Name of organization

Northeastern Community Health Association (NECHA)

Year of establishment

1986

Date of registration

22nd August,1986

Legal Status

Registered under Societies registration act. XXI of 1860 (Imphal) India.

Registered with Income Tax Dept. under section 12A

Registered with Ministry of Home Affairs under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. (FCRA) 1976

Chief Functionary

Fr. George Parackel, Director
NECHA Building,
Post Box No. 40, Six Mile,
Khanapara P.O, Guwahati –781022
Assam (India)

Ph. 0361-2221794; 2224818
e-mail: directornecha@rediffmail.com

Genesis

Fr. K.C George, a diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Imphal, who was convinced of the philosophy of community health and the practical approach of alternative systems of treatment in North East, was instrumental for conceiving the idea of NECHA in the North-East. In fact he is the founder father of NECHA. A team of nurse sisters was his support in the initial stages. 
Two dioceses Imphal & Dibrugarh picked up the spirit of community health in the beginning and went ahead with a lot of activities for the well being of the rural populace of the dioceses and by and large got the recognition of the diocesan authorities. The committed leaders in these two dioceses who made the rural health ministry the part and parcel of the diocesan activities is carried forward even today.
The services rendered as presidents of NECHA by Fr. KC George, Rev. Fr. Thomas Mekalath (A Homeo doctor from Aizawl diocese), Sr. Barbara SCCG, Sr. Elizabeth Edattukaran FMA should be recognized by the well-wishers of NECHA. The struggle of Fr. Kurian Joseph, a diocesan priest from the newly-formed diocese of Miao (Arunachal Pradesh) as its director, in buying land and setting up a permanent structure at Guwahati was a marvelous effort.
The dedicated and committed nurse sisters of the NECHA Member Institutions (MIs) who are rendering their services in the rural areas where there are neither hospitals nor doctors available are the real backbone of NECHA.
What was lacking with these institutions in the past and to a great extent even today is the absence of a visionary perspective and approach. They lacked the benefit of sharing of information and experience because they were not organized as one entity. And institutions both at micro and macro levels must have a long-term vision and a mission to make it viable and effective currently as well as with future. This need was felt and shared by many and the result was the birth of NECHA. It has been trying to provide a visionary’s impetus to the working of its member institutions at various levels and in different ways in the past. It has been able to provide a regional framework to the effects being made by its members through management structures created at regional and diocesan levels.
 
Today NECHA has, to some extent, achieved the status and means of a regional organization and member institutions have increasingly come to look for support and help from it.

Geographical Area of Intervention:

NECHA, through its member institutions represents seven states of North East India. Ecclesiastically the same is divided into 15 (fifteen) dioceses at present

Organizational Set Up

FACILITIES

NECHA has a training centre cum conference hall with comfortable accommodation and Fooding facilities for sixty (60) people at its head office at Guwahati. Free lodging facilities are provided to NECHA sponsored disabled children who come for treatment in Guwahati
AREA OF EXPERTISE
NECHA has got a well equipped and experienced resource team on the following subjects: -

STRENGTH OF NECHA
 
NECHA has its own land and building with its own office at Guwahati. Sufficient infrastructures are also available for its staff as well as the other beneficiaries aspiring to undergo different training programmes in the centre.

All the 15 diocesan units of NECHA are also well established with its own executive body.
 
NECHA has got a strong and vibrant Executive Body of its own with the diocesan unit presidents as its board members.
 
It has a Bishop as an ecclesiastical adviser who is the Chairman of the Health Commission of North Eastern Catholic Bishops Conference of India.
 
Though the region is infested with insurgent groups and others find it difficult to move in the remotest corners of the region, NECHA’s member sisters are welcomed and respected even by the most remote and isolated villagers.
 
The North Eastern Regional Units of ‘Sister Doctor’s Forum’ and ‘Catholic Nurse’s Guild’ were formed at the initiative of NECHA.
A well established library with a mine of information on health is a great asset for NECHA
Qualified and competent Resource Persons with long years of experience is the back bone of NECHA.

ACHIEVEMENTS

400+ community leaders trained on the VCHC concept, leadership, herbal medicines and community health.
 
259 health workers and community leaders trained to diagnose simple diseases and dispense ordinary, harmless medicines.
 
79 persons trained to find out the local existing conflict situations in their areas and make the local people capable to handle certain conflict situations.
 
1085 persons were made aware on the different issues of health in the three parishes of Tezpur Diocese alone in the recent past.

NETWORKING AND COLLABORATION

NECHA is sharing good relationship with the following regional, national and international bodies.

GOVERNMENT      
                                       
National Institute of Public Cooperation & Child Development (NIPCCD) Assam State AIDS Control Society (ASACS)
Directorate for Health Services, Assam
State Health & Family Welfare Department, Assam