Urmul Rural Health Research and Development Trust

In the harsh and inhospitable regions of rural Rajasthan in the Thar Desert, URMUL Group of Organisations have been innovating models for inducing community-driven socio developmental changes by devising programmes, strengthening them, sustaining and finally handing them over to communities. Urmul’s work is guided by the spirit and trust placed in people’s capabilities to bring about the much needed social change with their own efforts. Most of the work is focused on vulnerable and marginalised sections of the society – Women and Children. Following the integrated development approaches, Urmul works on all the Millennium Development Goals. We adopt service delivery platforms, advocacy and lobbying tools for empowering the marginalised and vulnerable sections of society in over 1000 villages in this desert state of India- thematically working on Health, Education, Livelihood, Environment, Mother-Child care et al. Since the very beginnign in 1984, urmul has been working on health issues extensively. It was pioneer in organising, training and coordinating thousands of Community Health Workers in this desert region facing extreme hardships in health service delivery. Urmul is also a mother NGO appointed by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In partnership with Sight Savers International, it also runs the most advanced eye hospital in the entire region, trusted for its quality of service delivery. Food, Fodder and Water securities are major concerns including drought and disaster mitigation. Women’s socio-economic empowerment, capacity building, improving access to basic services, education, early child care & development, and child right issues are few concerns addressed. Urmul recognises and acknowledges the strength of youth and their role in development of any society and collaborates with a network of over 5000 youth for their capacity building using awareness and rights-based approaches. Urmul works across verticals ranging from Governments and INGOs to Panchayati Raj Institutions, Self Help Groups and other Civil Society Organizations. Collaborating with over 300 village panchayats in over 1000 villages in the western Rajasthan, directly. More than 30,000 families have been partners of various programmes spread across the last twenty five years. During these decades Urmul has developed a network of several committed voluntary agencies, consortiums and individuals in the region. The trust is also an executive member in several GO-NGO collaborations and Policy Planning Committees.

Urmul Rural Health Research and Development Trust is a member of Girls Not Brides a global partnership of more than 300 civil society organizations committed to end child marriage. www.girlsnotbrides.org @GirlsNotBrides