Immunization for Tribal Children and Young Mothers

Dear Friend,

I very much hope that you are enjoying the holiday season. From all of us here at Seva Mandir, a very Happy and Prosperous New Year to you. May 2012 brings peace and success to you and to your family. We thank you for your kindness that you gift us always. With this letter, we love to share some key highlights of year 2011.

For Seva Mandir, the year 2011 has been a year of changes and success. Ms. Neelima Khetan stepped down after 12 years of her excellent leadership (total 25 years of association with Seva Mandir) in March. Ms. Priyanka Singh became our new Chief Executive in April 2011. Seva Mandir is ready to see many more years of its successful engagement with rural communities in Southern Rajasthan in her leadership.

In October, Seva Mandir became the implementing agency for the MNREGA projects for 32 sites in rural Udaipur. It is a significant achievement as well as an indicator of the faith of the 74 Panchayats in Seva Mandir’s work. These Panchayats have endorsed us to be their implementing agency for MNREGA. Of these 32 sites that were sanctioned, the work has begun on the 22 sites. Most of these sites of pastureland development and currently the building of boundary wall is going on.

In 2011, Seva Mandir has been included in two working (sub) groups –  {i) Child Survival & Development and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and ii) Girl Child} constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to review the existing priorities, policies, strategies, programs and their implementation for fulfilling the rights of children to survival, development (including early childhood care, early learning, elementary education). Also, to highlight emerging issues and recommendations, resources allocation and utilization for Twelfth Five Year Plan of Government of India.

Several of Seva Mandir's programs have seen a maturing in the last years. For example, in the villages where Seva Mandir organized regular immunization camps, the complete immunization of children is 60%, while in comparison villages it is only 35%.

Similarly, the work on Natural Resources is yielding a lot of benefits to the poor. Every year grass worth Rs. 52 lacs (5.2 million rupees) is being harvested from the common lands developed under this program.

In April 2011, Champa Devi from Vassela village was awarded the "Woman Exemplar Award 2011". It is another reason to look back and feel joyous to see that a community member of Seva Mandir was being recognized by rest of the society for her selfless services.

We are privileged to experience exciting stories of women like Champa Devi. A big credit goes to friends like you for this. Your support has always been the source of our emotional strength. It helps us keep going with our work. It is gratifying that with your support we have been able to create spaces where ordinary people can exercise truth force to bring about social and political transformation.

We hope you will continue to be with us in future too. Your faith and untiring support is very critical to us at the moment. Especially, when national and international scenario is changing rapidly for civil societies and the definitions of ‘development’ are being re-explored.

We believe that the full and deep impact of Seva Mandir's work lies not so much in the tangible development activities that it promotes, but more in bringing the poor and rich together and enabling them to  work for the commons of building more just  and oppression free communities.

We look forward to your continuing contribution in the year 2012 too. Wish you a very bright and successful New Year.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

I was reading the New York Times today - the artcile "As New Graduates Return to Nest, Economy Also Feels the Pain" and I also read the news on the Hindustan Times "Expect relief from inflation". It is a tough time. Everywhere in the world there is unrest. The divide between the rich and poor is growing bigger. There are many interpretations and theories explaining and forecasting the future as ever. Amidst all these news and views on politics, corruption, economy downturn etc, I came across a brief story which my colleagues have written, which I also want to share with you. The story is simple but has an interesting feel of 'hope'. Somewhere very far in Udaipur (in South Rajasthan), the immunization camps that you support are helping many children and women's lives.

Amidst all of this hustle and bustle and rough time, your continuing support and faith in this program endows thousands of women and children with blessings. We are deeply grateful to you for your help. I really hope you will enjoy reading this story. Please feel free to write to me for any queries.

Thanks again and with warm regards,

Deepti

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Kotra Block is located at a distance of 120kms from the city of Udaipur and is one of the remotest regions in Seva Mandir’s working areas. It is completely a tribal belt with a number of villages bordering the state of Gujarat. The region sees a lot of migration to Gujarat for livelihood and also to access healthcare as there is a dearth of such facilities in the area.

Seva Mandir conducts monthly immunization camps reaching out to 33 hamlets in Kotra block. The villages chosen are those which are remote and are not covered by the government health workers. The unique features of the camps are regularity of the camps monitored through use of date & time stamped photographs of the Immunization teams at the camp sites and a non-cash incentive package to encourage demand for immunization. The camps are conducted on a fixed date every month in a centrally located place in a hamlet easily accessible to majority of the households. The camps provide complete vaccination for children aged 0-1 year, booster doses for children above one year age and ante-natal checkups for pregnant women. In addition, the camps also provide treatment & referral for childhood illnesses.

In each village hamlet, the trained Traditional Birth Attendant is responsible informing the villagers about the immunization days and gathering the children and pregnant women at the camp site on immunization day. The Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) goes around the village visiting each household to inform them about the forthcoming camp and also motivate them for immunization and antenatal care.

Immunization Camp at Sarli Naal

Sarli Naal, a village hamlet in Kotra block has its immunization camp on 21^st of every month.

Atri Bai, the TBA of Sarli Naal has been working with Seva Mandir for 8 years. She narrated that before this camp, the closest one was a government run camp which was 3 kms away from this hamlet, making it difficult for the people to get their children immunized. The pregnant women too had to walk a long distance for their antenatal check ups. As a result, many of the women and children used to remain from getting immunized. Seva Mandir’s camp started in the year 2007, has come as a boon for the residents of the village as they could now get the services within a easy reach.

In the month of October 2011, the camp at Sarli Naal had 8 women who had come for antenatal checkups and seven children who had come for getting their vaccines.

Gavri, a 24 years old young mother had come to the camp for getting her seven month old son’s third dose of DPT vaccine. She had started coming to the camp when she was pregnant and had received both her tetanus shots and complete ante-natal checkups. Gavri agrees that the immunization is essential for both the mother and the child and is determined to take vaccination for her future pregnancies also.

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Hope you are well. Thank you for supporting immunization of children of our region.

The monsoon has been active in Rajasthan. It has rained a little but more rains will be great. We still have another month of monsoon. Hopefully it will be a great monsoon year. The lakes in the city, however, are not full yet. The city is all green and beautiful at the moment.  

I am sharing the annual report of Immunization Program that you are supporting. The report accounts detailed information on the total number of children immunized in 2010-2011, expecting mothers received tetanus shots and various other activities carried out with your support.

Following is a brief fact sheet for your quick reference –

1.     A total 790 camps were conducted.

2.     1,236 children got registered to receive immunization.

3.     1,123 expecting mothers received tetanus shots.

4.     1,449 expecting mothers received ante natal care at these camps

5.     Please see the enclosed report for more details.

I hope you will enjoy reading all the progress your support has afforded to these children and expecting mothers.

Many thanks to all of you for your continuing support to this program. Two stories of women who were benefitted with your support are also enclosed in the report.

We would be very happy to hear from you. Thank you once again for your generous support.

We will keep you updated about the progress of this program as well as about the monsoon.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Links:

• Child health - on Seva Mandir Website
• Stories related to health on Seva Mandir website

• Annual Report Immunization 2010-2011 (DOC)