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HEALTH

The work in the field of health looks at addressing the needs of the community related to health and hygiene. The focus of our work is in the area of reproductive and child health for pregnant and nursing women, young children and adolescent girls of disadvantaged groups ­ with synergistic interventions for survival, growth, development and protection, reinforcing each other. The vision includes a clear shift to a rights perspective (i.e. rights to survival, development, protection and participation), a gender sensitive approach, family focused and community based, reaching out to the marginalized with equity and quality. At the same time, we are looking at access to quality health care, preservation of traditional medicine and preventive health care of the community.

Public Health and Hygiene   Construction of Toilets under the Total Sanitation Campaign   Providing safe drinking water by construction of dug wells.   Promotion of preventive health care through awareness building on sanitation and safe drinking water, clean environment etc.    Public health in disaster situations

Reproductive and Child Health   Providing basic health care facility to the women and children through community health workers (CHW), traditional birth attendants (TBAs).   Provision for an ambulance as a support for institutional deliveries   Training on health care to pregnant women   Promotion of kitchen gardens for better nutrition to women and children.

Organizing health camps, eye camps and health education camps.

Promotion of village health committees for enabling the community to have access to basic and referral health services provided by the Govt agencies. This body also acts as an advocacy group for issues related to health.

Promotion of ethno- medicine by preparation of herbal medicine: Herbal medicines are the best remedies for a number of illnesses. They offer the best treatment at low costs with little or no side effects. In most rural homes, we see that people still use herbal medicines, moreso in tribal homes. Looking at this, we started our own herbal garden this year where we prepare herbal medicines. This process began with a week- long training for three of our staff members at ‘Anthra’ an organisation working in the field of Ethno- veterinary medicine. This training oriented the participants to identification of herbal medicines, preparation of medicines, packing and preservation of medicines. The training also involved disease identification and the application of herbal medicines.