Billion Hearts Beating: for a heart-healthy India
Billion Hearts Beating Foundation
Over 1,75,000 individuals have already benefitted from free health checks. As of 2015, over 5,03,000 people have taken the pledge on the Billion Hearts Beating website to make meaningful changes in their lives in the fight against heart disease.
INTRODUCTION
What the fight against heart disease needs is not a one-off campaign, but a sustainable, long-term movement that educates and inspires positive action. The heart disease trend was first observed among Indians in the late 50s and alarmingly, India has become the heart disease capital of the world. It is estimated that Indians are nearly four times more susceptible to heart attacks than Caucasians. Among urban Indians, the incidence of heart problems is 12%, comparatively higher than USA’s 5%. Apollo Hospitals, which has been at the forefront on many medical innovations in healthcare, took the lead in drawing attention to the biggest health problem the country is facing. On 28th April, 2010, Apollo launched Billion Hearts Beating; a long-term sustainable movement towards a heart-healthy India. Billion Hearts Beating actively promotes heart health across the country by creating awareness about heart disease and providing workable solutions to prevent and overcome it.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
Apollo Hospitals started by requesting people to take a pledge to keep the risks well and truly far away. Simple things like not diving into a big bag of chips, or drinking the morning coffee without a cigarette and finding time for your son’s school play.These, in turn, evolved into the five pledges of heart health.
The Simple 5 Solution: Eat Healthy, Beat Stress, Quit Smoking, Get Active, Get A Regular Health Check-Up.
The BHB team with Apollo Hospitals as their Medical Partners and with the support of its creative partners, digital agency and the event/marketing agency continues to make the nation aware for their Heart’s health. BHB reaches out to various sections of the society through free health checks to general community, disseminating the required knowledge on ones heart health, wellness workshops for corporates, old age home adoption programme, basic life support training for youth and for corporates and awareness initiatives through school of heart programme for children.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
BHB has been successful in reaching out to millions of people pan India and creating awareness at all levels. As of 2015, over 5,03,000 people have taken the pledge on the Billion Hearts Beating website to make meaningful changes in their lives in the fight against heart disease. Over 1,75,000 individuals have already benefitted from free health checks. Thousands of cadets from National Cadet Corp have been trained with CPR and First Aid skills across the country.To connect globally and communicate with the international community and be at par with the latest developments in the space of preventive heart care, BHB has become associate members with World Heart Federation. BHB has adopted 22 old age homes in Delhi and National Capital Region where regular medical assessments are conducted and medication is provided free of cost on a monthly basis. The presence of Billion Hearts Beating on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter has enabled a growing online community to engage in consistent, meaningful dialogues on heart health. BHB today has a staggering fan base of over 4,48,000 people on Facebook. BHB was recognized consecutively for 2 years for Best CSR Practices in the category ‘Concern for health’ at the Global CSR Excellence and leadership awards in February 2014 and 2015 organised by ABP news. BHB won the Excellence award at the Asian Hospital Management Award 2014 under the category Corporate Social Responsibility.
FUTURE DIRECTION
Billion Hearts Beating is now a powerful, larger-than-life social movement that has made every possible attempt to help India win this fight. However, like every cause, Apollo needs your support. They have some exciting plans for the heart healthy movement through which they can partner with like-minded people and organisations to ensure the message reaches everyone in this country. BHB collaborates with various government and non-government organizations to implement and execute events pertaining to heart health. They organize health camps and workshops in villages, schools, corporates, PSUs to spread the message across the country.A pre and post intervention assessment is conducted for all the beneficiaries of BHB programmes. Through these programmes, BHB aims to bring about a positive lifestyle change in the communities targeted which will help in reducing the incidence and prevalence of heart disease in the long run.
Billion Hearts Beating Foundation is a not-for-profit organization and came into existence on 28th April 2010 with an objective to work mainly for promotion, awareness and prevention of heart disease and its contributing risk factors in India.
