The Community Outreach Program is being developed in collaboration with Partners in Health to provide volunteer-based health and social services to a population of 2.4 million. The program is being implemented by an Indus Hospital team led by IRD (link to research page) and will expand outwards from the localities immediately surrounding Indus Hospital. The program aims to provide sustainable, volunteer-based health and social services at the door step through.

• Household Registration and Follow-up
  All households in the service population will be registered through a baseline census, and will be assigned a unique identification number. A “household” is defined as a family group that shares a cooking stove.
• Disease Prevention and Control
  This service is designed to prevent the most common causes of childhood and adult deaths in low-income communities, primarily through vaccination and other low-cost strategies. High priority diseases include pneumonia, diarrhea, tuberculosis and malaria.
• Integrated Microfinance and Health Insurance
  This service integrates micro finance products with volunteerism and health interventions. This initiative aims to provide health safety nets to increase utilization of microcredit loans and improve the productivity of the individuals and families.

For more information, contact Ms. Saira Khowaja (snk2107@columbia.edu)