Prem Jyoti Community Hospital

The Prem Jyoti Community Health Development programme was started in December 1996 to provide for the health needs of the local Malto tribes. It was registered as a hospital in early 2006.

The Malto tribes have been identified by the Indian Government as a ‘Primitive Tribal Group’ and they have high rates of morbidity and mortality. Mainly animistic (spirit worshippers) many have become Christians over the past 25 years and the Christian community now numbers about 42,000 out of a population estimated at 100,000.

The hospital has been working closely with other local organisations to strengthen the community by providing capacity building, literacy training, technical input and intervening in specific areas such as natural resource development and health. The hospital has focused its efforts on health prevention, education and care.

The Vision of the Prem Jyoti project is to see the Malto community empowered and transformed into one that is healthy; learning; prospering; caring for their natural resources; living in harmonious relationships; worshipping the true and living God and reaching out to others in need.

The project offers a number of services to about 15,000 people spread over 140 villages:

• Training of Community Health volunteers who teach their own village about health, treat simple ailments and refer complicated problems. Female CHVs are also trained to conduct safe deliveries
• Providing basic integrated healthcare through mobile clinics to local villages, with a special focus on under-fives, pregnant women and control of malaria and tuberculosis
• Witnessing the love of Christ in all that is done