The Ecumenical Sangam, Nagpur is a charitable society founded in 1993 by a group of like-minded people whose common aim was to establish an organisation that would concentrate on community health and development in the rural villages around and in the urban slums within Nagpur.

The Sangam was registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act as well as under the Societies Act and is totally independent of any other organisation or denomination. The work of the Ecumenical Sangam is based on the following principles: 

• To work with people irrespective of their caste, colour, creed, race and sex
• No help to target groups without their participation in cash or kind to lessen dependence and enhance inter-and independence
• Sustainable development of the rural and urban societies
• Networking with other non-government and government organisations as and when required
• Self-sufficiency through generating own funds
• Transparency of the Sangam's activities and accountability towards the public

From a rural Base Centre and 3 Sub-centres the Sangam is currently reaching out to 45 villages south of Nagpur. The Base Centre near Bamhani village is located 35 km south of Nagpur on Highway 7 and runs various long-term Skill-Building Programmes for the village youth, as well as Kindergarten classes and a Rural Health Centre. In addition, the Sangam runs a Counselling Cell for Women in Distress in the nearby Butibori Police Station which provides support to women facing domestic violence.

In order to reach out to remoter areas, where until recently hardly anybody has been active in the developmental field the Sangam runs three Sub-centres at Gondwananagar, Sawangi Burg and Narayanpur villages. Each of the three Sub-centres runs two Kindergarten classes for the village children, a Sewing Class for the young women and provides a comprehensive basic Healthcare programme run by the resident Trained Birth Attendant (TBAs) and Village Health and Social Workers (VHSWs).

In 2006, the Sangam started working in the urban slums around Nagpur and is currently running two Slum Centres in Saraswati Nagar and Sawa Nagar slums reaching out into fifteen slums with the objective of upgrading the basic health situation and providing empowerment through skill-building programmes.

The Sangam's main efforts are in awareness building of the village and slum population in matters of health, nutrition, hygiene, education, family planning, water conservation and socio-economic issues.

From this outline it can be seen that the Sangam runs various intertwining projects, which will be introduced to you on the following pages.