IMPACT India’s Lifeline Express is a symbol of hope to the huge numbers of people living in poverty with little access to medical care and has been for over 30 years.
Since 1991, the Lifeline Express has travelled across India taking life-changing surgery to restore sight, hearing or mobility to the poorest people living in rural areas.
Rotarians have been involved from the very beginning when Rotarian and IMPACT Founder, Sir John Wilson PHF, flagged off the Lifeline Express on its inaugural journey from Khalari Station in Bihar.
More than 2 million have benefitted from the train’s services over the years and it looks to continue offering the best treatment possible.”
The Lifeline Express transforms lives and fortunes because when its surgeons reverse a disabling condition, that person is put back on the road to self-sufficiency and productivity. The benefits of reduced poverty extend beyond them to their family and their community.
In the small temporary village that grows up around the hospital train, classes are set up to teach patients about diet, how to prevent needlessly disabling conditions and what else can be done to help.
Since 1991, the Lifeline Express has travelled across India taking life-changing surgery to restore sight, hearing or mobility to the poorest people living in rural areas.
More than 2 million have benefitted from the train’s services over the years and it looks to continue offering the best treatment possible, with it recently expanding its services to now offer cancer screenings and dentistry.
Its modern carriages house two operating theatres and recovery wards, clinics and testing facilities.
In 2006/07, the carriages were replaced by the Indian government as they had reached the end of their life but Rotarians in the UK worked with IMPACT UK to provide new equipment and refurbish the operating theatres, with more than £350,000 was donated by generous clubs.
The Lifeline Express transforms lives and fortunes because when its surgeons reverse a disabling condition, that person is put back on the road to self-sufficiency and productivity.”
Now, three decades after IMPACT India’s hospital train set off on its first life-transforming journey, help is needed to ensure that care can continue to be provided to thousands of people who might otherwise remain needlessly disabled for life.
Help is needed to ensure that care can continue to be provided to thousands of people.
If IMPACT UK can raise £195,000 from Rotary and elsewhere by March 2022, a generous philanthropic family has pledged to match it so any support provided by your club could be doubled and go twice as far at no extra cost.
This would benefit more than 26,000 people – including more than 14,000 people treated for medical conditions as outpatients.
Can your club help transform the lives of people in need of surgery or medical treatment on board the Lifeline Express?
