First Training Session Held in Person for Kolhapur’s Public Health in Action Programme by Dr. Ashish Joshi

Foundation of Healthcare Technologies Society, University of Memphis School of Public Health, and Zila Parishad, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, under a joint collaborative initiative, are bringing the Model of Public Health Education to High Schools by using the Public Health in Action curriculum and establishing public health clubs across 50 high schools in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. This is the first such initiative, engaging more than 1,500 students to be sensitised as public health ambassadors across all 12 blocks of Kolhapur.

This project implements the goals of the National Education Policy 2020 and shows how public health in action can facilitate building ‘My Village Healthy Village,’ an initiative of the Maharashtra state government. The results of this project aim to address adolescent-related public health issues such as unhealthy eating, environmental pollution, physical inactivity, emotional well-being, mental health, and social media and mobile addiction. This initiative aims to prepare high school youth as public health leaders of tomorrow, equipped to address 21st-century public health challenges in a complex, uncertain, and rapidly changing environment.

As part of this initiative, the first in-person training was conducted by Dr. Ashish Joshi, PhD, MBBS, MPH, in Kolhapur on June 23, 2026, for nodal teachers of these schools.