Making Healthcare Accessible - Here’s how Apolloites are working towards building a healthier community.

Over the past few years, we have navigated a global pandemic. As we have successfully tackled the pandemic, we must stay focused on ensuring healthy lives and global well-being. While the United Nations has prioritised healthcare as the?third goal ?in its list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, it has also raised concerns about the disruption of essential health services caused due to the pandemic. In a recent article by?Forbes , the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a steep decline in global life expectancy. According to the United Nations, the COVID-19 outbreak has lowered global life expectancy, declined progress toward ending HIV, Tuberculosis (TB), and Malaria, and has hampered mental well-being by making anxiety and depression prevalent. More worryingly, the pandemic has halted two decades of work toward universal health coverage.

At Apollo Tyres, healthcare forms one of the core values of our belief system. We recognise the importance of providing accessible health care and addressing health disparities.?Over the years, we have always placed Apolloites’ physical and mental well-being at the top of our priorities. Simultaneously, we are committed to providing health support to the trucking community, essential to our extended Apollo Family.

In pursuing sustainable development, our healthcare programmes align with the SDG-3 (Good Health & Well-Being). Our commitment to providing accessible health support to the trucking community is deeply rooted at the grass root level. We are cognizant of the vulnerable working conditions of the trucking community and have always been driven by a solid passion for eliminating their health risks and providing them with top-class health services. In working towards it, we have established 32 healthcare centres across 19 Indian states that operate out of transhipment hubs.

Moreover, because of extreme mobility, poverty, illiteracy, harsh working conditions, staying away from families for long durations, and easy access to highly active sexual networks along the highways and major halt points, leads to the trucking community being prone to HIV AIDS. To address this pressing issue, we have launched the ‘HIV AIDS Awareness and Prevention Programme’, that offers awareness workshops, counselling, and provides testing support. Furthermore, we also identified that the trucking community faces visual impairments that may impact their daily income opportunity. We partnered with Essilor Vision Foundation to provide regular and affordable eye check-ups, along with providing cataract treatment for those affected by vision-related problems and distribution of spectacles. Since 2019, Apollo Tyres Foundation (ATF) is supporting Government of India’s commitment to eliminate TB from India by 2025. Every year, ATF organises ‘Partnership for Action Against Tuberculosis’ (PAcT) to raise awareness against the disease.?Our healthcare centres also facilitate diagnosis provisions for non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension.?We also launched the Apollo Healthcare Express, mobile medical units at the highways, district borders, and truck halt points. Similarly, there have been efforts put by ATF to spread awareness on oral hygiene and care.

In our pursuit of building healthier communities, we reaffirm our commitment to promoting health and well-being for our employees, their families, and the communities we serve. By working together and prioritising health equity, we can build a fairer and healthier world for everyone.