Punj-Care Initiatives is the health-care, welfare, and humanitarian outreach stream of The Anād Foundation.
It was conceived with a simple conviction: communities must care for their underserved, especially where access to timely, dignified, and quality health care remains limited. The name Punj-Care carries the spirit that Punjabis — and all concerned persons and communities — can come together to support those who lack adequate access to medical attention, preventive care, awareness, relief, and welfare support.
Punj-Care began with dental and oral-health outreach, but its larger vision includes broader public-interest health-care and humanitarian initiatives.
Purpose
Punj-Care Initiatives seeks to bring health awareness, screening, preventive care, referral support, medical outreach, and welfare assistance closer to communities that may otherwise remain underserved.
Its work may include:
- dental and oral-health awareness;
- free or subsidised health screening camps;
- medical and diagnostic outreach;
- preventive-health education;
- nutrition and wellness awareness;
- support for elderly persons, children, students, pensioners, artists, knowledge-bearers, religious functionaries, performers, and underserved groups;
- referral pathways to doctors, hospitals, clinics, and specialists;
- mobile health units, ambulances, emergency support, and doorstep-healthcare models, subject to resources and partnerships;
- collaboration with medical, dental, public-health, and welfare institutions.
First Implemented Phase: Oral Health-Care Camps
The first phase of Punj-Care Initiatives focused on oral health and dental-care outreach. In 2015, The Anād Foundation organised free dental screening and oral-health awareness camps in Punjab, including at Sultanpur Lodhi and village Sandharsi, Ghanaur.
These camps were designed to provide:
- free dental screening;
- oral-health awareness;
- basic dental guidance;
- referral support where required;
- community engagement around preventive care;
- outreach to communities with limited access to regular dental services.
This early work demonstrated the need for community-based health-care initiatives that are practical, dignified, and responsive to local realities.
Broader Health-Care Vision
Punj-Care may, subject to resources, partnerships, medical expertise, legal compliance, and Board approval, develop broader health-care programmes including:
- mobile clinics;
- hospital-on-wheels models;
- ambulance-on-wheels services;
- emergency referral support;
- telemedicine support;
- diagnostic camps;
- preventive-health camps;
- oral-health and dental-care programmes;
- women’s health and gynaecological awareness;
- oncology screening and awareness;
- mental-health awareness;
- nutrition and child-health initiatives;
- elder-care support;
- rehabilitation and wellness programmes;
- health-care access for artists, artisans, knowledge-bearers, and underserved communities.
The Foundation may also explore specialised initiatives such as mobile emergency services, rural medical outreach, and, where feasible through appropriate partnerships, ambulance-on-wings or air-linked emergency referral support.
Partnerships
Punj-Care Initiatives may work in collaboration with:
- doctors, dentists, nurses, and paramedical professionals;
- hospitals, medical colleges, dental colleges, clinics, and diagnostic centres;
- public-health experts and community-health workers;
- ambulance providers and emergency-response networks;
- volunteers, local institutions, gurdwārās, schools, panchayats, NGOs, and community organisations;
- CSR contributors, philanthropic foundations, donors, and public agencies.
Such collaborations help bring expertise, infrastructure, and community trust together.
Public Welfare and Dignity
Health-care work is not separate from cultural work. Communities cannot sustain learning, craft, music, memory, and heritage if basic health and welfare needs are ignored.
Punj-Care therefore sits within the Foundation’s wider public charitable purpose: supporting human dignity, community well-being, access to care, and compassionate public service.
Future Direction
The Foundation hopes to develop Punj-Care Initiatives in phases, beginning with practical, accountable, and need-based programmes. Future work may include periodic camps, mobile outreach, preventive-health education, diagnostic partnerships, referral networks, documentation of community health needs, and donor-supported health-care projects.
Punj-Care Initiatives remains an invitation to care: responsibly, collectively, and where the need is real.