Global Community Service: An SCPMG Physician Improves Lives 9000 Miles Away.

Chilmula (Raj) Reddy, MD, Nephrology, Los Angeles Medical Center, has been caring for patients with Kaiser Permanente (KP) since 1972. Long before joining KP, however, Dr Reddy was living 9000 miles away in a poor farming village outside of Hyderabad, India. Dr Reddy is keenly aware that he did not make his journey alone, and he acknowledges that he would not be where he is today without the support of family and the educational system in India. It is with that strong feeling of gratitude that he delivers a passionate commitment to community service that reaches beyond the boundaries of Southern California. His dedication travels to the heart of the Hyderabad and nearby communities, helping to sustain educational infrastructures and improve access to education for young people living there today. “People from poor farming villages had limited resources to send their children to neighboring towns for school. My own grandparents could not write their names,” recalled Dr Reddy. “My father, however, had a different mindset. Education was so important to him that he made great sacrifices to provide me with home tutoring until I was old enough to travel to school on my own.” After his father’s death when he was 13, Dr Reddy, remembering his father’s commitment to education, worked hard in school to pursue premed studies and medical school free of charge at local colleges. He stayed free of charge in the dormitory.