About NGO:

Headquartered in Washington DC, with programs in 65 countries around the globe, Population Services International (PSI) is a non - profit, International non-government organization working in the domain of public health with programs in areas of public health such as HIV, TB, malaria, reproductive health, waterborne illnesses and child survival.

Our mission is simple, to empower people to lead healthy lives. Our mission as a compassionate charity is to change lives by harnessing the commitment of our dedicated staff to deliver sustainable, high-impact, community based services to the most needy. In India, PSI has been a registered charity since 1988 and today runs programs in 22 states. In Mumbai, PSI works in Cotton Green with trucker population, in Vashi, Bhivandi and Govandi with migrant workers, in Kamathipura with Female Sex workers and their clients, in Dharavi with slum dwellers for the cause of safe water, sanitation and hygiene issues.

Fund Usage:

Children's health has been the major cause of concern in all PSI projects. Thus, PSI will utilize funds raised through SCMM 2012 for the cause of Children's health in the following two projects:

A) Raising awareness regarding Safe hand washing practices for Children living in Mumbai slums: Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of deaths among children under the age of five. As per estimates, in India alone 400000 children under the age of five die due to Diarrhoea. Lack of knowledge and unsafe drinking water are two main causes leading to this situation. PSI has been working in the slums of Dharavi on a hygiene and sanitation project; raising awareness of slum dwellers regarding methods of safe drinking water and inculcating safe handwashing practices amongst children in municipal schools. We intend to utilize Marathon funds for inculcating safe hand washing practices among 20 schools children of Dharavi through edutainment activities such as plays, mono-acts, songs, games and story telling mediums. PSI requires INR 10 lacs for successfully implementing the Safe Hand Washing activity to reach out to 10,000 children (per unit cost is Rs. 100/-).

B) Health insurance for Children Living with HIV: We are all aware of the advantages of being secure against medical emergencies in our lives. However, for Positive children, this security is not available as HIV/AIDS is a standard exclusion for medical insurance. However, Project Connect has innovated and in partnership with a private insurance provider, has come up with a unique health insurance product for HIV+ people. The annual premium amount per person is Rs. 1511/- which will allow access to cashless medical benefit upto Rs. 30,000/-. However for most HIV+ people, who come from Below Poverty Line populations, this is simply out of reach. Most times, there are more than 2 members in the family who are HIV positive and thus it becomes more challenging for them to pay the premium. Our requirement is to reach out to 1000 HIV+ children in the country and thus require INR 15 lacs for this project to pay the annual insurance premiums.

Impact:

PSI in partnership with Star Health & Allied Insurance has come up with the first ever Insurance policy for People Living with HIV. It was piloted in 2007 with a small group of people in Karanataka and today more than 7100 HIV positive people from 5 states of India have enrolled under the policy. Through SCMM2011, PSI raised resources for supporting insurance premiums of HIV positive people in Maharashtra.

Apart from this contribution, SCMM2011 also gave a platform to HIV positive people to participate in the marathon. We had a group of 19 HIV positive people who ran along with PSI team hand in hand which boosted their confidence further. SCMM is a great platform to bring together as equals.

Page Url :
http://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/ngo8_psi.htm

Founded Year: 1980

Cause category: Health

Telephone: 9892194066 / 9323938764