German firm launches health project at Mankarai

For almost eight months now, Mankarai, a tribal village nearly 17 km from Coimbatore, has been receiving several overseas visitors. It has also got a renovated building for the kindergarten students, two sanitation blocks and mobile clinics.

German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, has launched its “Making More Health” project at Mankarai, jointly with Karl Kubel Foundation. It has involved Ashoka, a non-governmental organisation in the programme.

Health awareness meetings

Manuela Pastore, global director of “Making More Health”, told

The Hindu here that in the last eight months, there had been health awareness meetings and food festival.

Some of the traditional recipes (millet-based) cooked at the festival had been published as a book and it would be available online makingmorehealth.org from June 1.

A group of 15 managers from Boehringer were at Mankarai for six days to learn, experience and understand the issues faced by the residents of the village.

Social entrepreneurs

She said that since 2010, Boehringer was working with Ashoka and had identified and supported nearly 70 social entrepreneurs globally, including five in India. Every year, 10 to 15 social entrepreneurs were added to the network. All of them were working in areas related to health.

The project at Mankarai would be taken forward with the involvement of social entrepreneurs, and the focus was likely to be on areas such as mother-child health, mental health and nutrition.

Ashoka and Karl Kubel Foundation would provide inputs on the requirements and the future programmes would be planned accordingly.

Boehringer Ingelheim has launched its “Making More Health” project jointly with Karl Kubel Foundation.