Community Health Outreach
Free medical care for the destitute poor — mobile camps, leprosy treatment, mother and child health, HIV prevention, and food aid for the elderly across Asia.
Ratnamma had not seen a doctor in four years. When the camp came to her village, she walked twenty minutes — slowly, with a cane — because a neighbour told her someone was giving medicines free. The doctor examined her eyes and told her she had cataracts in both. A simple procedure. She had been going slowly blind and had no idea it could be fixed.
She was referred for surgery. She can see again. This is who MTN's mobile health camps exist for: the elderly, the immobile, the destitute — people who cannot reach a hospital and cannot afford one if they could. The camp comes to Ratnamma. The care is free. The difference is permanent.
Free healthcare for those who have nowhere else to go.
Read Ratnamma's full story →Care That Comes to You
In remote villages across Asia, extreme poverty and lack of transport mean the sick cannot reach a hospital. Stateless and minority communities are legally excluded from public healthcare entirely. Without MTN's presence, many have no option at all.
MTN sends qualified doctors and nurses directly into these communities — hundreds of times a year. Every camp is free. Every medicine is free. Patients who need referral are connected to MTN's hospitals, with transport covered.
Mother and child health is built into every camp: antenatal checks, infant nutrition screening, immunisation tracking, and health awareness sessions run alongside general consultations. Many mothers have never had an antenatal scan.
Serving Those Others Overlook
Leprosy causes nerve damage, paralysis, and disfigurement if untreated — and those it affects are routinely shunned by their communities, unable to work, and surviving in extreme poverty. Many live in makeshift shelters at the edges of villages, cut off from family.
MTN provides Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT) — the WHO-recommended treatment — along with monthly wound dressing, protective footwear, and a food ration. Where patients have no shelter, MTN works to provide basic housing so they are not sleeping rough while receiving treatment.
Beyond medicine, the programme offers fellowship: a monthly gathering where patients who have been abandoned by everyone find they are not alone.
What MTN provides
Reaching Mothers Before the Crisis Happens
Many mothers in the communities MTN serves have never had an antenatal scan, never seen a midwife, and never received nutritional guidance through pregnancy. When complications arise, they are hours from any facility — and often cannot afford care when they arrive.
MTN's mother and child programme runs alongside every mobile health camp: prenatal checkups, iron and folic acid supplements, infant nutrition screening, immunisation tracking, and health awareness sessions delivered directly in the village. Pregnant women and new mothers also receive monthly grocery support — rice, dal, and protein packs — through the food aid programme.
The goal is simple: no mother should lose a child to something preventable, and no child should start life already malnourished.
Programme components
Six Ways MTN Reaches the Unreached
Mobile Health Camps
Qualified doctors and nurses sent directly into villages with no hospital access. Free consultations, diagnostics, and medicines for destitute communities — hundreds of camps every year.
Mother & Child Health
Antenatal care, infant nutrition screening, immunisation tracking, and health awareness at every camp. Targeting mothers and children who have never accessed formal healthcare.
Leprosy Care & Housing
Monthly wound dressing, Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT), protective footwear, and food support — plus housing assistance for patients abandoned by family and community.
HIV Awareness & Care
Prevention outreach along highway corridors, awareness sessions, resource distribution, and referral pathways to MTN's hospitals for testing and treatment.
Food Aid for the Elderly
Regular groceries — rice, dal, oil — delivered to isolated elderly people with no income and no family support. Ongoing monthly supply to the most vulnerable.
Medical Volunteers
Visiting doctors, nurses, and specialist volunteers strengthen camp capacity. Volunteer medical teams conduct hundreds of additional consultations alongside MTN's permanent field staff.
When There Is No Family and No Income Left
Many elderly people MTN serves are completely alone — widowed, abandoned, with no income and no safety net. MTN delivers rice, dal, oil, and basic provisions monthly to those with no other source of food. Where surplus vegetables are available from MTN's kitchen gardens, those go in too.
The difference between eating and not.
Feed an elderly neighbour →
When the System Collapsed, MTN Stayed
MTN deployed squads door to door into the hardest-hit communities — distributing groceries, medicines, and care to the urban poor, isolated elderly, and daily-wage workers with nowhere to turn. MTN's hospitals opened a dedicated isolation ward and treated patients through the oxygen shortage.
The same mission. Emergency pace.
Reaching Those Formal Healthcare Never Reaches
Long-distance truck drivers are one of the highest-risk occupational groups for HIV and STI transmission across South Asia. Extended time away from home, isolation, and the nature of highway work create conditions that formal health systems have consistently failed to address.
MTN's field team runs targeted outreach along highway corridors — prevention resources, health education in Telugu, and awareness sessions at major truck halt points. The programme aligns with India's national NACO strategy for targeted interventions among high-risk groups.
Patients requiring testing or treatment are referred directly to MTN's hospitals, with no barrier to access.
This programme is eligible for HIV/AIDS prevention funding including the Global Fund, Elton John AIDS Foundation, ViiV Healthcare Positive Action, and UNODC civil society grants.
Contact our grants team →