Healthcare & Nutrition

HOPE Hospital offers medical treatment to underprivileged people living below the poverty-line, who would otherwise be deprived of necessary medical treatment. This is achieved via the following strategic objectives:

HOPE’s Blindness Eradication Programme, launched in 2016, runs in Kolkata and surrounding villages of West Bengal. Vitamin A deficiency and malnutrition are major causes of corneal scarring among children and underprivileged adults in Kolkata, resulting in many becoming blind. Specsavers Ireland has supported HOPE to continue to roll out our Blindness Eradication Programme across street and slum communities and schools through community based camps and special eye clinics in HOPE Hospital in Kolkata.

The project is for Below Poverty Line individuals who are living in street and slum communities and have no access to affordable or quality healthcare. It works to increase awareness of eye health and the need for check-ups, provide eye-screening and check-up camps for schools and communities, and provides treatment for any defects in HOPE Hospital.

With Specsaver’s support, HOPE can provide high quality, sustainable eye care through primary, secondary and tertiary treatment. Such treatments reduce corneal scarring, visual loss from vitamin A deficiency and measles and other preventable causes. Those requiring further support are provided with glasses by the project or are taken to HOPE’s Hospital where they can undergo surgery in the hospital’s dedicated Eye-Surgery theatre.

HOPE’s Night Round Mobile Medical Service was launched in April 2017. The Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance patrols high risk areas six nights every week over a period of four hours, and provides immediate medical treatment for destitute women and children in crisis and dangerous situations on the streets.

In emergency cases, clients are immediately admitted to HOPE Hospital. In crucial cases, clients are taken to HOPE’s short-stay Crisis Intervention Centres or Mother and Child Care Unit, and appropriate authorities contacted for their transfer to residential protection homes. Child Line is contacted if any child is found on the streets in need of rescue.

Apart from medical treatment, free medical check-ups and free medicine are provided to street dwelling communities during the night hours.

The Naya Duar programme of Iswar Sankalpa, which began in 2007, reaches out to Kolkata’s forgotten and destitute individuals, providing enhanced care and treatment for homeless persons with psycho-social disabilities who are living on the streets of Kolkata. The project works in 141 wards under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to identify patients who are Homeless and suffering with mental health conditions. Through a referral network, the organization aims to restore patients back to their homes (where appropriate) or provide shelter, appropriate care and treatment.

Awareness programmes involving different stakeholders in the community are organised to address the homeless mentally ill. Our Outreach Programme on the streets of Kolkata has been identified as a unique pathway of care involving the police, government hospitals, street vendors and the community around the street where homeless mentally ill have created a space for themselves.

HOPE and HIVE (one of our NGO partners) work in partnership to deliver a 24 hour, 7 days a week response unit of social workers, who respond immediately to those in need.

The Unit attends to victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, human rights violations and medical needs. The Unit particularly focuses on those most vulnerable throughout Kolkata’s streets, its street dwelling children and women. Where possible and appropriate, the Unit reunites individuals with their families, assists below poverty-line families to access medical care and through strong referral networks, places at-risk individuals into appropriate shelters and homes.

The Unit also receives calls from the Kolkata Police and Fire Department, to respond to crises calls throughout the city, particularly road accidents, which are common among street dwellers.

HOPE provides support to ICDS centres located in slum areas to cater to the educational, health, hygiene and nutritional needs of children below 6 years of age.

The vision of HOPE is to ‘change the trajectory of a child’s life at the earliest possible point’, intervene when it’s least expensive and most effective, and do it in a way that promotes optimal child development and that will support parents’ involvement in their child’s education and health.

Children aged up to 6 years will be enrolled in the Centres; of these, children will also receive quality pre-primary education in a child centric and learning environment. The children will gain improved knowledge on writing readiness, reading readiness, number readiness, social skills and motor skills.