The life of Ms Upasana Kamineni Konidela, Vice Chairperson, CSR, Apollo Hospitals, has been shaped by two very strong influences: the intention of extending equitable, best-in-class healthcare to every single Indian; and the belief that those who have talent, time, or treasure have a responsibility to give a little of themselves to the community they live in. She has won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for philanthropy, is a WWF Ambassador of Forest Frontline Heroes, and is the Philanthropy Ambassador of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. She has also raised funds through her personal endeavours for various philanthropic ventures.
In this interview with TheCSRUniverse, Ms Konidela talks about how she is working towards improving the overall health – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual – of India. Rural and tribal health and happiness are important areas of her work.
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Q: Please tell us about the Apollo Foundation’s Total Health and its key initiatives.
A: Apollo Foundation Total Health is the corporate social responsibility initiative of Apollo Hospitals. We work in villages and forests of India, providing medical, social, financial, nutritional, and environmental security to those who have the least access to it. The focus is not just on the individual, but also on the context in which they live and work. People and the planet are at the heart of all our health interventions.
Total Health’s key initiatives are:
Health camps and clinics: One of Total Health’s main priorities has been to mitigate the occurrence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and cancer through allopathy as well as Ayurveda and yoga. We first collected health data from mandals in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, based on which we set up clinics and camps. Our mobile clinics travel across villages and inside forests, to provide regular management and follow-up, free of cost, in areas with poor access to healthcare. In the year 2021-22 alone, we have looked after the healthcare of over 3,46,630 beneficiaries.
Nutrition: Total Health has set up nutrition centres that provide quality food to abandoned seniors and new mothers. The food is locally grown in our kitchen garden and polyhouse. We have to date provided over 2,10,909 meals to senior citizens.
Hygiene education: Total Health collaborated with Reckitt’s Dettol to build a platform, Arogya Rakshak. We hire local health workers to bring about behaviour change around hygiene in local schools and communities. In October 2022, we inaugurated India’s first hygiene park in Aragonda, Andhra Pradesh for children to learn hygiene practices in a play way method. Last year, we reached out to over 51,138 people through our hygiene programmes.
Green Skilling - Total Health develops livelihoods through skill training for communities, particularly for women. The entrepreneurship programmes are based on what is locally available, taking into account seasonal projects in settlements across forests that keep native traditions alive. Our various skill centres include jute and cloth stitching, mushroom cultivation, candle making, honey bottling, and basket weaving.
Community Engagement - Total Health centres have sports infrastructure, kits, and tournaments. These are built to bring comradeship, and healthy competition, and bring the community together. Children from the school that Total Health supports, as well as government schools around, are welcome to use the facilities. Our teams regularly reach out to the community to spread awareness on health and hygiene.
Arrjava Project - The Arrjava Project stands for creating sustainable products, practices, and spaces. Our team of Arrjava Warriors acts as the bridge between our doctors and the community and is trained in basic life support, documenting health data, mobilizing people to participate in health camps and livelihood programmes, and conducting community yoga. Through Arrjava Products, created In the green skilling centres, we provide tribes market linkages for their traditional craft, tweaked to suit urban design needs. One of our best-selling Arrjava products has been a line of beeswax candles, named Dance of the Bumblebee.
Q: ‘Total Health’ is the initiative of your grandfather, Dr Prathap C Reddy. How are you taking his vision and mission forward?
A: When we were growing up, my grandfather always asked us: “What is the one good thing you have done today?” I have huge respect for his philanthropic nature and his vision to bring womb-to-tomb holistic healthcare for all.
While he started the Apollo Foundation Total Health in Aragonda in 2013, in the past few years we have taken the foundation to villages and tiger reserves of Amrabad, NSTR, Krishnapatnam and the Sunderbans. We spent the initial 8 years developing our model of healthcare in Aragonda, serving 50,000 people, so that we could make it replicable across geographies in India. To do this, we regularly enter collaborations with other forest departments of state governments, international organisations like WWF and UNEP, and other corporations such as Reckitt, Adani Foundation and Isha Foundation.
Q: At present, what is the reach of this initiative in our country?
A: We serve the Thavanampalle (Aragonda) and Irala mandals in Andhra, with a population of over 1,00,000 people; we work with 30,000 Chenchu tribesmen and women in Amrabad, Telangana and NSTR, Andhra. We have collaborated with Adani Foundation to offer the knowhow to understand medical needs and conduct health camps in over 40 hamlets around the Krishnapatnam port; and we have recently expanded to Sunderbans to help deliver healthcare to residents of protected areas during times of flood.
Q: What is the main idea behind your newly launched Hygiene Park?
A: We launched India’s first Hygiene Play Park in Aragonda, in tandem with Reckitt’s Dettol, with the aim of teaching young children the importance of handwashing and maintaining good hygiene through the play way method. The park has interactive installations and games such as snake and ladder, hopscotch and ring the worm that each emphasise on different aspects of hygiene maintenance in their scoring. Children can act as influencers in the community, helping reduce the rates of diarrhoea and other commonly transferable infectious diseases that are the cause of absenteeism in over 550 schools in the Chittoor district.
Q: How is the Apollo Foundation working on hygiene and sanitary programmes for children?
A: Apollo Foundation has joined hands with Reckitt to create a special hygiene syllabus for children in the schools of Chittoor. The joint Arogya Rakshak team, comprising health educators, takes this syllabus to teachers and students in 550 schools through hygiene sessions and holds menstrual education programmes for young women in over 30 gram panchayats. The schools have hygiene corners and we distribute hygiene buddy kits among children as a guide to building healthy habits. Recently, in October, we held a 6-day teacher training programme for hygiene awareness which saw participation from 1200 schoolteachers and principals. Apart from hygiene education, we also strengthen hygiene infrastructure through the building and maintenance of toilets in schools.
Q: Which segment of society is the major focus of this initiative?
A: We work in the villages and forests of India, so our focus is on serving rural communities. Especially those with the least access to healthcare and sustainable livelihood opportunities. In forests, we primarily work with the Chenchu tribe, spread across the Nallamala hills.
Q: What are the major challenges that you are facing in achieving your goals?
A: Since we work in remote areas, one of our main challenges is finding doctors who can join our team for the long term. We work hard to build trust in tribal communities and having a doctor that people are well-familiar with, brings stability and grounds us better. That is why this year we have started our volunteering programme where doctors from cities can also volunteer their time and talent to our programmes in Aragonda and Amrabad.
