledge, and providing a level of care that does not currently exist in rural Rajasthan.

I spend several months each year in Udaipur, working with my local partners on this project.





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