Forbes Healthcare Foundation
The Forbes Healthcare Foundation (FHF) is a not for profit company of the Forbes Marshall group. The
primary objective of the company is to support and promote the initiatives to establish, run and support
medical services, especially for the needy and deserving and socially disadvantaged.
The Shehernaz Medicare Centre, which started off as a dispensary on the Kasarwadi factory premises, is
the flagship hospital of the Ffoundation.
The dispensary was founded in 1973, when Darius Forbes witnessed a road accident on the way to work.
He realised the need for medical care in the vicinity when the victims had to be carried back to the Sassoon
Hospital, all the way back into the city.
Today the Shehernaz Medical Centre is a fully equipped 28-bed hospital. Free medical aid is provided to
members of the company, their families and the communities of Kasarwadi, Morwadi and Bhopkel. Each
patient pays a token fee of Rs 5/ only.
The centre is staffed with a team of doctors and nurses, including dentists, a visiting psychiatrist and an
orthopaedic expert. In addition there is a family counselling centre. Regular health camps provide services
such as cancer detection and eye check-ups.
In addition, the foundation also conducts a community outreach programme, where doctors go into the
communities to provide treatment.
Community Health Programme
A group of women from the community have received training from CARE in basic medical knowledge and
skills. They play a major role in enhancing awareness on health-related issues, organising check-up camps
and referring patients to appropriate health care services within the community.
Arambh, the Early Child Development Programme
Arambh is a development programme for the children in the age group of 0-3 years, run in the
communitieswith the help of Community Health Workers (CHW). The CHWs have been formally trained in
early childhood development by Ummeed, an NGO that provides specialised care for most developmental
disabilities and has moved into areas of training, research and advocacy. The objectives of this programme
are to promote child development in families at risk and to support the families of children with
developmental difficulties.
The CHWs help parents identify developmental delays and refer appropriate services for early diagnosis
and treatment.
SATH (Safe Adolescent Transition and Health)
SATH is an integrated programme for empowering adolescent girls and protecting them from the
consequences of early marriage, early conception, sexual and domestic violence. The programme is
conducted for 23 villages of Chakan, Pune through the Karanjvihire Primary Health Centre.
Child Guidance Centre
We run a centre for psychological testing, assessment and counselling in association with the KEM
Hospital's TDH - Morris Centre at our Kasarwadi premises since 2008. The centre provides assessment
and counselling services to the non-affordable group. Cases are referred from all across the Pimpri
Chinchwad Municipal Corporation area. The paediatrician at our Shehernaz Medicare Centre assesses the
referred cases every Friday. Two senior psychologists carry out the behavioural counselling, parent
counselling, development assessment and IQ testing. Attention deficit issues, autism, hyperactivity, hearing
impairment, academic related issues, bedwetting, stammering and other such issues are also handled at
the centre.