By Dr. Ashish Satav | President MAHAN trust
MAHAN (Meditation, AIDS, Health, Addiction, Nutrition) is a non-government organization established in 1998 to improve health care in Melghat region. MAHAN was touched by Gandhian teaching that “youths should go to the villages to serve as real India is in villages”. Melghat is the hilly forest area in the beautiful Satpuda mountain ranges. Population is 300,000 & 75% of them are tribal. Korku is the major tribe of Melghat. Most of the tribal (>90 %) are farmers or laborer, living below poverty line (>80%) & very hard life in huts (>90%) mostly without electricity & illiterate (>50%). Medical facilities are grossly inadequate in Melghat as compared to rest of Maharashtra. Due to lack of proper medical facilities & superstitions, tribals go to traditional faith healers/quacks (pujari & bhumkas) for treatment of illness. Skin is burnt with red hot iron rod for reducing pain known as Damma. This lead to very high under 5 children mortality (>100 per 1000 live births) especially Malnutrition related deaths and very high mortality in age group (16-60 years) & maternal mortality. Moved by such things, we started the project in Melghat in November 1997. MAHAN Trust has dedicated its work to reduce malnutrition and mortality among under-five children, women and economically productive age group through various programs like HBCC, MCPEPAG and SAMMAN. Below is a snapshot of our achievements in these projects aided by our generous donors.
SAMMAN (Community based Management for Severely Malnourished Children)Aim of the Project
To reduce prevalence and death of severe malnutrition in under 5 children (SMC) (SUW & SAM) using local therapeutic food (LTF) distributed by Village Health Workers (VHWs).
Activities and Impact (34 Villages)
Total 0-5 years children in target villages
3063
Total under 5 children measured June 2020
2868
Total Severe Malnourished Children- as of June 2020
319
11.1%
Total SMCs treated in SAMMAN – April - June 2020
241
Case fatality rate (CFR) of Treated SMC
0
<4%
0
Case fatality rate (CFR) of overall SMC
1 death (MRCP)
0.3%
There was not a single death amongst treated SMCs and hence we could achieve WHO target of CFR of <4%.
SUCCESS STORY
1) One 2 year & 10 months aged girl from Tarubandha village was SUW. Her weight was 8.3 kg and height was 74 cm. She was enrolled for SAMMAN on 2-01-20 and was treated with local therapeutic food (LTF) and antibiotics. Her anthropometry on 29/6/20 was 8.9 kg and height was 77cm. She has now recovered from SUW.
HBCC (HOME-BASED CHILD-CARE Program)
Aim of the Project
To reduce under 5 children mortality rate and prevalence of malnutrition.
34 Villages.
No. of 0-5 years patients treated by VHWs – April – June 2020
2162
Intervention Area
Number of deaths
Impact achieved
Under 5 Mortality Rate.
98.03
Success STORY
1-year-old boy from Khidiki village, had some episodes of watery stools on 26th June 2020. VHW from village visited him and treated him with ORS. As there was no recovery from diarrhea in a day, VHW started him on Norfloxacin for 3 days. At the end of the treatment, the child was cured. Medical supervisor of village also visited that child. He is fine now and doing well.
MCPEPAG (Mortality control program for economically productive age group, 16-60 years)
Aim of the Project
To reduce number of deaths in 16-60 years age group from 34 villages.
Activities and Impact
Total Behavior change communication beneficiaries in
34 Villages
8087
This program involves treatment of patients suffering from hypertension, malaria, diarrhea, asthma and referral of patients of TB, heart diseases, anemia, etc. to hospital.
Intervention Area
Impact achieved – January – March 2020
MCPEPAG population
19862
Total number of 16-60 years illness episodes treated by VHW
2567
Total number of deaths
12
Age specific mortality rate per lakh population
241.6
Success STORY
During our BP survey, we found a farmer from Bibamal village whose BP was very high. He was soon started on antihypertensive drug by our VHW. Our VHW also educated him on life style modifications, provided him regular medicines at his home and checked BP weekly. He is also very compliant for taking medications regularly and his BP is under control. His recent BP was 130/90 mm/Hg.
Hospital REPORT: - April - June 2020
Hospital care Beneficiaries (OPD)
1627
Total Hospital Inpatient Beneficiaries (IPD)
167
Critical Care Beneficiaries (ICU)
116
Success STORY
One young poor tribal patient was admitted in intensive care unit of our hospital in very serious condition. He had DM, Severe HT, Acute myocardial infarction, CRF, Hypokalemia? Renal Tubular necrosis with Pulmonary edema with Sepsis with quadriplegia with Respiratory paralysis with Hypoxia with Coma. Our team immediately put him on Ventilator (Invasive endotracheal intubation) with oxygen and all essential drugs. He was on ventilator for 12 hours and on oxygen for 2 days. Due to our intensive perfect treatment at appropriate time, he became normal and started walking on 7th day. We could discharge him after 10 days. The fee was just 500 Rs. When similar ICU in cities would have charged more than one lakh Rs.
Due to COVID 19, when many of the hospitals stopped treating patients, MAHAN Mahatma Gandhi Tribal hospital staff without fear of infection, are treating patients since last 3 and half months without break for even a single day. We could save hundreds of serious patients, most of them are poor tribal at very nominal cost or free.
A critical care expert from Amaravati said, tertiary care at primary level.
Expenses…..
INR=53,57,000
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
