Aster volunteers mobile medical services to serve the Barmer district of Rajasthan with an initial reach of 250 villages and an estimated population size of almost 3 million
Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare led Aster Volunteers, the global CSR arm of Aster DM Healthcare, to partner with India’s rural activist Ruma Devi, a Nari Shakti Puraskar 2018 awardee to provide health access to the rural household in Barmer, Rajasthan. The partnership will see Aster Volunteers and Ruma Devi collaborating to improve access to primary healthcare services for the rural population of the Barmer District, alongside launching women empowerment initiatives.
The fully equipped mobile clinic called ‘Aster Volunteers Mobile Medical Services’ shall cater to the villages of Barmer, Rajasthan and provide primary health check-ups, medical eye exams, health education and training. Over the last few years, Aster Volunteers has been focusing on the empowerment of underprivileged women through multiple initiatives led by Alisha Moopen, who believes that women’s empowerment should start from the health of women.
With this regard, the women empowerment initiatives would start with education and training for the rural women to manage their health alongside the required medical examination, and also teach them to manage their families’ health like vaccination for their children, hygiene and sanitisation, awareness on different diseases. This would be further followed by skill development training for rural women which will enable them to earn their livelihood. The initiatives will further support rural artisan women to enhance their skill sets, help them source material and also market their products.
Moopen said, “We are glad to partner with Ruma Devi and support her in her journey to improve the health and welfare of these women and in turn empower them to support their family’s welfare. At Aster, being an organization with 59% of women workforce, we feel the empowerment of women starts with empowering them to manage their health first which will enable them to prosper and better support their families.”
“We are really glad that Aster Volunteers and Moopen have decided to join our cause and see value in the work that we are doing for the upliftment of the villages of Barmer, Rajasthan. We are eagerly looking forward to taking our partnership forward,” said Devi.
