RECENT WORK

In October 2009, RACH Foundation adopted the Jatipura slum in Uttar Pradesh, where nearly 1,000 underprivileged families reside. RACH Foundation provides assistance to the slumdwellers to improve their living conditions, and works to create opportunities that would allow them to build sustainable livelihoods.
During the winter of 2009, RACH Foundation distributed 3,500 blankets and warm clothes to homeless people in Lucknow to help them brave the severe cold wave conditions that prevailed across North India.
RACH Foundation recently organized a series of medical camps in slums and underserved localities in Lucknow to provide medical consultation services to the local communities and to educate them about the need to practice a healthy lifestyle. RACH Foundation had involved Doctor volunteers and students from the University of Lucknow to organize the camps, during which essential medical supplies and personal hygiene products were distributed to local community members. This ongoing project is being undertaken along with Dr. Giri Lal Gupta of the Institute of Public Health in India.

In October 2009, RACH Foundation organized clean-up campaigns in underdeveloped localities in India to emphasize the importance of preserving the environment and encourage local communities to keep their surroundings clean. The campaigns, which were held in the Govandi and Dharavi slums in Mumbai and on Sitapur Road in Lucknow, drew tremendous support from the media and local communities, and were joined in by university students who actively took part in the clean-up drive.
RACH Foundation also completed the first phase of its sustainable water management project by installing public water pumps in Bulbulpur village and various other slum locations in Uttar Pradesh that face chronic water shortage.
In late 2008, RACH Foundation launched a blanket bank campaign in Lucknow whereby blankets were collected from the public for distribution among homeless people and destitutes to help them brave the severe cold wave conditions that sweep North India every winter. RACH Foundation donated 200 new blankets, in addition to 400 used blankets and more than 15,000 pieces of collected clothes and woolen linen.

RACH Foundation is undertaking a major project in Uttar Pradesh that seeks to integrate slumdwellers into the social mainstream by getting identification cards issued for them. Initiated in conjunction with the University of Lucknow with the active support and participation of student volunteers, the project, once realized, would allow tens of thousands of unfortunate individuals to connect to the mainstream society and become legitimate citizens of their country.
In mid-2010, RACH Foundation will implement the second phase of its sustainable water management project, whereby it will install dozens of public water pumps in slum areas in India.

RACH Foundation is working to organize medical training camps in India that would facilitate effective treatment of people affected by stuttering. These camps will be conducted by world-renowned psychotherapists Professors Dr. Giorgio & Dr. Renzo Stendoro Rocca, who have recently developed a pathbreaking technique to cure stuttering, a disorder which is normally considered incurable and which affects nearly 5% of the world's population. Prof. Dr. Giorgio and Prof. Dr. Renzo will educate doctors in India about innovative techniques to treat stuttering, so they can then apply their knowledge and skills to make a difference in the lives of millions of people affected by the disorder.

RACH Foundation is looking to start regular evening schools in slum areas and organize free dinner for students. The dinner will be supplied through contributions from different hotels, restaurants and airlines where a lot of safely-stored surplus food is otherwise wasted.
RACH Foundation is also contemplating starting mobile medical clinics in various slum locations in India in late 2010 / early 2011, to provide medical assistance to the people residing in these slums, who otherwise have little or no access to healthcare.