The Antara Foundation (TAF) is an Indian non-governmental organization that partners with government to improve maternal and child health and nutrition (MCHN) outcomes by increasing collaboration among existing community health worker (CHW) cadres in India.
Established in 2013 and led by the founder, Ashok Alexander, and CEO, Piyush Mehra, TAF plays a key role in strengthening the community healthcare infrastructure in rural India by working closely with government to train the three cadres of CHWs to collaborate effectively to provide holistic care to the communities. TAF also leverages data to identify persistent health gaps and help government officials plan targeted trainings to address the critical capacity, knowledge and skill gaps that drive poor health outcomes.
The organization’s grassroots-level, data-driven, scalable model, which is integrated with the government health infrastructure, enables TAF to break down the silos separating the various CHW cadres, thereby enhancing collaboration and promoting a patient-centric approach to primary healthcare. Thus far, TAF has worked with three state governments in India to train and enable 135’000 CHWs to provide better health services to 3.6 million pregnant and lactating women and 7.8 million children under the age of five.
LGT VP's health strategy is centered around providing universal access to quality healthcare in Africa and India. To that effect, LGT VP's India healthcare portfolio aims to improve primary healthcare through three different but complementary approaches addressing the needs of the community members, CHW cadres and health facilities. With its CHW-focus, TAF complements this three-pronged healthcare portfolio strategy. TAF’s work supports LGT VP’s aim to reach 65 million people with better access to quality healthcare by 2023, through partnering with operators that work with government and leverage technology and data to strengthen public health systems across India.
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