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May 2015 www.healis.org

Healis pledges to create 100,000Tobacco Free Educational Institutes (TFEI)

Maharashtra

Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health (Healis) alongwith Department of Consumer A� airs and State Government machineries, has launched a project to make 1,00,000 Educational Institutions across Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh tobacco-free. Healis derives immense

strength from doctors across India woven together through it’s VoTV (Voice of Tobacco Victims) campaign. Workshops are conducted at regular intervals with the doctors to get their support for project Tobacco-free Educational Institutes (TFEI).

Maharashtra Cancer Warriors: Doctors Meet to discuss schools

Maharashtra Cancer Warriors is a group of doctors working endlessly across Maharashtra, interacting with the District Education O� cers (DEOs), District Collectors and other o� cials in the district to make educational institutes tobacco free. The meeting was organized in Ruby Hall Hospital, Pune on 7th March 2015. The doctors shared their success and drew up the plan to reach out at a faster pace.

We are pleased to present the � rst issue of Samvaad, which will serve as a communication channel between us, our stakeholders and our growing patron community. Samvaad carries information about our projects. One of our prime projects is Tobacco-Free Educational Institute project that aims to create 500,000 tobacco free schools & colleges across India. It is the need of the hour to save our youth from the tobacco epidemic weakening the country in many ways.

We appreciate you taking the time to read Samvaad from Healis and solicit your support and ideas. Please e mail your feedback on TFEI-Project@healis.org.

Editor’s Note

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Voice of Tobacco Victims is a campaign initiated by Healis. Network of doctors and their patients a� ected by tobacco reached out to political and social leaders in Maharashtra to back the TFEI campaign. More than 80 MLA/MLCs including the Chief Minister, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, signed the pledge to support the campaign.

The Chief Minister gave VoTV 15 minutes in his video conference with all District Collectors to sensitise them about the harms of tobacco and the need to support this campaign.

Social, political and leaders from all religions have agreed to support this program. VoTV doctors from all parts of Maharashtra met Shri Mohan Bhagwat who appreciated the program, signed the pledge and promised full support.

The Project Manager (Maharashtra), Mr Rupesh Maha-jan had meetings with the o� cials from the Primary, Secondary and Higher Education Directorates in Pune to get necessary orders passed.

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The VoTV doctors also met with o� cials from Edu-cation Department, including Shri Vinod Tawade, Minister for School Education, Higher & Technical Education and Medical Education – who fully sup-ports this project.

Sensitizing the Education Department & Administration in Maharashtra

DM Sangli signing pledge Commis

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About Healis Voice of Tobacco Victims

TFEI gets support at National LevelThe Project Teams in Mumbai and Delhi pursued advocacy at the National level to get support of eminent persons and key government o� cials for the TFEI project. These activities bolstered the e� orts of project personnel in respective states as any kind of support from the Centre, further substantiates the state’s faith in a particular project.

Mr. Manoj Parida, Joint Secretary/Economic Adviser (Department of Consumer A� airs) signing MoU for TFEI with Mr Sanjay Seth, Chief of Operations, Healis.

Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health is incorporated under Section 25 of the Indian Companies Act, 1956 as not-for-pro� t organisation since April 29, 2005. It has FCRA registration since 2009 and has 80G certi� cate. The Institute is recognized under SIRO as Research and Development Organisation (R & D) by Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology. It is also empanelled with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences CSR Hub and Guide Star India.

The VoTV campaign provides a stage to victims (or immediate care giver) to tell what they want to tell. Patients are not ‘used,’ ‘displayed’ or ‘paraded’ for advancing tobacco control; rather they are empowered to say what they want to say. The stage for a VoTV function is set up with the presence of policy makers, senior bureaucrats and media by tobacco control professionals associated with the campaign.