SELF-CARE SUPPORT for 200 NEEDY WOMEN FOR 1 YEAR

Dear friends,

Warm greetings!

Even after decades of independence, people in many pockets of India are still struggling to get basic health services. With your ongoing support and motivation, we are able to reach out to more than 35 impoverished communities in the region. In our regular interaction with women folks in those communities we realized that they need a lot of moral support to address their health issues.

Experts say that self-care is an integral part of primary health care. But many women tend to overlook it under the pressure of family, work, finance, stress and gender inequalities. They think that they need care only when they fall extremely sick forgetting the fact that prevention is always better than cure. We try to identify the root causes of their health problems by conducting regular health camps and screening them for various diseases. Health camp or Medical camp literally means that a team of health professionals ‘camp’ in a particular locality and carry out regular check-up and specific screening as per the requirement.

Women’s Health Camp

During monthly meetings with the parents of children who come to our study centres, it was observed that a few mothers were absent for meeting. On enquiry, it was found out that they had some health issues. When our social workers had a dialogue with those mothers, it was learned that most of them were suffering from lower back pain, stomach pain and weakness.

Therefore, health camps were organized exclusively for women in collaboration with another NGO working on health. Camps were held in two locations: Lamanvasti in Uttamnagar and Malwadi in Hadapsar. Both slum communities are in Pune city. The camps were open to all women from the community. After the routine check-up, women were screened for blood pressure and diabetes. Total 249 women were screened including both locations. 80% of women who attended the camps were domestic workers. They have no time and money to pay attention to their own health.

Out of 249 women, 115 women required further treatment for blood pressure, sugar and minor issues. The doctors referred them for further treatment, if required and also told them what home remedies they can follow. During the examination, the doctors provided medicines for minor illnesses like cough and cold for 3 days and explained importance of taking medicines on time.

We do not merely look at it as an activity. We intend to keep follow up of the cases screened for major illnesses through our social workers. We also realized the need to have facility for gynaecologic, ophthalmologic and dental screening of those women. We also found out anaemia being one of the root causes of many diseases. Anaemia is basically deficiency of haemoglobin in blood. In India, it is a major public health problem because half of the female population is estimated to be anaemic at least once in their lifetime. The situation is grim among women from low income groups. Anaemia causes fatigue, weight loss and other severe issues increasing the risk for young women, pregnant women, adolescent girls and future mothers of the new generation.

We have been creating awareness about nutritional diet enriched with iron and folic acid for our rural communities. We have also been able to provide nutrition in tribal communities that we work with. Now we see the need to expand the same program in urban communities as well. Children will be healthy when their parents pay attention to self-care and address their health concerns. We could reach out to maximum women in these two communities that we work with, with your kind support. We can organize a health camp in collaboration with hospitals using more facilities like mobile van and roping in experts in medical profession if we could raise sustainable fund for this project. Thank you for being with us.

Sending healthy vibes your way.

Links:

• IDEA Foundation Pune