Amrita Village Health Champions Training 

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Amrita Hospitals in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), SEED Division, Govt. of India and UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development, conducted a Amrita Village Health Champions ToT (Training of Trainers) program from 16 September to 25 September 2023. The objective of this program was to train healthcare volunteers from villages across India to become community health champions. 

The program trained healthcare volunteers from villages across India to become community health champions. The training covered a wide range of topics, including basic health care concepts, participatory rural appraisal, health promotion and disease prevention, communicable disease surveillance, first aid and emergency care, nutrition and dietetics, maternal and child health, elderly care, mental and menstrual health and well-being, lifestyle diseases, yoga and meditation, telehealth, and the Model TB Free Village program.

36 villagers from 18 villages from 15 states across India convened at Amrita Community Medical Center in Njarakkal, Kochi, Kerala, to participate in the training. The training was conducted by doctors from the Community Medicine and Infectious Diseases departments at Amrita Hospitals, Kochi, as well as faculty from the Amrita School for Sustainable Futures.

This ToT program, supported by the DST, Govt. of India, is part of a larger project called Covid community resilience and resource centre (CCRRC) Village Project, in which Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is mandated as the implementation agency to improve resilience of villagers in 13 states across India.

Participants from Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar participated in the event.