Mission and History

In 2005, Dr. Shelly Batra and Sandeep Ahuja organized Operation ASHA to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) among the poorest of the poor in India’s slums.  ASHA, which means Hope in Hindi, began treating 26 patients at one center in 2006 and is now on track to serve 5,000 patients in 2009 at 35 centers located deep in India’s slums.  ASHA has quickly become one of the largest TB non-profits in India and plans to continue increasing its number of treatment centers.

TB patients receive treatment medications from priests, former patients, and local merchants in their area.  Treatment is dispensed using the DOTS (direct observation of treatment—short course) method, which ensures that patients are properly following through with their treatment.  Trained counselors at ASHA centers also ensure that TB sufferers understand that the disease is curable with proper treatment.  Additionally, counselors educate TB patients about the importance of properly completing the full treatment regimen. Patients are educated about the dangers posed to themselves, their families, and their neighbors of drug-resistant TB that can result from incomplete treatment.

Key Achievements

Innovative Treatment Model—ASHA’s treatment model is unique in that treatment is available from the early morning to late evening and enables TB patients to visit centers during hours that are convenient to them. These hours allow them to visit centers before and after work, and they do not have to lose wages.  Further, centers are located where they live in the slums and do not require long, inconvenient, and expensive commutes to obtain treatment. Completing ASHA’s model is a counseling component that educates TB sufferers about treatment options and requirements, as well as demystifying a disease that is still marked by stigma in the slums.

Cost-Effective Treatment—Seven months of TB treatment is required, on an average, to cure a patient. ASHA can cure a TB patient for $15, which is $360 less than actual cost.  With $1,300, ASHA can fund an entire treatment center for one year and cure 90 TB patients.  It is able to provide such cost-effective treatment by keeping its overhead costs low. ASHA pays modest salaries to community providers who allow it to use their premises rent free. Moreover, ASHA has created strategic relationships with other public health providers, which provide treatment medication services for free. Individual and corporate donors have also been pivotal in helping ASHA keeps its costs down through donated equipment.

U.S. & International Media Attention—ASHA’s president, CEO, and Board of Directors have been invited on three occasions to appear on Chicago Public Radio’s World view program to discuss ASHA’s success in treating India’s poorest TB patients, as well as its plans to continue growing the organization. Likewise, ASHA’s Board members have been interviewed numerous times on TV ASIA and Satellite Radio, discussing ASHA’s work in India.

ASHA Becomes Key Player—Operation ASHA was elected to the NGO seat on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board. The international competition for that seat was tremendous, but ASHA’s effective work in treating TB was unsurpassed. The Stop TB Partnership’s aim is to realize the goal of eliminating TB as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB. It comprises a network of international organizations, countries, donors from the public and private sectors, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and individuals that have expressed an interest in working together to achieve that goal.

What key policy and public health experts are saying
I am particularly impressed by the superb implementation and execution and by your ability to leverage every dollar to deliver such dramatic impact.
    Chris Mitchell, Associate Vice President, Intellecap

Operation ASHA’s work is truly remarkable. I was very positively impressed by its work, the workers, and drug supply procedures.  May this serve as an inspiration to reach an even larger number of persons in need.
                                                Ken Castro, U.S. Assistant Surgeon General
          Division of Tuberculosis Elimination

I am truly impressed with the outstanding work Operation ASHA is doing in India. My congratulations and keep doing it.  We need institutions and partners like you.

Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary, Stop TB Department

1.         World Health Organization