SWEDISH MEDICAL AID

The profile

The Swedish Medical Aid’s (Läkarmissionen) intention is to make it possible for marginalised people to gain improved quality of life. Swedish Medical Aid is an independent Swedish foundation that supports development projects and humanitarian efforts in direct collaboration with local partners, other NGOs, or Christian organisations. Swedish Medical Aid’s donors mainly consist of around 100,000 private Swedish individuals. Swedish Medical Aid also receives government grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and via another Swedish partner organisation, PMU InterLife. Swedish Medical Aid supports a variety of humanitarian aid and development projects.

Swedish Medical Aid’s work is focused on the following areas:

Health – support to hospitals and clinics, HIV/Aids
Education – literacy, non-formal education, support to pre- and primary schools
Social– support to children at risk, e.g. children living on the street
Environment – agricultural, reforestation, clean drinking water

The project

The one-year partnership between the Swedish Medical Aid and Hand in Hand is concentrated on entrepreneurial training and vocational training. Hand in Hand cooperates with the Swedish Medical Aid in training 14,100 women in Tamil Nadu into entrepreneurship and job creation, and thereby linking them to Hand in Hand’s microfinance programme. All the training is conducted in self-help groups of 15-20 women. To create jobs and income, the women need skills to offer the market. Hand in Hand offers a vocational training programme that focuses on training 1,400 unemployed or underemployed rural self-help group women, and especially young women, from various districts of Tamil Nadu in acquiring new skills and/or improving current skills, and thereby giving them a base for either starting their own business or getting a job as an employed. Throughout the process of implementing the training components, Swedish Medical Aid and Hand in Hand continuously aim at exchanging knowledge and experiences.