I went to the United States of America in early 2000 to pursue a super-specialisation in Neonatology, a branch of medicine which was not as advanced in India at that time. Settling in to a new environment was certainly difficult. But I wouldn’t say I got a culture shock. It was more about adapting to new norms of living. In several ways it was a welcome change. I admired the fact that the US government had put systems into place for most things, and that they were usually adhered to; people usually abided by the governing laws. Eventually, I got comfortable with this lifestyle. There were times I would compare India unfavourably to the systems here. I would often wish that things were this organised back home. Though I was happy with my life here and was doing well professionally, I always felt the tug in my heart: to give something back to my community and country. This desire grew stronger every day. But how could I execute it all? As the question became a dilemma, I concluded that simply criticising my country for its quality of life, systems of healthcare and hygiene, would get me nowhere. I thought, “Instead of complaining, why not try to change things for the better?” And that is why I started the Mission India Foundation (MIF). The first step to get closer to my goal was sharing my thoughts with others. So, I spoke to a few friends. It felt good to see that I had likeminded people around me, who shared my enthusiasm to change the status quo. We started working on the practicalities and began mapping out an agenda. To begin with, we were not particularly sure of what we wanted to do. I have always believed that one should do something in which one has a certain expertise. Because my background was in paediatrics, child and maternal healthcare came naturally to me, so that is what we looked at. Once the decision was taken, my friends and I began the paperwork. That took months. In the meantime, we formed a board to monitor the foundation. I knew a few doctors of Indian origin who were working here — we met a couple of times and when I elaborated on my plans, they agreed to help put the idea into action. The next step was to establish ourselves at the right place, and take the programme forward from there. After going back and forth between us a few times, we decided on Narnaul, Haryana. Being a native, I had friends living there and I also knew a few doctors, which would make handling the logistics a whole lot easier. There we were — we had an organisation, a board and a plan — and were all set to pack our medical kits and send them to Narnaul. But the crucial question still remained — we still hadn’t decided what we wanted to send to the village. a lot of research and brainstorming later, we decided to work in the vaccination sector. India makes for a very peculiar case when it comes to vaccination. If you look at the immunisation practices in India, the government launched vaccination programmes in 1978 with vaccines against six diseases — tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, typhoid and polio. In 1985, it revamped its processes and launched the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). But not a single vaccine was added to the list. At one end was India with just six vaccines for its kids and on the other side was the US, which had 13 vaccines; and the kids here were benefiting from them. Therefore, we thought that rather than duplicating the government model, we would focus on the vaccines recommended by the World Health Organsiation’s Indian Academy of Paediatrics. We started working on setting up vaccination centres, which we wanted to run in collaboration with private doctors. We approached them and introduced them to MIF, its ideology, and then asked them to become our partners. One of the doctors in Narnaul gave us space in his clinic without charging us rent and we were ready. We sent our team of nurses, programme managers and officers there and the doctor was available for us on a pro bono basis. Immunisation is just one side of it; we also want to create awareness — the whole initiative means nothing without people becoming aware about basic healthcare. Soon, We began a community outreach programme, which today has become an essential part of our system. Our team goes to designated villages everyday and distributes pamphlets. We talk to people and advise mothers to bring their children to the vaccination centre. And I feel immensely happy when I say that awareness has come. The villagers have been incredibly receptive to our ideas. They understand that it is something that will benefit them. So, they act on it. This is why the vaccination rate in these areas has gone up. So far, we have covered 17 villages in Narnaul, Haryana, and have immunised 10,000 children there; and we don’t plan to stop any time soon. I do not mean that we will immunise every kid in the country. However, we will keep on spreading awareness, so that every child is at least taken to a hospital to get vaccinated and as many times as needed. The Indian government began a “Measles Catch-up Campaign” in 2010. It provides vaccines in 14 states. We come from a school of thought which believes that measles as a disease requires two shots of a vaccine. In India, only a single shot is given at present. So, we provide the second dose. We might have vaccinated over 10,000 children, but given the country’s population, it is not a huge number. So we will continue our efforts and eventually expand to other states. We are planning the next centre in Rajasthan and then move on to neighbouring states. The question to ask here is, “Is that enough?” If the answer is a no, then we need to ask ourselves what more we can do. I think that India has a huge under-utilised resource in the form of the private sector. And a vaccination programme definitely needs private initiative. Only 44 per cent of the children in the country are immunised, which is a very small number. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala the rate is higher. But in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh the condition is abysmal. Around 90 per cent of the vaccination industry is in hands of the government. Only 10 per cent is with the private sector. But the private medical sector in India is humongous. Why not exploit available resources to achieve the best possible results? The government needs to think seriously in this direction, because it has become increasingly difficult to get things done back home. There are always bureaucratic hurdles that pop up. In the US, the government makes efforts to enhance the non-profit’s profit; it’s a non-profit business here. But in India the attitude is, “Why are they setting up these centres? What are they going to get out of this and, more importantly, how we are benefiting from this?” These are initial challenges but we don’t let these things affect us. So, despite the non-cooperation of the local governing health authorities, we have been cruising along and have been able to find private partners. Then there is the big question of funding, which is always a problem initially. Since we have only been active for about 20 months, people don’t know much about us, and that is an additional hurdle. But we are trying to raise money through charity events. For example, the “Shots for Shots” fund raiser, which was suggested by one of our volunteers, Neerav Patel. We booked a bar and for each dollar that was contributed, Neerav multiplied it by four. He linked this event with his birthday party, so we invited people who bought tickets and we raised money through that. For Another event, we invited the popular band, Indian Ocean. They came for the fund raiser, people enjoyed the event and that fetched us some money. Other than that, we make use of social media and we do have regular contributors as well, many of whom are on our board. The one aspect that might help speed up the process is if we get more volunteers. They are required to handle the various facets of the organisation — whether it is fund-raising, networking or spreading awareness. In the States we have quite a few people working for us and it’s not only the Indian population which is active, but also the locals. We have medical students of American origin who help with the work and we have an American national called Stephen A. Morales on our board, who is just as committed as the others. In the end, all I can say is that it’s a cause that needs major attention from the people back home. And each person there should try and contribute towards it in whatever way he or she can. (As told to Manjiri Indurkar)