At a well-attended virtual event in New Delhi, the IHW Council announced its 2020 CSR Health Impact Awards today. The American India Foundation (AIF) received the Gold Award in Rural Health Initiative for its Maternal and Newborn Health Initiative (MANSI), and a Special Jury Award for Covid-19 Response at the CSR Health Impact Awards Covid-19 Edition hosted IHW Council. Around 180 organizations made it to the shortlist. Jury members included well known individuals from the health sector such as Dr. Prakriti Poddar of Poddar Foundation, Dr. Rajagopal of Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences, and Dr. Debasish Danda of CMC Vellore. Justice Swatanter Kumar graced the occasion. The virtual event was attended by health experts, nonprofit organizations, influencers, legendary corporate brands, Members of Parliament, Justices of Peace, and leading individual members of society who came out to support people in distress during Covid-19.

On the occasion, AIF Country Director Mathew Joseph said, “We humbly receive both the awards, and dedicate the Gold award in Rural Health Initiative to all ASHA workers who help implement the MANSI program across four states of India. We are deeply grateful to our donors, partners, board members, and volunteers for their unflinching support to AIF’S timely COVID-19 response. With your support, we aim to rebuild the lives of India’s migrating communities and vulnerable populations.”

AIF’s Maternal and Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI) bagged the Gold award in Rural Health Initiative category. Designed to reduce maternal and child mortality in rural, impoverished areas, MANSI utilizes a public-private partnership model to provide the resources and support required to empower local communities to care for their mothers and children while improving the local health system. The program has demonstrated significant reductions in NMR (neonatal mortality), IMR (infant mortality), and U5MR (child mortality) by a range of 40% to 50% in Jharkhand, almost at the level of national goals. MANSI’s achievements can be attributed to a successful partnership approach with Tata Steel, RIST, Hospira and Circle of Hope, with the backing of a technical partner SEARCH, a local implementation partner, and the government health system – together they deliver much better than what either of them could alone have done.

Additionally, the Special Jury Award – Covid-19 Response was presented to AIF for its contribution in the humanitarian crisis of COVID-19. Providing support to over 423,599 people from migrant communities and vulnerable population across 17 states, AIF was among the first nonprofits to provide aid to the most vulnerable communities in India with help from supporters like Adobe, American Express, BlackRock, BMC, Bank of America, Cognizant, EXL, Goldman Sachs, Micron Tech, The Hans Foundation, Circle of Hope and Amazon Cares. Measures provided include critical life-saving medical equipment for Covid hospitals, PPEs for frontline health workers, prevention kits for ASHAs and Anganwadi workers, and hygiene kits & dry rations for the needy and elderly, including migrants. As the pandemic spreads, AIF’s programs are addressing the increasing health, education, and livelihoods risks faced by migrating communities abd vulnerable populations.

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