Ericsson has been supporting Smile on Wheels, mobile medical units of Smile Foundation, in four locations: Noida, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Gurgaon and Ericsson E-Health Clinics in Pune and Chennai. Both organizations are committed to providing quality healthcare services at the doorstep of the underserved communities free of cost in order to support the secondary and tertiary healthcare outreach of the government. Over the past five years, approx. 5 lacs underserved people have benefitted through Smile on Wheels as part of this partnership and in the coming years, the number of beneficiaries from this program will grow manifold.
As the demand for healthcare professionals is increasing, this partnership aims to skill more than 5,000 youth in the age group of 18-30 years as healthcare professionals namely General Duty Assistant and other allied healthcare services. A total of 40 Ericsson skill development centres in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune and Kolkata have been set up to train youth from slums. Over the past 5 years, Ericsson and Smile Foundation has touched lives of approx. 25000 youth and placed approx. 15000 informal sector jobs.
Amitabh Ray, MD, Ericsson India Global Services says,” Our partnership with Smile Foundation has evolved to include a fresh focus on COVID’19, both in terms of healthcare services to underserved communities as well as skill-building. We want to complement and strengthen the Government’s healthcare initiatives against the pandemic in terms of emergency response as well as skill-building of the youth living in slum clusters.”
Santanu Mishra, Co-founder and Trustee, Smile Foundation, said, “Smile recognizes the urgent need for a robust healthcare ecosystem. It is our privilege to join hands with Ericsson in this unique initiative for enhancing the reach of government in collecting samples of covid-19 patients and complementing the efforts of the government in providing primary healthcare services and Skill-India Mission. We have been associated with Ericsson for five years now, and we aim at supporting India’s healthcare systems and the upcoming generation by employing tools of telemedicine and engaging the youth of the country.”
