Friday, August 16, 2013

PARPATNA HEALTH SUB-CENTRE CLEANING ON INDEPENDENCE DAY BY THE VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (VDC):

15th August, 2013:
SWANIRVAR is one of the members of North 24 Parganas District Health forum. This forum conducts ‘BASIC HEALTH CARE & SUPPORT PROGRAMME’- supported by – MEMISA/DGCD BELGIUM and is being facilitated by the West Bengal Voluntary Health Association (WBVHA).
Our project villages are –PARPATNA and KURULGACHA both under Chakla Gram Panchayat under Deganga Block. Reasons for choosing these villages are as follows:
 Most backward villages as per census 2001
Minority dominated villageRest of the populations are either Schedule Caste/ Schedule Tribes 
Most of the villagers live below the poverty line.
Distance of the nearest PHC – 15KM, BPHC-20KM, State General Hospital( Barasat):  37KM, Medical Collage ( R G KAR, Kolkata): 60KM
Livelihood: Marginal farmers, day labour and fishermen.
Bad condition of roads, became worse during monsoon. Govt ambulance refuses to give service in those villages due to dilapidated roads.
Nearest Town / Bazar : 10KmPopulation: Parpatna: 3105, Kurulgacha : 2630
High rate of IMR and MMR as compared to other villagesMalnutrition of the children : 0-6 yrs: 10% ; Adolescence: 50% of the total
Only 3 ASHA women give health service in these two villages: 2000 population / 1 ASHA women.
Nearest sub-centre is PARPATNA health sub-centre which is 5Km from the village kurulgacha. The building is in a dilapidated condition and is opened once in month. The building remains as a haunted house and full of weeds. ( see pic-1)  


We started our interventions from January, 2010 in these two villages. Before that we did awareness on Tuberculosis and its treatment, some rehabilitation programme on tuberculosis affected patients. We started mass awareness on ANC and PNC mothers health,  ICDS centre boost up, spot feeding in the ICDS centres, nutrition and its relationship with diseases, savings for better health, Geriatric care, NRHM facilities for the villagers, promotion of Integrated Management of Neo Natal and Childhood Illness(IMNCI). We also encouraged the villagers to made a small herbal gardens adjacent their homes. ( see pic –II and III)



We also motivated villagers to form a Village Development Committee (VDC) for the successful implementation of the above programmes. They found that Parpatna health sub-centre becoming a hunted place and the area was full of bushes and weeds. They proposed to clean the place on 15th August as the mothers and children were coming to the sub-centre on regular basis. They asked for some Tiffin support from us. We accepted their proposal and sent our social mobilizers – Golapi Bibi and Jayanti Biswas on 15th August, 13 to the sub-centres.


The VDC members cleaned the places. Amongst them, the youths took special initiatives to clean the bushes and weeds. Once they worked with our KKB team and participated in such development activities. Their parents were also present. Some rural women also joined with them.
After the cleaning they expressed the happiness and planned to do some renovation works in future. Local ASHA staff also came to that place to give their moral support in this work. The VDC members decided to raise the renovation issue to the Panchayat and would asked the Panchayat members to take special initiatives to repair this sub-centre. They also expressed the gratitude to SWANIRVAR for their interventions in community health in these villages.
Reported by:
Abdul Mannan
Swanirvar, 9732764454


  

Friday, August 9, 2013

SAVE WATER CAMPAIGN WITH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Swanirvar staff took ‘Environmental Studies’ classes in 11 High schools on regular basis. We also gave part time inputs in 51 High schools. One of the major issues we deal with them was ‘Safe drinking Water’.  Our project areas are having plenty rains amongst Indian Territory. But most of the ground water is arsenic contaminated. People are dependent on Pipe-water supplied by the local Government.  We started mass awareness with students on safe water, water conservation and arsenicosis. Students arranged rally and also paste posters in different village notice boards (these notice boards are used as information kiosk in villages and developed by KKB team of Swanirvar). During their survey on safe drinking water, the student noticed that major portions of supplied water were being waste during the distribution process. There were no proper stop systems and due to the lack of funnels a portion of water was being unutilized during the filling the pots.
Students of Bhojpara BMSF institution immediately brought these to the notice of the ‘safe water committee’ run by the students of the said institute. They identified 6 water collection centers. They raised money and purchased funnels and made mass scale awareness to the villagers to stop the indiscriminate use of drinking water.  Local villagers were happy with this initiative and they had reduced the misuse of drinking water. They also aware on arsenic contamination in ground water and not using those tube wells which had alarming level of arsenic contamination .
Inspiring by this, KKB youths of Beliakhali village took major initiative in ‘safe drinking water campaign’. This village was arsenic prone village and many villagers were suffering from arsenicosis. Once the name of the village was raised the UN meeting by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on arsenic problems. Local Panchayat authority installed a number of deep tubewell in that village to ensure the supply of safe- arsenic free drinking water under the financial assistance of UNDP.  One tube well was out of order and local authority was not paying attention to repair it. The students committee met the Panchayat members and got permission to repair by their own. They visited door to doors and raised funds. Finally they repaired the tube well and at present the villagers were getting safe water.
Reported By,
Sourendra Nath Sen
M: 8016452010