Chennai non-profit REACH made history in international public health on November 5, 2026, clinching the Kochon Prize 2026 at the Stop TB Partnership Board Meeting in Indonesia. The honour makes the Resource group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health the first Indian civil society organisation to secure the global accolade. Conferred by South Korea’s Kochon Foundation in partnership with the Stop TB Partnership, the award recognises community teams that dismantle barriers to tuberculosis care. REACH shares the 2026 prize with Kenya’s Centre for Health Solutions and the Marshall Islands TB Control Program.
Tuberculosis demands more than just pills. For decades, public health programs treated TB as an isolated bacterial problem, handing patients antibiotic strips while ignoring hunger, stigma, and wage losses that derail recovery. REACH changed that dynamic. By deploying grassroots networks—including community survivors known as "TB Champions" and local peer workers called "TB Nanbans"—the group anchored clinical treatment directly inside patient households.
"Treat the person, not the disease—our journey with TB communities has been just that," said Nalini Krishnan, chairperson and co-founder of REACH. She noted that medical intervention falters if providers ignore everyday social realities. "We realised early on that overcoming barriers to care means addressing more than clinical needs—it means recognising social, community, family, mental health and situational challenges. That is the essence of integrated care: seeing the whole person, understanding their realities, and doing whatever it takes to ensure that no one is left behind."
Public health leaders hailed the win as proof that community-led care saves lives. Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation and former chief scientist at the World Health Organization, nominated REACH for the award. She pointed to the group's ability to blend frontline empathy with operational science.
"A women-led organisation, they genuinely care about the people they’re supporting, beyond the numbers, data and reports to donor," Swaminathan said, observing that the team couples technical rigor with a practical grasp of India's health landscape. That model keeps the organisation nimble, turning passive patients into informed health advocates who navigate both tuberculosis and co-existing non-communicable diseases.
Past Indian winners of the prize remained confined to state leadership and medical diagnostic enterprises. Former Revised National TB Control Programme head L.S. Chauhan won the award in 2006, followed by the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2017 and Molbio Diagnostics in 2024. REACH breaks fresh ground by pulling grassroots social workers into that elite circle.
Yet the victory belongs to field workers who walk door-to-door through underserved neighbourhoods. REACH director Ramya Ananthakrishnan stated that the recognition honours the frontline workers, TB Nanbans, and TB Champions who combat stigma daily. She affirmed that the organisation will channel this global recognition into widening equitable healthcare access for families battling both tuberculosis and long-term chronic illnesses.