Deepak Foundation

Deepak Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Vadodara, Gujarat. It was founded by Shri C.K. Mehta of Deepak Group of Industries in 1982 with the aim of providing maternal and child care services to industrial workers living in GIDC area, and area with a rural population of nearly 50,000 around its plant in Nandesari, Vadodara in Gujarat. Deepak Foundation provides development aid in rural and tribal areas of district Vadodara. The foundations's mission is to create an enabling and sustainable environment among rural and tribal communities by setting up a basis of livelihood and an intact healthcare system.
Nearly 400 full-time professional staff are sanctioned at 22 different locations throughout Vadodara district; of which women compromise 35% of the total staff, their work helps almost 2 Million beneficiaries.
Vision.
To approach to that vision, Deepak Foundation set the follow goals to itself:
History.
Caused by the people suffering from floods in "Amreli" District of Gujarat State in the year 1981, Shri C.K. Mehta decided to become socially active. He is the founder and today the chairman of the Deepak Foundation. The first initiative was a small 15-bed maternal and child care hospital to provide curative and preventive services for the industrial workers living around 30 villages surrounding the industrial belt of
"Nadesari, Vadodara. The population of this area was 40,000. An Emergency Transport Facility was established in 1982. This service assisted government in delivering maternal and child care services in these 30 villages.
The foundation gradually made a foray into sectors like livelihood promoting by setting up first women's dairy cooperative societies and women's self-help groups, disaster relief and rehabilitation, preschool education, HIV prevention and adolescent health.
In the early nineties the foundation started to promote socio-economic development of the communities through Women's Savings, Credit groups and the first Women's Diary Cooperative in 1995.
Due to heavy influx of migrant workers in industrial belts, the foundation initiated HIV/AIDS prevention interventions in 1997.
Since 2004-2005 the Deepak Foundation is in partnership with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat provides motherhood and child survival in the entire tribal area of Vadodara district.
Today, the Organization has evolved into a full-fledged foundation covering all 1548 villages of Vadodara district in Gujarat. The interventions that initially catered to the needs of only the industrial workers for nearly twenty years today through its multifaced programs reaches out to nearly 2 million population spread over 1548 villages of Vadodara district to provide services in various development sectors through Public Private Partnership (PPP).
In May 2020,on the occasion of Deepak Foundation’s former trustee Late Kantaben Mehta's death anniversary and in a bid to extend help to the families who have lost their livelihood, 400 dry ration kits containing rice, flour, pulses, sugar, and oil were distributed at Arki, Kuchai and Madhubhan villages under Dumri sub division in Giridih district.
Projects.
The Deepak Foundation operates several projects. The main-focus is on SMCS and KALP-Project.
Safe Motherhood & Child Survival (SMCS).
The SMCS-Project has been implemented since 2005 in cooperation with the government of Gujarat. The project aims to reduce the infant and maternal mortality in the district by the existing government health delivery systems. The key components of the project are:
With the efforts done over two decades of services, the results showed improved institutional deliveries and reduction in maternal and infant deaths in the catchment area and also it gave impetus to scale up the project beyond area with the goal of reaching out to the poorest and vulnerable population groups in Vadodara district from the year 2004-05.
Kawant Livelihood Project (KALP).
Started in 2009, the KALP-Project contains multiple steps to develop livelihood in Kawant. Kawant comprises more than 30,000 households. Holistic development through people's participation calls for integration of services at grass roots level. KALP is an initiative in this direction. The project has been implemented in partnership with the Tribal Development Department, Government of Gujarat. The foundation plans to undertake the following:
Further More Projects.
Other projects are for example "Deepak Medical Foundation Hospital (DMF)", "Pre-School Education & Care", "Integrated Child Development Services", "Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS awareness" or "Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation".