Vijai the idea behind the medical home program is it needs to provide free or near free services. running it as a business is not Joseph's intention. C.

Carolyn,

From what Joseph has posted in this thread, my interpretation is as under :

HOME STAY PROGRAM (SIDE BUSINESS)
---------------------------------

Input to home stay business - money required for rented accomodation, all facilities for stay, total $ zzz per annum

Output of home stay program - chargeable services, total income $ yyy per annum

Profit of home stay business = output minus input = $ yyy minus $ zzz = $ xxx

This $ xxx (profit of home stay business) goes as input to Medical home program (see below).

MEDICAL HOME PROGRAM
--------------------

Input to medical home program - $ xxx per annum ($ xxx is the total requirement to meet all input costs like medicines, salaries, transportation, electricity, water, etc.

Output of medical home program - FREE SERVICES TO ALL.

--------------------------

The success, or failure, of the above model will depend on whether the $ xxx that is the profit of home stay business is enough to meet the input requirements of the 'free medical home program'.

If the figure $ xxx drops below a certain level, it may not be possible to provide FREE services from the medical home program.

In my posts above, I have provided precautions to be ensured so that the figure $ xxx (net profit of home stay business) does not reduce or become a loss, since if this amount reduces, it may not be possible to provide free medical services from the medical home program.

Hence, a techno-commercial feasibility will need to be conducted, to assess the levels of break-even points etc. As you have rightly mentioned, Joseph will need to first collect information on the suitable places for being rented and their costs, and the next steps would be to calculate the scale of operations, and also assess the financial safety of this venture. The method of proceeding on these issues is described in my posts above.

The bottom-line is :
- to provide free services from the 'medical home system', a good deal of funds may need to be pumped into the 'home stay business'
- if the home stay business is not profitable enough, then funds will need to be pumped into the medical home system directly, so that free services can continue to be provided
- if funds to medical home system are reduced below a critical level, it may not be possible to provide free services

Vijai

Hi Vijai, many thanks for your wrap up of where we are up to right now! Indeed you have outlined the many options available to Joseph and his group.

I agree with you that the injection of precious funds into the home-stay tourism business relies on the profitability of that business- otherwise the medical program will suffer. I guess right now Joseph and his group need to figure out whether the side-line tourism business is worth their investment.
Alternatively Joseph could try to investigate other money-earning ideas in his locality which may require much less effort and start-up funding.

As I have mentioned before in my posts- there are no magic funding agencies or philanthropists out there- not for a tourism business and not for a medical program. I firmly believe that it is important to start small with the medical program and show small success and results with the view that this will be more attractive to local and/or international funding groups or even donors. We need to pilot programs and start small before scaling up to a larger program. I have found two extremely useful resources on the World Health Organisation website which are a blue print for starting up a home-based long-term medical care program. I am currently reading through them and gathering ideas. If anyone else is interested in taking a look at these documents I have attached them under the medical program project section. Joseph, I will mail a paper copy to you so that you can read it and share it with your colleagues.
Thanks again Vijai- your business-mind keeps us on track!
Carolyn

Hi Carolyn, Thankyou for your efforts regarding the home stay programme for the tourists. Also thankyou for your clarification given to Vijai.

As per your advice I have found out a willing suitable for homestay purpose near Kumarakom resort and Vembanad lake. It has three bedrooms. There are also other small houses in which tourist use to come and stay in ordinary surroundings. Ordinary people also provide homestay accommodation for the tourist here. The building that we have found out is near the boat raising spot. The house boat also are available her. We have contacted the house boat operators. We have talked with house boat operaters and they are in mutual understanding to co-operate with us. It is about 12 km. from Kottayam town. There is also luxurious hotels near it. There are also other small houses available here. There is boating in vembanad lake, and bird sanctuary etc. The boating to Alapuzha is very interesting. There are many natural sceneries. Kuttanad agricultural field also is near it. It is a place were cultivation is done below the level of ocean. It is also very interesting to see.

If we start the homestay project we are able to provide the tourist with Kerala food, which will be a change of taste to them also. So also there is developing dental tourism side by side indigenous massaging. This is also an attraction for the foreigners. We believe we can find out funds from this for our Medical Home Care Service.

Thanking you
Regards
joseph A M
For HREASEDC

Hi Joseph- wow this is great news! The place you have found sounds like it could be very suitable- right area, lots of other tourists places around it etc.
Have you been able to negotiate a rental price yet?
Also- have you had any luck in investigating yuor legal obligations to starting a business like this? I think this would be your next step.
Carolyn

Hi everyone- Joseph and I have been emailing off line in regards to the tourism business idea. Joseph feels that even though he has identified an appropriate property, the cost of setting this up is very high. At this stage it would take away a lot of resources and energy from the main programme- the home-based medical care programme.
Joseph has found out approximate costs around rent, and has identifed stiff competition too!
So he has requested that we put this task on hold for now. It still could be something to pursue in the long-term, but for now Joseph would like to concentrate on the medical programme.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the ides around this task.
Carolyn

just an idea: local staff should set up and run the medical project, but once the project has reached an official status one could consider to interest of volunteers fe via an organisation as

http://www.keralatravelcentre.co.uk/kerala-volunteering-projects.html

Many young people in Europe nowadays are interested in a combination of traveling and doing something usefull.

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