Education India Project #31546

Fighting Malnutrition Through Child Care in India

by Seva Mandir

Project Report | Jul 2, 2019
Little Steps for a Bright Future

By Atul Lekhra | Manager- Resource Mobilization

Dear Friend,

Seva Mandir works in one of the poorest areas of India where young children are often left unattended or in the care of young siblings and are lacking nutrition, security, safety and a stimulating environment at home and outside.

The need for early child care is very high in this area. According to a survey conducted by Seva Mandir, 50% of mothers said they took their children to work with them. The health status of children is also very poor; 70% children are anaemic, and 69% children are undernourished.

In light of these issues, Seva Mandir initiated the Balwadi programme in 1984. A Balwadi is a full-day centre run by a Sanchalika (a woman from the village trained to provide pre-school and health services to the children). At present, Seva Mandir, in close collaboration with communities, is running nearly 160 Balwadi centres catering to approximately 4,000 children in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts.

Uday is a single parent to 3 children - Indra (7 years), Radha (5 years) and Lakshman (4 years) – two of who are attending a Balwadi in their remote tribal village in Jhadol block. Uday’s wife passed away in 2014 when the children were very young. Since then, all the children have attended Balwadi.

Uday works as a labourer and on his own farm to support his family. Being a single parent, he does not get time to look after his children the way he could have if he still had his wife to help him. He relies on the Balwadi to care for his children and to provide food for them during the day time, as he is unable to cook for them in the morning. His condition was well understood by the Sanchalika and she extended her full help to take care of children whilst their father worked. She ensures that they are well looked after and even waits extra hours until Uday comes back from work.

The eldest daughter, Indra, has graduated from the Balwadi but has not yet started attending school. The Sanchalika is making efforts to enrol her to the nearest Seva Mandir Shiksha Kendra (non-formal education centre).

It is due to generous support from friends like you Seva Mandir has been able to run its Balwadis. We are immensely proud of the improvements we have been able to make in the lives of these children and hope to reach out to more with your continued support. Thank you so much for your trust in us.

Warm Regards

Atul Lekhra & the Seva Mandir Team

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Apr 4, 2019
Fighting Malnutrition Through Your Helping Hand

By Atul Lekhra | Manager- Resource Mobilization

Dear Friend,

We are thrilled to announce that GlobalGiving has awarded Seva Mandir with 5 achievements (Effective Organization, Staff Favorite Organization, Top Ranked Organization, Vetted Organization, Site Visit Verified Organization) making us a top-ranked organization for 2019!

All thanks goes to our dedicated supporters that we are able to keep accomplishing more every year and changing people's lives for the better. We can't thank you enough for your support and we look forward to another successful year!

At such a young age, Roshan and Shanta have already overcome huge hurdles in their lives. Both come from impoverished families in the remote and rural region of Badgaon in southern Rajasthan, with their families struggling to make a sufficient living from subsistence agriculture.

As is the case with many children in our work area, Roshan and Shanta were suffering from malnutrition. They had become so weak that neither of them could walk, let alone stand up, even though they were at an age where this would be expected. Their local Balwadi (child-care centre) instructor, Premi, recognised immediately that they were suffering from malnutrition and that swift action had to be taken. This is in part due to the training Seva Mandir provides all Balwadi instructors, where they are taught how to notice the signs of malnourishment, amongst other basic health abilities.

Premi persuaded their parents to enrol them into her Balwadi, where she immediately started to gently massage medicinal oils into their skin to aid their muscles, and provided them with nutritional food 3 times a day, which is the norm for all children in Seva Mandir’s Balwadis.

After some time, Roshan and Shanta began to show signs of recovery, especially when they began to stand on their own two feet and take their first steps!

Without Premi’s swift action in recognising Roshan’s and Shanta’s life-threatening conditions, their stories would have been much worse. Instead, thanks to Premi and Seva Mandir’s Balwadis, the children, along with thousands more in our work area, are able to receive life-changing care and nourishment to save them from the horrors of malnutrition.

Thank you for your support and for the confidence that you have placed in us. None of this would have been possible without you.

Regards

Atul Lekhra and the Seva Mandir Team

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Dec 6, 2018
Giving the Gift of Nutrition this Christmas

By Atul Lekhra | Manager- Resource Mobilization

Dear Friend,

Seva Mandir runs full day Balwadis to provide day care, nutrition, basic health care and pre-school education to children of 1-5 years of age. Last year, Seva Mandir ran a total of 163 full day Balwadis across 6 rural blocks of southern Rajasthan, reaching 4,012 children. Along with Balwadis, Seva Mandir also works with 264 government Aanganwadis (Pre-schools) to improve their functioning.

In all the Balwadi centres, children are provided supplementary nutrition which comprises of 3 meals in a day; one hot cooked meal (Porridge) and ready to eat, fortified sweet and salty nutria soya pops, 2 times in a day. The nutrition is supplemented with micro-nutrients, Vitamin A supplements and de-worming medicine. An Ayurvedic supplement for iron is also given to every child every day. Regular nutritional assessment of all the children is also conducted in the Balwadis.

The impact can be easily understood through Ghanashyam’s story. Ghanashyam attends a Balwadi located in Kotra block. The Instructor of the Balwadi was informed about Ghanashyam by a Balsakhi (a Seva Mandir maternal and child health worker) of the village. The Balsakhi informed the teacher at the Balwadis that the child is moderately malnourished, and the mother leaves the one-year old Ghanashyam at home when she works in the field. She told the Instructor that the child is not looked after properly and is in desperate need of the day-care service which the Balwadi provides. The instructor went to Ghanashyam’s house to talk to his mother, Bhuri, who was at first skeptical about leaving her child in the care of another person not from their family. She gave excuses and avoided the Instructor, who, however, was determined that the child required appropriate care. After endless efforts, Ghanashyam was enrolled in the Balwadi in July, 2018. Ghanashyam was given fresh Porridge with hot oil poured over it for extra nutrition. Everyday he receives a spoonful of iron-supplement and six- monthly dose of Vitamin A. When Ghanashyam enrolled in the Balwadi, he weighed 6.5 kgs. In September 2018, after two months of regular care and nourishment, Ghanashyam weighed 7.5 kgs. He is now in the ‘well-nourished’ category and his mother Bhuri became grateful that she had sent Ghanashyam to the Balwadi regularly after she also observed the change in her child’s appearance.

We are immensely proud of the improvements we have been able to make in the lives of these children and hope to reach out more children with your continued support. It is due to generous support from friends like you that Seva Mandir has been able to run these Balwadis.

We are proud to share that Seva Mandir has been featured in a The New York Times article! One of our GlobalGiving campaigns has been selected as an alternative way to give a gift this Christmas through supporting tribal children's education. The link to the article is https://goo.gl/sCxFGC

Also, GlobalGiving's “Year End Campaign” has begun! Until the end of December, all recurring donations up to $200 will be 100% matched throughout the campaign, and whichever organisation achieves the most funds during the campaign will receive $2,000 from Global Giving!

Help Seva Mandir achieve these goals this December by donating on our Global Giving page!

Thank you so much.

Regards

Atul Lekhra & the Seva Mandir Team

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