Swaminarayan Bhashyam

BAPS Charities

Activities

Health

BAPS Charities engages in numerous health-focused activities. As of 2011, the organization supported 14 hospitals, clinics, health care centers, and 11 mobile medical vans serving over 600,000 people annually worldwide.

In India, the organization has supported anti-addiction campaigns led by several thousand children who spent their summer vacations traveling through cities and villages persuading people to give up their addictions with personal appeals and presentations on the dangers of addictive behaviors. In the de-addiction campaign, approximately 10,000 children contacted over 800,000 people to raise awareness of the health consequences of addiction and convinced 312,000 individuals to give up drugs and violent behavior.

In New Zealand it organizes an annual Health Expo in Auckland in which visitors undergo screening, learn about common disease prevention, understand ayurveda, and learn about women's and children's health.

In Africa, their volunteers have screened for disease and arranged for treatment for visitors at various health camps in areas of need. The organization has arranged eye care camps and Hansen's disease camps in Tanzania and medical screening camps in Kenya.

In the United Kingdom it organizes an annual challenge, which is a 10 kilometer walk in London and across other cities for the purposes of mobilizing communities and raising funds for different British charities, including the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The UK chapter has raised and donated over £22,000 to the Anthony Nolan Trust Leukemia Charity and donated over £25,000 to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity to support patients, raise awareness, and promote scientific research. To help the needy in vulnerable age groups, it also has used funds raised from the Annual Challenge to donate £25,000 each to the charities Barnardo's and Age UK.

In North America, it organizes health fairs run by volunteer medical professionals where visitors can undergo screening tests, participate in consultations, and receive treatment. These fairs help provide medical care and advice to people who lack access to quality health care, serving about 10,000 North Americans annually. With a goal of educating about major risk factors and causes of disease and a focus on preventing illness, the group has organized a series of health awareness lectures at over 60 centers across North America covering topics such as nutritional deficiencies, heart disease, stroke, and flu prevention, among others. In support of the National Institutes of Health's "We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition)" initiative to promote healthy habits in children, they organized Health and Safety Days for Children at centers across North America with the aim of giving parents, caretakers, and children knowledge about hygiene, healthy living, diet, and physical activity. BAPS Charities also runs a health awareness initiative in the United States focused on educating parents and children on benefits of a vegetarian diet. It organizes annual walkathons in cities across North America to help a wide range of community, health and humanitarian organizations. Recent beneficiaries of the walkathons include the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, local schools, and local hospitals. To support biomedical research, the Toronto chapter raised funds through walkathons and donated $20,000 to the Princess Margaret Hospital Cancer Campaign and $100,000 for Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children's Research and Learning Tower Campaign. It works with local hospitals and blood banks to organize blood donation drives to help those in need of transfusions.