Monday, July 27, 2009

Vijay Deo Jha
There is nothing special about the caller tune of the mobile phone of Ganesh Reddy.
But, the words of the caller tune “Ham me hai ujala andhiyara mitane ka, hum me hai hausla nai umang jagane ka…,” has been the signature tune of his life and the purpose for which he has been working for the last many years.

Ganesh Reddy, the founder of an NGO, Citizen Foundation (CF), is one who has painstakingly undertaken the task of health awareness and special training among the tribal populace.
“From the days of my childhood I wished to serve society. I along with my friends founded ‘Gandhi Sports Club’ and participated in several programme like Polio eradication,” Reddy said.
He proudly displays the mobile medical van which he got under ‘National Rural Health Mission’ is ready to roll down to the deep interior of the villages of Jharkhand to provide free medical service to the poor people. This van is equipped with doctors, nurses and other state-of-art facilities to provide free treatment to the tribal people of the districts like Simdega, Pakur, Jamtara, Godda and Dumka.

The rugged terrains of Jharkhand are quite familiar to Reddy and he can recount you the name and the topography of the villages of the state where health services do not exist even as token. This time he will try to reach the people with this sophisticated medical van to provide health service at their door step.
“We will chart out the route of the van and medical camp alongside. Everything is free of cost including medicine, x ray,” Reddy says. People die due to malnutrition; anemia and other diseases like malaria etc. and these problems are very acute among the people and many a precious life could have been saved if they could have been provided with medical care on right time, Reddy shared his experience. Working among the hapless tribal populace in the remote villages Poyarijoh, Suderpahari of district Godda Reddy has seen death and hunger from a close quarter.
It is a lesser known fact if Reddy won the heart of masses his effort was duly appreciated by international organizations like UNICEF. The foundation has been working in collaboration with ‘Jharkhand AIDS Control Society’ in Chaibasa for Aids awareness programme. Initially people were hesitant much because of the taboo involved to it but later on the programme turned into a campaign mode.
But initially it was a story of different contrast when he opted for social service. “I am a school drop out. Even my father MBN Reddy had termed me a basket case when I chose social service instead of resuming study,” Reddy revealed this.
Last year his father took his last breath. “But he died as a proud father, once he patted my back for what I am doing today,” Reddy also said.

CF that he established in 1997 along with his friends gave him a wide canvass to reach to the people who really need help. Apart from Jharkhand the foundation has the branches in six other states of Indian including Meghalaya, Bihar, Uttarakhand, New Delhi including NCR and West Bengal. He plans to open the branches of the foundation in Assam. Out of 24 districts of Jharkhand the foundation has its base in 20 districts.

The caller tune ends with high positive note: “Hum me hai jazba nai zindagi banane ka” (we have the spirit to make a new life). For Reddy is it a beginning.

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