Brand In Focus | CHD Group
CHD Group is India's leading public health organization working with cross-sectoral partners in driving social change and community betterment in the space of public health and community welfare. Motivated by the best of intentions to heal the world in a transient lifetime, CHD Group was born in June 2014. Today, it works shoulder to shoulder with country governments, United Nations Agencies and Corporate Companies. Empanelled with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India, CHD Group teams moves from village to village, city to city in shaping healthcare and bringing breakthrough transformation.
CHD Group is among those rare global institutions that have its Headquarters in a non-metro city (it operates out of Mangalore, Karnataka in India) and yet reaching out to civilians across countries with transformative ideas and efforts. Sustainable Development Goals often means nothing to the last mile person on the ground who are relegated to the blind spot. This is where CHD Group shines particularly bright, going out of its way to ensure impact reaches every single soul it was intended for.
Propelling this collective energy and passion is the mission to create a world where the young and the young at heart will receive accessible and affordable healthcare. The incomparable joy of waking up everyday, knowing that it brings an opportunity to make someone smile, is what keeps every member of the team going.
With new innovative models of service, strategic intelligence and delivery, CHD Group collaborates with visionary companies, governments and United Nations agencies to realize the dream of a hearts that beat healthier – building a legacy of transformation that will keep inspiring and guiding generations.
CHD Group is driven by the visionary and passionate leadership of Dr. Edmond Fernandes, a community health physician who has been championing social health for many years. The work carried out by Dr. Edmond has been recognised worldwide. In 2015, he published the need to stop using full sleeves white coat for doctors which was carried by the British Medical Journal ( BMJ). This episode became a national and international debate that triggered further studies of nosocomial infections in doctor's white coats. Dr. Fernandes is credited to have written and published a book so early on that some media agencies in Mangalore called him "Mangalore's youngest author". Dr. Edmond Fernandes also holds additional affiliations as a Senior Fellow of The Atlantic Council at Washington DC, A Consultant to the United Nations Economic & Social Commission for the Asia Pacific Region at Bangkok and is a columnist published with leading media platforms such as The Times of India, India Today, Forbes India and others. You can read up more on him on www.edmond.in.
Overarching goal
To emerge as a global organization and engage in risk reduction initiatives.
Networking
To establish strategic academic – field-based partnerships and to work with faith-based coalition to build power from below.
Socio-Economic Development
To pioneer socio-economic development and address social determinants of health.
Community Development
To engage in community development & strengthen public health diplomacy through a multi-pronged approach which protects vulnerable groups like women, children and the elderly.
Indian Public Health requires deep efforts to support vulnerable populations. 70% of healthcare expenses is out of pocket spending and this calls for health systems strengthening. This is the space where the Group envisions to engineer its truest impact.
CHD Group works on a model of Public Health in all policies and Social Health Model of community development. Donors particularly appreciate the work because this model delivers value for money through a sustainability perspective. It uplifts people and communities across multiple sectors in broad strokes and convergent thematic patterns that stems from its unique DNA and not easily matched in the industry.
What started off as one man's vision to elevate the standard of life and health of billions today finds reflection in a throbbing and thriving culture that permeates across the organizational fabric. The spirit of teamwork, humility and togetherness combine to bring smiles on the faces of those who have none. The spirit of purpose, solidarity and social good combine to stand by the side of those who cannot repay their financial obligations. The spirit of conviction and optimism carries the movement forward braving every odd and moving every mountain in sight to touch hearts and transform lives. This is a spirit that is priceless, for it cannot be purchased with money but comes selflessly from the heart with a vision to leave the world better, healthier and mightier than what we inherited.
CHD Group implements grassroots programmes in child health and women's health which reduces child malnutrition and maternal malnutrition. The organization runs mobile medical units built on a pioneering health-in-all-policies that can be adopted by others as a best practice. CHD also champions social development through Skill Building of rural youth as a Public Health Associate and helps them in employment placements through the Edward & Cynthia Institute of Public Health (ECIPH) – a chd group institution. Apart from that, the brand’s activity and endeavour canvas is vast enough to cover road safety, disaster risk reduction, humanitarian emergencies, non-communicable diseases, ‘End Malaria in India’ and many more. Perhaps most significantly, CHD builds public health leaders of tomorrow, by forming their minds today.
CHD has impacted over 3 million lives till date through its various programmes, and has also successfully advocated for several policy implementations that come with strict regulations. One classic example is advocating to implement seat belt compulsion in Mangalore years before a court order came for implementing seat belt for 4 -wheeler drivers. CHD has also pursued hard to get Yellow Fever vaccine started at Wenlock District Hospital in Mangalore which was long pending for many years. The people of Mangalore will no longer have to travel to Bangalore or Mumbai to get Yellow Fever Vaccination. These are just 2 of the many examples that draw inspiration from the work CHD executed and carried out. Through skill development, CHD is shaping the livelihood of number of youth who are making a career in public health and supporting their families to uplift themselves. CHD Teams working in providing emergency medical relief during disasters has gone a long way to support immediate relief requirements and subsequent psycho-social care to victims of disasters like floods, cyclones and others.
Sooner or later, good deeds never go unrewarded. The CHD group’s passion and presence has attracted the nod of appreciation and admiration across quarters. The brand has, not surprisingly, garnered a slew of honours and accolades over its kaleidoscopic journey. It bagged the ASSOCHAM NGO Award 2020 for strong work touching over 4, 16,000 lives during COVID-19 in the middle of a National Lockdown. The CEO of CHD Group - Dr Edmond Fernandes - was nominated by the US Government as a Legislative Fellow in 2017 for exceptional work in Community Health and Public Policy and he addressed multiple layers of the United Nations at the headquarters in Manhattan, at the Regional Hub in Bangkok and at the United Nations University in Tokyo along with Noble Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Within a short span of 6 years, this journey has been a roller-coaster transformation.
CHD Group has started the Edward & Cynthia Institute of Public Health (ECIPH) which caters to young formative minds with a view towards building a public health system of strength and repute across the world and particularly in South Asia. CHD Group is also in the process of acquiring community hospitals and small hospitals to boost urban and rural healthcare all over India.
CHD Group intends to leave the world better than what it inherited. “Creating a world where affordable healthcare is at everyone's doorstep is a living dream we wish to realize”, says Dr. Edmond Fernandes, CEO.
"Healthcare in India today is not stethoscope and pills. In Fact it has little to do with it. Healthcare in India needs to be built and strengthened by a socio-economic determinant, by an environmental determinant, by a cultural determinant, by a political determinant by addressing cascading risks that stress healthcare and sustainability. We, at CHD Group are working on translational global health frameworks which have been articulated in the past, but struggled to see the light of day or has never reached the last mile person on the ground. putting them into reality with innovative technology is a blessing to those who get that. That's how we nurture a healthy world.” - Dr. Edmond Fernandes, CEO.
If you want to play a role in the evolutionary mission of the brand, you can visit www.chdgroup.org and support their various causes and initiatives by sharing expertise, time and resources. They have a provision to welcome everyone, also those retired who wish to be part of this movement of transformative change.
*This story is published by VOH team*
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