Friends of Vellore UK

In the Jawadhi Hills it is often dangerous to give birth. Large numbers of births take place in unsafe environments and it can take over 12 hours to reach medical help.

The community needs a facility to reduce infant and maternal mortality. Friends of Vellore UK are raising funds to build a maternity and emergency care hospital offering healthcare services 24/7.

What's it like to give birth in the Jawadhi Hills?

In the Jawadhi Hills region of South India there lives a population of more than 60,000 tribal members in a collection of 294 villages and hamlets. As a result, many babies and mothers die. The infant mortality rate is over 70/1000 (7%) and maternal mortality is 3/1000 (0.3%). Friends of Vellore UK want to support Christian Medical College in their goal to reduce the infant mortality rate from 70/1000 live births to 40/1000 live births. And to reduce maternal mortality from 3/1000 live births to less than 1/1000 live births.

The hilly terrain in which they live makes access to healthcare and other facilities difficult. Medical teams and patients are often required to trek several hours to meet each other. And whilst more than 50% of children are born at home, medical help is over 12 hours away. What is needed is a building for a mini midwifery centre with an equipped theatre and labour ward and two 6 roomed accommodation blocks next door for staff to stay on site (travelling takes too long) with catering facilities.

The basic costs cover buildings, a fully equipped medical centre, a kitchen complex, and somewhere to train staff. We are partnering with the Vellore CMC Foundation in the USA to raise funds together for this. Friends of Vellore UK have committed to raising the funds needed to build the labour ward.

Our total target for this appeal is £50,000

This clinic would be the first of its kind in the isolated and entrenched communities of the Jawadhi Hills, bringing new life and education while raising health indices especially with respect to infant and maternal mortality rates.

Please  join us in this transformational mission. Thank You!

In April we launched an appeal to raise funds to help Christian Medical College Vellore (CMC) and its associated smaller Indian mission hospitals care for Covid patients. We had an overwhelming response and to date have raised £223,970!  This sum is almost as much as our average annual income in recent years. Thank you so much to all those who gave generously. We have allocated grants totalling £240,000, with the remainder to be covered by any further donations and our reserves.