One single individual could impact so many lives. The life and tireless efforts by Dr. Jagan Ailinani, past President of AAPI and philanthropist, are a testimony to this fact. The UN reports India’s ranking as 120th among 122 countries in the Water Quality Index, and approximately 70 percent of the water supply in India is likely contaminated, resulting in nearly 2 lakh (2,00,000) untimely deaths each year, besides irreversible debilitation and crippling economic burdens. Millions of rural Indians cannot even access water for hand washing.
With the objective of helping to provide clean drinking water to millions of people in India, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under the leadership of Dr. Jagan Ailinani has been signed between Community Pure Water Foundation, Inc. (CPW) and the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in order to memorialize the intent of this alliance between the two organizations.
“AAPI has formed a strategic partnership with Community Pure Water to provide relief through implementation of AAPI’s Clean Drinking Water initiative in rural India; to engage CPW as turnkey provider and operator of Clean Drinking Water Projects proposed to be sponsored by AAPI’s members and network,†said Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda, President of AAPI.
As per the MOU, AAPI and CPW will collaborate creatively to address health challenges in India, focusing primarily on providing clean drinking water services, and related programs such as water for hand washing and sanitation, Dr. Jonnalagadda added.
“The overall objective is to improve health of rural Indian communities that are impacted by waterborne diseases, by partnering to provision water purification plants in affected regions and thus to stem the spread of waterborne diseases,†said Dr. Jagan Ailinani, past President of AAPI and the philanthropist who had initiated this project. The partners have come together with the shared goal of empowering India in the area of clean water. AAPI will work to leverage membership, networks and resources in the United States and India to provide and facilitate funding, skills transfer, and knowledge building to support agreed upon activities, and consider additional projects to extend availability and affordability of Clean Drinking Water to rural communities in various states in India, Dr. Anupama Yeluru Gotimukula, President-Elect, AAPI said.
According to Dr. Ravi Kolli, Vice President of AAPI, AAPI intends to work in four key areas: identifying sponsors; collaborating with various prestigious professional groups including medical societies, academic institutions, hospital systems and NGOs (both in the US and India); leveraging the annual Global Healthcare Summit to educate and promote the key area related to this MOU; and engaging the AAPI supported 14 free (charitable) clinics in India to disseminate awareness on the health benefit of using safe clean water.
Dr. Satheesh Kathula, Treasurer of AAPI, said, AAPI member tax-deductible sponsorship of USD 7,000 per village of 500 households covers capital costs of water treatment plants totaling USD $5,000 as well as operating & annual maintenance cost for two years amounting to USD $2,000. One-time setup expenses cover the installation and commissioning of a 500 LPH (liters per hour) five-stage water purification center. These include community awareness, operator training and skilling of technical staff. Water purchases fully fund operation and maintenance costs after about two years. Each center can provide pure water year after year with no further donor funding after a year two.
Dr. Amit Chakrabarty, Secretary of AAPI, pointed out that India lacks adequate number of qualified Oncology specialists that would like to partner with AAPI to provide medical, surgical and radiation oncologists to deliver quality cancer care. These specialists will spend from one to three months in Tata Cancer Centers in India. They will also provide Tele-medicine consultations. The model envisions an integrated well-connected network of existing and additional centers staffed by local and AAPI volunteer specialists from USA working partly in India and partly via tele-medicine from US to deliver high quality cancer care across the country to the villages.
“This collaboration can also help with prevention, early detection as well as other health related areas like sanitation and safe drinking water,†said Dr. Suresh Reddy, past President of AAPI, who had signed MOU with Tata Trust during the GHS in Hyderabad in 2019. “The trust has already embarked on forming a national cancer grid comprising major cancer centers in the country, research institutes, patient groups and charitable institutions. They will develop uniform standards of treatment, early diagnosis and prevention protocols. The specialized centers will also provide training and education besides conducting basic, transnational and clinical research,†he added.
Several decades ago, Dr. Ailinani adopted his native village and fully funded and established safe drinking water, trash disposal and built a funeral shelter with showers and toilets at the cremation site, construction of a primary health center, maintaining proper hygiene and landscaping and provided education to kids and offered training camps to farmers. In addition, he constructed a road from his village, Mothe, to Jagtial, in 1995 under Janma Bhoomi project. He also established a partnership with the regional medical college, PIMS, to provide needed physicians to provide primary care with a focus on prenatal care twice a week.
In 2006, Dr. Ailinani established the AAPI Preventive Health Clinic in Jagtial with a mission to deliver quality health services to the rural population of Northern Telegana. This includes thousands of villages including his own of Mothe within the Jagtial district. He did this through a partnership with the local Rotary Club, Prathima Medical College (PIMS-Kariminagar), and Yashoda Hospitals (Hyderabad).
Dr. Ailinani is one of the founding board members of the Prathima Institute of Medical Services-PIMS with a mission to provide specialty services/Tertiary care to the rural population of northern Telangana. He was instrumental along with Dr. Maqbool Haq (Oncologist at MD Anderson Houston, TX) and Dr. Vivekanand (Dean of PIMS) in establishing the Center of Excellence for Sickle Cell Center which is one of the 4 centers in India and BLS-basic life support training center. He also got an affiliation with Southern Illinois School of Medicine (SIU), USA with student and faculty exchange. He raised $250,000 from US alumni for the establishment of a state of the art Digital library at his alma mater, Osmania Medical College, Hyderabdad. Conducted several CME programs in India including Karimnagar, Hyderabad, Trivendrum, Kerala, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Gauhathi in Assam.
“We are grateful to Dr. Jagan Ailinani and several other senior leaders of AAPI who have initiated several noble efforts and leading and funding numerous programs that benefit the needy and the poor in India, collaborating with local NGOs and maximizing the impact of the programs,†Dr. Sajani Shah, Chair, AAPI BOT said.
“We are urging AAPI members and others to come forward and work together in ensuring that all people in India enjoy basic health care needs, education, sanitation and help to access and drink clean and safe water to prevent deaths related to unsafe drinking water across India,†Dr. Sudhakar Jonnalagadda added. For more information, please visit: www.aapiusa.org
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