Society for Community Health Awareness Re-search and Action (SOCHARA): Philosophy, work approach and impact

The journey of SOCHARA be-gan almost 30 years ago in 1984 when few young doctors and their allies from other profession moved beyond a medical college and stepped outside to evolve an alternative approach to health, healthcare, and well-being rooted in the community. This experi-ment (then termed as “Communi-ty Health Cell ” ) has eventually resulted in the development of an innovative resource centre with a community of professionals and activists who facilitate community health with an equity, rights and social determinants of health per-spective. SOCHARA has been termed as a “catalyst”, as the main approach to work has been through the creation of networks and linkages, and working with campaigns and movements that bring the “public” back into public health and the community into the public health discourse. The staff and society members of SOCHARA are involved in community health action, policy advocacy, action research, learning facilitation and documentation at local, national, regional, and international levels. While the team itself has approx-imate 23, technical and 15 admin-istrative staff members. SOCHARA actively harnesses a wider circle of support, which includes previous fellows, staff members, short-term interns, as-sociates, and well-wishers, all of whom are held together by SOCHARA’s philosophy and a commitment towards “Health for All”.