Basic Health International Foundation was set up as a result of many years of traveling in some of these high altitude areas and seeing some of the large medical needs of some of these communities. Being remote and isolated many of these communities are often off the “radar screen” of national health programs. Remoteness, transportation, infrastructure, geography, weather are often barriers to adequate health care to these communities.
People living at such altitudes have to cope with a harsh climate and often marginalized crop potential. Access to good nutrition, good education and medical care is often compromised in many of these communities.
Mission
Basic Health International is a not-for-profit, non sectarian, humanitarian private foundation established in 2003.
Its objective is to develop and support self-sustainable public health and primary health care projects in remote, under serviced, high altitude communities in different parts of the world.
The emphasis will be on prevention, education, self-sustainability, early diagnosis and treatment.
Our aim is to identify the specific health needs of each community, encourage and support high quality, economically viable, culturally sensitive, local solutions. As a Foundation our aim is to be small, flexible and reactive to the specific health needs of each community.
Vision
Our vision is to establish a number of such projects in high need, under serviced high altitude communities in different parts of the world. Our vision and hope is that locally driven, long-term sustainable programs in one area will have a positive, beneficial “ripple” impact on surrounding communities. We anticipate that positive health outcomes in one community will encourage surrounding communities to take on similar, but locally unique projects.
Establishing a number of programs in different parts of the world will allow each project to learn from and build on the strengths of each other.
Goals
Our goal is to assist under serviced, high need communities develop and manage high quality, economically viable, sustainable public health and primary health care projects from within their community, using local, culturally appropriate solutions.
Our goal is to identify specific preventable and treatable illnesses in each community and partner with the community to come up with economically viable, culturally appropriate solutions.
There will be a strong emphasis on prevention, community based health education, early diagnosis and treatment.
There will be a strong emphasis on the most vulnerable members of each community.
Programs will try to incorporate both local indigenous as well as western solutions depending on the specific needs of each community. We will work on a greater understanding of the epidemiology of local diseases and work with local health practitioners and authorities to develop long term sustainable prevention strategies.
Specific areas of interest include:
- clean water
- nutrition
- immunizations
- maternal/child health
- infectious disease
- therapeutics
- health education and exploring innovative investigatory tools for practical use in remote areas. Education will include working with local doctors and nurses (if present), community health workers and the general public.
Nutrition counseling will attempt to incorporate locally available and accessible food products.
Attempts will be made to foster good working relations with local health workers and traditional medical practitioners.
Our work will strive to maintain and foster a deep respect for the people, the culture and the environment in which we work.
We plan on building an infrastructure that will allow expatriate doctors, nurses and other health practitioners work at these locations on a part-time or full time basis to support our work in the area of clinical care, health education, disease prevention and research.
Areas of specific interest at present include Tibet, Ethiopia and Peru
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