Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement

Hello everyone! I've made it to the hospital where I'm working and have settled in over the past few days, so I figured it was about time that I told you a bit about what I'm doing.

Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement is the organization that runs the hospital at which I am working. It was founded in the 1980's by a few medical students from Mysore (a nearby city) who wanted to provide healthcare and improve the lives of the poor and marginalized. Initially they provided affordable, basic healthcare to tribal villages in southern Karnataka. These people had been forced away from their homes for the building of a dam and national park. As the doctors learned more about the plight of the tribal villagers, they expanded their services to include education, water quality projects, community development initiatives, and youth empowerment programs. The hospital that I am now in was built over 10 years ago to support the growing needs of the community. There are still daily mobile clinics going out to some of the more remote villages to take away the challenges of traveling to the hospital and meet these communities where it is most convenient for the people working there. They also have public health outreach programs, palliative care services, and a special focus on HIV management.

The umbrella organization of SVYM also oversees education of the tribal children, leadership training for work in the development sector, and courses in Indian culture for study abroad programs to take part in. Throughout all of these activities, SVYM strives to partner with the communities, rather than imposing projects, and maintains good relationships with the local government and other similar institutions. From the first time I heard about SVYM, I was impressed by its organizational structure, involvement in areas beyond just healthcare, and its community driven projects, and now that I am here, I continue to be impressed.

I hope that gives you more of an idea of why I'm here- I'll discuss the medical aspects of the trip and my daily life in greater detail in another post (or many- with pictures!).

-Courtney

By the way, this is Swami Vivekananda, whose picture appears in nearly every room in the hospital. He was a Hindu monk credited with bringing Hinduism back into greater prominence within India, and sharing Indian philosophies with the world in the late nineteenth century, making Hinduism one of the major world religions. His teachings focused on human development and nationalism and are embraced in the vision and mission of SVYM, striving:
"To facilitate and develop processes that improve the quality of life of people... [for] A caring and equitable society, free of deprivation and strife"