Headquarters
The Sangha has its Headquarters at Raghunathpur, Kolkata with memberships comprising of both medical and non-medical personnel - the latter including para-medical workers. Non-medical workers constitute a major strength as main part of the work is borne by them. Assisted by renowned senior medical members, the Sangha conducts its services in rural healthcare through its Rural Health Centres at the village level. Each village level worker, however remote his area of operation is from the Headquarters, has due access to the Executive Committee at the Headquarters. The Executive Committee is constantly nourished by an Advisory Committee comprising of senior monks of Ramakrishna Mission as well as a Committee of Technical Experts of high reputation.
A full-fledged infrastructure for healthcare exists in every village centre of the Sangha. Work in each centre is carried out round the week by local committees A team of doctors, trained para-medical workers and volunteers from the headquarters visit the centres every weekend and supervise the activities.
FIELD CENTRES
This is the place where the Sangha wants to highlight about its village infrastructure of each Centre upon which it depends for its Primary Health Care programme. Though the Headquarters is situated at Kolkata and all the activities are practically initiated from the Headquarters itself, these are the village organizations who take the main burden of the activities of the Sangha. They are the first line workers.
Naturally, the Sangha is involved into the welfare and stability of these village units. The Sangha has individually registered organization in the villages which are committed for the cause of health care from the very beginning of their formation. Though the primary responsibility are taken by the village centres, the Sangha Headquarters gets involved in the decision making, guiding, planning and controlling of these village organizations.
Inspired by Swami Vivekananda's great ideal "service to man is service to God" the Sangha has taken up its principal task of rural development as it tries to realize the reasons of distress in this sector and and the problems that beset them.
Khanpur is the oldest and the largest centre of the Vivekananda Swasthya Seva Sangha. It is located in the District of Hooghly (West Bengal) bordering the district of Burdwan. Khanpur is a direct Branch Centre of the Sangha since the last 30 years. The branch has got its own land, houses and a fully-functioning Branch Committee which ensures close monitoring of all peripheral units and has got direct link with the Headquarters.
Beginning with curative and preventive healthcare activities, requirement has now shifted to promotive services. Early Childhood Education centre and adult Education centre is run. A library has been started. A community-cum-prayer hall has been constructed. A computer training centre has been started with the aim of exposing the youth of the area to modern day information technology. Self reliance of the village youth is stressed on through provision of Vocational training.
In the campus a statue of Swami Vivekananda has been installed in an appropriate place as a permanent source and mark of inspiration amongst the youths of this locality in relation to the activities of the Sangha. Regular cultural programmes and those related to the spread of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideology are undertaken to create a healthy and serene environment.
The village Somsar on the banks of river Damodar is located in the district of Bankura bordering Burdwan. The Sangha had begun its service at Somsar with the activities under its Curative Healthcare Service programmes. It gradually found its place in penetrating the villages around by way of its Preventive and Promotive Healthcare activities under the Eight Point Guidelines of the World Health Organization. The infrastructure of the Sangha at Somsar is also comparitively developed to carry out its services in a considerable way. The Bhuteshananda Centenary Hospital has come up at Somsar.
Lalgarh - situated at the farthest corner of the Sangha's field area deserves maximum attention because of its needs. Situated in West Midnapore district, it is a tribal centre with a poor basic health care facility which the Sangha is trying to develop, committed for the implementation of various health care programmes. Because it is very far from Kolkata, the maximum load of activities are taken by our Mobile Health Care Unit every month during their visit.
Owing to political unrest at Lalgarh and adjacent villages, the Government of West Bengal had imposed restrictions in movement in the disturbed areas. As a result, the activities at Lalgarh were discontinued for about a year and half. With the improvement in situation, activities at the centre have resumed.
This is a trio-complex comprising of 3 sets of villages - Gopalpur, Harangheri and Munshigheri in the district of North 24 Parganas (West Bengal) under Basirhat Sadar subdivision. Sikrakulingram - the birthplace of Swami Brahmananda is situated nearby. Gopalpur acts as a base camp for development of Harangheri complex and the Gopalpur organisation is the platfrom based upon which all the activities are carried out in the adjoining villages. The Sangha has achived results in the field of Home Visit Programme by making continuous and silent home visits of each and every villages under Gopalpur centre.
Self-help groups for women have been established. An adult education centre has been established and amongst elders studying at this centre, the awareness of savings have been culminated. Government has also come forward with help and organized coconut plantations and fisheries. The Sangha worked to eradicate the disease of night-blindness prevalent in the area. The root cause lies in the widespread poverty of the people. Therefore, the Sangha continues the programmes aimed at making the people self reliant.
The Centre of Panitras in the district of Howrah has been formed as a rural centre of the Sangha. Owing to availability of a considerable number of volunteers all (100%) of the houses in the areas covered have been brought under the activity of Home Visit. Preventive and Curative healthcare services are continuing in full swing in Panitras and adjoining Asaria village. An adult education centre and a pre-primary school have been started.
The Sangha operates its Healthcare programmes in Bhangar in North 24 Parganas district. Home visit and other healthcare activities are conducted on regular basis at Bhangar by local volunteers who have received necessary training. In the first week of every month, The Mobile Medical Unit visits Bhangar and in the third week, doctors visit from Kolkata for curative treatment.