Search Society for Education Action and Research in Community Health

Background
SEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health)

is a non-government

organisation registered as a public trust and charitable society in India

It was founded in 1985 by a doctor couple, Abhay Bang and Rani Bang. Inspired by the life and philosophy of
Mahatma Gandhi, trained respectively as a physician and a gynecologist, and after studying at the Johns Hopkins
University USA, for their Master of Public Health, Drs. Bang returned to India. Their dream was to develop an
institution of community health which provided health care to the local population, and generated knowledge for
the global community by way of research. "Think globally, act locally!"
Vision
Realisation of 'Aarogya-Swaraj', i.e. people's health in people's hands, by empowering individuals and
communities to take charge of their own health, and thereby, help them achieve freedom from disease as well as
dependence.
Mission
The mission of SEARCH is expressed in its name, "Society for Education, Action and Research in Community
Health."
The mission of SEARCH is to work with marginalised communities to identify their health needs, develop
community empowering models of health care to meet these health needs, to test these models by way of research
studies, and then to make this knowledge available to others by way of training and publications. Thus the mission
of SEARCH includes community health care, research and training.
The philosophy
SEARCH believes that an important role for the voluntary organizations is path finding or research.
"Research" in the context of SEARCH means to identify the problems of people and to develop new and
appropriate solutions.
In Search of Health Care for Rural and Tribal People
The Approach

Go to the people

Live among them

Love them

Listen to them

Learn from them

Begin with what they know

Build up on what they have

The Method

Identify the unattended health problems of the populations by living among them, listening to them, and
conducting epidemiological studies.

Provide community-based health care by developing the human potential in the villages.