In May of this year, the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) and Micro Insurance Academy conducted a Promoter Training exercise as part of an exciting new project to bring micro health insurance to poor communities in and around Warangal City, Andra Pradesh, India.

This event took place as a result of an earlier MIA-facilitated Initiation Workshop in which CDF and a number of self-help groups/cooperatives which it supports, agreed to add health insurance to its existing mutual life insurance offerings available since 2000.

With training and promotional materials provided the MIA, CDF is now equipped to roll out its customized Swakrushi Cooperative Based Health Insurance Scheme (SCOBHIS), which in turn will extend micro health insurance to over 500,000 poor persons across 300 villages in the districts of Warangal, Karimnagar, and Medak.

CDF and the MIA anticipate that this collaboration will continue over the next several years as the number of individuals insured under the SCOBHIS scheme increases.

CDF, also known as Sahavikasa, promotes an environment in which cooperatives flourish as decentralized, democratic, self-help and mutual-aid organizations effectively harnessing and fostering local resources in consonance with the universally accepted Principles of Cooperation.

For more on CDF information visit: http://www.sahavikasa.coop/default.htm