The rural health care project began in 2007 as a result of the passion and commitment of two individuals, Madhan Mohan who is a native of Tiruvannamalai, and Erica Vermeulen, a nurse from Holland.  Both were devoted to bringing medical care to those living in and around Tiruvannamalai who could not afford private medical care. 

At that time, there were substantial barriers to the poor receiving even basic medical care.  Public medical clinics, for those who could afford them, offered substandard care. Even for those who would choose substandard care over no care, many did not have the means to travel to a clinic, nor could they afford to take time off work.  The result was that many suffered unnecessarily, often from easily treatable conditions.  .

The first step in providing medical care to the poor living in the villages around Tiruvannamalai was a project called Arunachala Village Medical Program.  During the duration of this project, a medical team traveled to different villages five days a week in a rented Jeep.  Every day they would travel to their destination and then set up stations where villagers received care.  At the end of the day they would take down the stations.  None of these locations had power or water.  Although Arunachala Village Medical Program was highly successful and was met with great enthusiasm and appreciation by the villagers, it had limitations.  Many villagers had to walk hours to receive care from a clinic.  Those who were too ill or incapacitated could not make the trip.  The lack of power, water and sanitary conditions inhibited the care that could be provided. 

Thus, the idea for the state-of-the art mobile clinic vehicle was born.  A modern, well-equipped medical van would increase the quality of services provided, increase the number of persons served and widen the service area, and would decrease the strain of having to set up and take down the medical stations.

Fund raising efforts for such a van were started in Holland and detailed plans for the creation of the mobile clinic vehicle were worked through in India.  Ms.Sabine Kraut from Switzerland graciously provided support for the mobile clinic. With a great deal of excitement and gratitude, a state-of-the-art medical van arrived in Tiruvannamalai from New Delhi on February 10, 2010.

On March 9th 2010, The Governor of Tamilnadu State His Excellency Surjith Singh Barnala inaugurated the mobile clinic project in Chennai. The van is now driven to villages with a doctor, two nurses, pharmacist and volunteers 5 days a week, where more than 3000 villagers receive treatment every month.  The van has an Oxygen cylinder, small refrigerator, intercom, electricity, air conditioning, modern medical equipment, filtered water, separate stations for each medical professional and a large screen outside the van to show educational health lessons..

The van has meant that Regenboog is now able to reach and serve effectively and efficiently many more villagers who need care.  There remains one gap, however, in the dream of providing all villagers modern comprehensive care.  The mobile clinic is not able to care for those whose conditions require inpatient care such as those with life threatening and chronic illnesses, or complicated pregnancies and births. 

The final phase in the dream to provide truly comprehensive compassionate care to all villagers is to build a small hospital in one of the villages. The first steps have been taken!