EHA's vision for Community Health and Development is to see communities empowered to take charge of their lives & move from a state of dependency & fatalism to one of being proactive & self reliant.

EHA manages 19 Community Health and Development projects in North India. Whilst the majority are closely associated with a base hospital, seven are 'stand alone' projects, two of which are urban slum based. The remainder are in rural areas. Leadership and co-ordination is given by Dr. Anil Cherian, Director for Community Health and Development. The project components are

Community Health and Development staff and programs seek to tackle the needs and transformation of communities by tackling the root causes rather than the symptoms, while working in close partnership with EHA's hospital units.

80% of illness in North India can be prevented or treated at the village or slum level without the need of a doctor or nurse. To do so, key elements are :

EHA gives Preventative health teaching wherever possible through the Community Health Volunteers, using contextualized media methods, e.g. drama, songs, puppets etc.

To increase the impact of the Community Health and Development Programs EHA plans scaling up of the size of the populations involved. In order to measure the outcome, boundaries should co - terminate with the Government of India `Development Blocks' - say 100,000 - 150,000 population or a full District 600 - 800,000 population.

Future developments will require increased long-term funding, recruitment of committed and trained staff who feel called to serve the poor in remote and difficult areas, and to provide schooling for the children of those staff.