Sucre Blue sets up affordable, community health care in India

Monday, September 30, 2013

Erin Little’s inspiration to establish India’s Sucre Blue stemmed from the problems she encountered with a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis during her childhood.

“It was getting to a point where it was really, really hard to take care of myself,” Little told MSNBC about her health insurance costs.

The nonprofit that she started this year as a result of her frustrations aims to bring access and affordability to chronic disease treatment in the southern area of Bangalore, India. She chose to focus on 10 high-risk villages where people earn the equivalent of 60 cents to $1.50 each day.

About 70% of the country’s population lives in communities almost 60 miles from doctors, clinics, and pharmacies. Doctors assigned to the villages sometimes don’t fulfill their required visits, leaving the residents without health care and access to treatment or medicine, Little said.

“Showing that health care should be affordable and that the everyday person shouldn’t go into poverty just because they have a disease or something happens with their health, it shouldn’t mean that is a financial death-sentence for you and your entire family,” she said.

Sucre Blue, which is comprised of nine staff members including three volunteers, employs diabetic women within each community to diagnose, screen, and follow-up with patients at-risk for or diagnosed with the disease.

Source: MSNBC (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
public health