It’s Thursday and time for our Global Activism series. Each Thursday we hear about an individual who’s decided to work to make the world a better place.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve gotten a peak at the lives of people living in the urban slums of India.  We’ve heard from a tutoring program in Tamil Nadu, and an organization that connects the “haves” and “have-nots” in Mumbai and Pune.

Today, we’re going to look at another side of life in India – that of rural and tribal populations.

The Society for Education Welfare and Action, or SEWA Rural, is an organization working to improve the health of communities in the Indian state of Gujarat. 

They’ve been at it for over 26 years and have a huge range of health care programs – including an eye care project, a women’s development project, and a community health care program.

Pankaj Shah is co-managing trustee and the director of the community health program at SEWA Rural. 

Pankaj Shah told Jerome how SEWA Rural got started.