Medlife Foundation
The Ford Trust
Through the work of the Kamla Foundation, we aspire to make a sustained and significant positive impact on poverty and injustice.
We believe that it’s only through strong partnerships and collective action that this can be achieved. We currently work with a number of partners and these partnerships are formed across civil society, public and private sectors in the UK and like-minded NGOs in India.
We understand partnerships as mutually empowering relationships, focused on impact, mutual growth, organisational development and institutional strengthening.
Medlife Foundation – Gujarat
Medlife Foundation is an inspirational charity based in Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, North West India. They specialise in cleft lip and palate reconstruction. Within the poorest communities many thousands are born, or live with disfiguring clefts. A cleft is a birth defect that occurs when the tissues of the lip and/or palate of the fetus do not fuse very early in pregnancy. A cleft lip, sometimes referred to as a ‘harelip’, is an opening in the upper lip that can extend into the base of the nostril. A cleft palate is an opening in the roof of the mouth.
The medical team at Medlife performs reconstructive surgery FOR FREE for children and adults whose families could not otherwise afford them. We believe that everyone deserves to live their lives with dignity and for those born with a cleft lip, cleft palate or other facial deformity………. dignity begins with a smile.
Visit the Medlife Foundation Website
The FORD Trust – Tamil Nadu
The FORD (Foundation for Rural Development) Trust is a community based organisation, supporting communities living on the margins of society. They currently work across 27 under developed hamlets of Tamil Nadu, southern India. Their mission is to promote and protect a humanistic society irrespective of caste, creed, religion or ethnicity.
Pehchan
Kamla Foundation has partnered with a remarkable charity based in Mumbai called Pehchan, (pehchanindia.org). The word ‘pehchan’ translates as ‘identity’ in Hindi and provides the cornerstone for their work. Pehchan works to bring positive change to the lives of those who live on the streets of Mumbai. It started as a people-led homeless rights initiative back in 2011. Pehchan now campaigns and lobbies the state government on behalf of the homeless community on a series of key issues affecting them.
The primary aim of this collaboration is helping Pehchan to create greater efficiency and speed up its ability to provide the homeless with a ‘state acknowledged identity’. These documents are essential to link people to government schemes, welfare benefits and entitlements such as pensions and healthcare.
visit their website: www.pehchanindia.org
Safe Water Trust (Grifaid)
The Safe Water Trust (based in Sunderland, United Kingdom) has pioneered Aquafilters which have been developed to provide safe drinking water for families and communities in developing countries. The Aquafilters make biologically contaminated water from wells, rivers, lakes, stored water, or pipes safe to drink at the point of use.
Aquafilters are operated by hand pumping and do not require an electrical supply. They do not need chemicals or other consumable elements to clean the water and they will last for years. This project aligns well with our goals of assisting to reduce rural poverty and improve the health of the most in need and compliments our principle rural supply programme, where over the last three years we have been installing bore wells across rural Tamil Nadu.
We are currently in discussion to be the second pilot in India with the aim of rolling out the aquafilters to several villages where communities rely on contaminated open water for their daily chores and who will greatly benefit from the introduction of Aquafilters. Visit the AquaFilters website
Cobra Foundation
Cobra Foundation provides health, education and community support for vulnerable communities in South Asia, especially through the provision of safe water, in addition, provides assistance with Disaster Relief in the region.
