Microfinance Focus, July 26, 2011: Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Freedom from Hunger and Microcredit Summit Campaign are organizing a seminar entitled ‘Linking Health and Microfinance in India:  Improving Incomes and Promoting Universal Health Care Access for the Poor’, July 26–27, 2011 in Ahmedabad, India.

The seminar will bring together over 65 senior officials from microfinance, the self-help group (SHG) movement, health sector, government, donors and social investors for dialogue to explore potential for synergies between the health and microfinance sectors to improve health knowledge and practices and access to health care services and products for the poor segment.

The event is co-sponsored by SIDBI, NABARD, Johnson & Johnson, Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth and CSIR.

Some of the key speakers at the Seminar include Ms. Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India, Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India, Chandra Sekhar Ghosh, Executive Director, Bandhan, Vijaylaxmi Das, Executive Director, Ananya Finance, Prof. Sheila Leatherman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, Dean, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar.

Microcredit Summit Campaign is a global network of microfinance practitioners. Financing Healthier Lives Project, it aims to build a global group of MFIs capable of providing health education to their clients in a sustainable manner to reach over a half-million clients.

Freedom from Hunger is an international development organization working in 19 countries across the globe.