Despite dizzying economic growth in the country, millions of people have little or no access to healthcare, a shortcoming that becomes all the more dire in the treatment of mental illness, given the chronic shortage of qualified staff and facilities.
India channels less than 1% of its healthcare budget into treating mental illnesses, falling considerably short of the same figure for western countries, which typically earmark between 10% and 18%, according to WHO findings.
There are three psychiatrists in India for every one million inhabitants. Moreover, the number of people without healthcare in rural areas is very high, as healthcare professionals tend to work in cities and treatment at primary care centres is simply deficient.
Sisters Hospitaller has been working in India since 2001. In 2011, the Sisterhood established a base in the city of Trivandrum, Kerala, through the “Menni Family Home” centre, which aims to provide quality care for poor people suffering from mental illness.
Due to the limitations of the healthcare system and the country’s poverty, the centre is currently packed to breaking point and urgently needs to expand. Given this need, Sisters Hospitaller have prepared plans to build a home to care for between 30 and 50 mentally-ill women and a day care centre for both men and women tormented by mental illness.
The aim of the expansion work is to offer proper rehabilitation, allowing these people to return to their family and social lives, while also broadening the reach of the sisterhood by setting up surgeries in the city of Trivandrum and surrounding area for patients with psychiatric and psychological problems.
The project requires us to construct a building measuring over 1,800 square metres, entailing an investment of 600,000€.
If you would like to support the project, please transfer your gift to the following account number:
BAN ES 35 21005455 91 0200066247, SWIFT Code CAIXESBBXXX – CAIXA
