Bangkok--2 Mar--Samitivej Hospital
In a big move towards sustainable quality of life enhancement, Samitivej, a leading private hospital in Thailand and Southeast Asia, today signed a memorandum of understanding with the People Development Association (PDA) to support the “Village Development Partnership Project” aimed at building healthy community for sustainable development.
Dr. Somsiri Sakolsattayatorn, Director of Samitivej Sukhumvit Hospital, said, “Over the past 29 years, Samitivej has been strongly committed to providing quality medical services based on our vision to be the companion of life for Thais. The MoU signing today makes this vision more concrete and brings the benefits from Samitivej’s medical expertise to a greater number of people. Under this agreement, Samitivej will provide healthcare advices and financial supports to concerned activities under the Village Development Partnership Project in order to create healthy communities which are self-sustained in terms of economy, healthcare, social and environment. A healthy community is a good start of sustainable economy. In addition, people will have pride in their community. We hope that by helping community to become strong, we are doing our part in lending a helping hand to the government in rural development.
Mr. Meechai Viravaidya, Chairman of the People Development Association, said, “Building a healthy community requires cooperation from everyone. We would like to thank Samitivej for supporting the Village Development Partnership Project both in terms of medical expertise and financial assistance. It is very important for a community to be able to take good care of themselves in terms of healthcare and basic needs. Samitivej’s medical expertise and experts will enable us to effectively and efficiently educate people in the targeted villages so that they are self-reliant and healthy and have strong immunity against poverty and any obstacles at all. This will definitely lead to sustainability.”
Under this cooperation, Samitivej’s role will be providing assistances in three major areas — healthcare consultant, health coach and adopt-a-village activity.
Firstly, the Healthcare Consultant service where villagers will have easy access to Samitivej’s medical experts and advices on healthcare relater matters through weblink to Samitivej’s website. Samitivej will also provide advice on healthcare activities to PDA’s staff members and representatives from the villages. They will also have a chance to attend Samitivej’s special public seminars on health related issues as part of their learning process.
Second is Health Coach or train-the-trainer program. Samitivej will train PDA staff members, volunteers, youth volunteers, community leaders and villagers on basic healthcare. Then the trainer will train villagers on healthcare matters easily by themselves, This will enhance lifetime-learning ability and self sustainability in the community.
Third is Adopt-a-Village project. PDA and Samitivej have selected Baan Nong Ploung Village, Chakkarat Disctrict in Nakhon Ratchasima province for this program. The village has 171 families and a total number of 752 residents. Most of the villagers are in agricultural sector. Major problems are the lack of infrastructure, consumer goods, education and systematic village management and control systems. Through this cooperation, Samitivej will provide financial assistance to PDA for use in data collecting, building common understanding with villagers, establishing the Village Development Committee and assessing community needs assessment. In addition, the financial assistance will fund the plan to plant 10,000 trees in exchange for capital for the Village Development Bank and other community development activities. This will enable the villages to have stronger financial health.
“What PDA and Samitivej are trying to do here is to build immunity for Thai communities against poverty, basic healthcare and social problems. This is the strong foundation towards sustainable development,” said Dr. Somsiri.
About Samitivej
Samitivej is one of Thailand and SEA’s leading private hospital group won numerous accreditation including award from Thai authorities and Join Commission international (JCI) from the USA. Established in 1979 at Soi Sukhumvit 49, today the group has added three more hospitals including Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital (SNH), Samitivej Srinakarin Children Hospital (SNCH) and Samitivej Sriracha Hospital (SSH).
For more information, please contact
Punchama Chatchen Tel. 0 2378 9200 Email: [email protected]
Chanthana Ongphiboon Tel. 0 2378 9145 Email: [email protected]
Suranchana Sitthiphoon Tel. 0 2378 9155 Email: [email protected]