Raised in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram at Sevagram, India, Dr. Ahbay Bang pursued a medical career and completed his training with three gold medals. After receiving a degree in public health at the Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Bang returned to India in 1984 to a remote district, Gadchiroli, where he started a new organization, SEARCH. Through SEARCH, Dr. Bang and his wife, Dr. Rani Bang, provide medical care and conduct research in 100 villages to improve the health of women and children.
Their grassroots studies have repeatedly broken new ground and pioneered international trends, including a new approach, home-based newborn and child care, which has been successfully implemented in several countries and five Indian states. Dr. Bang and his organization have received numerous awards, including the ‘Maharashtra Bhushan,’ – the highest state award, and a national award from the Indian Council of Medical Research. He has been honored by Save the Children US, for his contribution to global neonatal health, by the MacArthur Foundation in 2006, and together with his wife, Dr. Bang was featured in Time magazine as “Global Health Heroes” in 2005. His research was also chosen as one of the ‘milestone’ papers published in the Lancet.