Target TB working in partnership with Alternative for India Development (AID)
Country/regional profile
India has a population of approximately 1.1 billion people. It is the 12th largest economy in the world, however, despite dramatic economic growth in recent years, over 25% of Indians still live on less than $1 a day.
India has the highest incidence of infectious TB in the world. Untreated cases of TB can be fatal and around 1,000 Indians die of TB everyday.
This project targets tribal communities in the neglected North Eastern states of Jharkhand and Orissa. These parts of India have extremely poor healthcare infrastructures, having historically received little government assistance. Living in remote rural areas, tribal people are particularly isolated from health services due to geographical and cultural barriers as well as poverty.
AID’s mobile clinic travels to remote
communities to provide TB testing
services, including sputum microscopy
and x-rays
Our work with AID
Target TB is working in partnership with AID to bring TB health care and awareness to remote and marginalised tribal communities in Jharkhand and Orissa. AID has strong established relationships with communities in these regions having previously carried out sexual health and HIV control programmes. From this experience they found that TB is the greatest contributor to poverty, often leading to loss of employment due to both ill-health and the stigma surrounding the disease.
Project Aims
- To improve access to TB diagnosis and treatment facilities for vulnerable and excluded tribal communities
- To improve TB knowledge and awareness levels and educate tribal peoples on their rights to health services
Project Activities
Target TB has purchased a mobile TB cinic which provides TB testing services to isolated communities where no other facilities are easily accessible.
Health care workers, community groups and volunteers are being trained in TB control and associated issues such as nutrition. These trainings aim to improve knowledge about the disease, increase referrals of people with symptoms to TB tesing centres, and reduce the stigma and discrimination surrounding the disease.
Street dramas, health fora, rallies and newsletters are regularly used to raise awareness levels and strengthen community involvement in AID’s work to combat TB.