MUMBAI (India CSR): The CSR Office of Compassionate Bharat, an initiative of the Alpha Charitable Trust and the Manappuram Foundation, was inaugurated today at Kanakia Wall Street, Andheri East, Mumbai. The office was inaugurated by V.P. Nandakumar, Chief Patron of the Alpha Charitable Trust and Managing Trustee of the Manappuram Foundation, in the presence of K.M. Noordeen, Chairman of the Alpha Charitable Trust.
Building Compassionate Communities
Compassionate Bharat envisages converting India into a compassionate society using a community model developed by Alpha Palliative Care over the past 20 years in Kerala, which involves volunteers organising themselves to arrange much-needed palliative medical care by setting up link centres and hospices following the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model, where hospices serve as hubs and link centres as the spokes. Link centres will provide home care to patients rejected by the hospital system as having “nothing else that could be done”, enabling them to live in their own homes rather than depending on expensive and unnecessary hospital stays.
Delivering Dignified Care
A home care team will comprise a doctor, nurses, and trained community volunteers from the area, all skilled in palliative medicine. While a disease may be incurable, its symptoms can be treated, enabling patients to enjoy an acceptable quality of life and spend the rest of their lives with dignity in the company of their loved ones.
Expanding Palliative Services
In addition to home care for people suffering from pain and distress caused by various diseases, including cancer, the link centres will also provide palliative physiotherapy to survivors of strokes, accidents, other neurological conditions, and age-related disabilities, with the objective of improving physical mobility. The link centres will operate under the hospices, which will provide training and education to staff as well as volunteers. The hospices will have facilities such as high-dependency units (HDUs), a dialysis centre, and a care home for frail and economically disadvantaged people. All services, including medicines, will be provided free of charge to patients and their families, without discrimination based on race, religion, caste, creed, or political affiliation.
Sustaining Long-Term Support
The Manappuram Foundation has been supporting Alpha Palliative Care for more than a decade. The CSR office will function within the corporate office of the Manappuram Foundation in Mumbai.
Ensuring Universal Access
Chairman of the Alpha Charitable Trust, K.M. Noordeen, said: “For too long, thousands of patients have suffered needlessly simply because they were denied access to compassionate, quality care. Through Compassionate Bharat, we aim to ensure that no one, regardless of their background, is left to face pain and despair alone.”
Advocating Humane Healthcare
V.P. Nandakumar, Managing Trustee of the Manappuram Foundation and Chief Patron of the Alpha Charitable Trust, said: “Palliative care is not merely a medical service — it is an act of humanity. At the Manappuram Foundation, we are proud to support this initiative, which ensures that people receive care, dignity, and compassion when they need it the most.”
(India CSR)
