Thursday, February 25, 2016

March 8 International Women's Day Event



International Women's began with women protesting against wages and conditions within the textile industry at the turn of the 20th Century and has since grown into a global movement on March 8th. 

Annually around the world events are held that celebrate women’s contribution to society from fun runs, breakfast panels, gala events to festivals. 

We are excited to announce that AarogyaSeva will conducting an event at our soon to be open new AarogyaSeva Clinic- AarogyaSeva Karuna Clinic opposite the Lalbagh Siddapura gate on International Women’s Day.

The new AarogyaSeva Clinic centre will not only be a free clinic but also a prosthetic limb centre. Disability is an important public health problem in India with 2.6 million people living with a disability according to the 2011 census.

The clinic will house a 3-D printer with a focus on creation of upper limb prosthesis for children.   The recipients will be involved in designing, printing and assembling the limb making it an experiential and empowering process. 

It is intended that in collaboration with our partner organisations- The Challenging Ones, Association of People with Disability, IEEE, BMS College of Engineering and Rochester Institute of Technology least 25 limbs will be created in the first year.  

In additional we are seeking to use the space to provide workshops, education and awareness on 3D printing and health as well as allowing students and innovators to experiment with creating low cost medical solutions.

So please come along on March 8th and see the new clinic and support the female artists! Looking forward to seeing you all there. 

If you are interested in learning more or providing assistance please write to us at  Volunteer@aarogyaseva.org






Monday, February 15, 2016

Sanitary Napkins and Feminine Hygiene



Seeing the sanitary napkins women empowerment project whilst as part of 2016 Medical Yatra made me want to look into this topic a bit more.


For someone from a developed country we do not think much with regards to this area of female hygiene nor do we generally have any issues with access to sanitary napkins or tampons. Yet many women around the world still use scraps of dirty cloths which they cannot clean or sanitise properly.  Alarmingly I read that up to 70% of all reproductive diseases in India are caused by poor menstrual hygiene.


For so many women around the world menstruation is still a taboo subject with many restrictions placed on the women particularly around isolation as they are considered unclean.  Yet I can see why the commercially available products are not used openly and freely as women especially in rural villages have trouble to access, afford and dispose of them properly.  Further to this there is still much lacking on education on menstruation and female hygiene.


Fortunately there are several different projects currently in place using different approaches to address this issue including the use of cloths and menstrual cups.


This is the first time I’ve come across menstrual cups like SheCup or Ruby Cup. Both use a medical grade silicon cup which is inserted in the vagina like a tampon. The benefits of these are that they are much cheaper and better for the environment than commercially available sanitary napkins.   


Another project/initiative is Goonj’s Not Just a Piece of Cloth (NJPC) which was established in 2005 and has expanded globally.  They use old/discarded cloth to create reusable sanitary napkins and use this as platform to engage and educate about female hygiene whilst also providing job opportunities.  


The basis of the project that I saw at the Gram Seva Trust Hospital is related to the work Arunachalam Muruganantham and his company Jayaashree Industries.  What is particularly inspiring about Arunachalam is that he did not finish high school and that what began as a way to impress his new bride has evolved to something so much more which included him testing sanitary pads himself with the use of animal blood. I highly recommend watching Arunachalam TED talk from 2012. A documentary called 'Menstrual Man' has been created about him and his work.


What I love about the project I saw is that it is run by women for the women giving them a much needed low cost solution and income. Furthermore the pads are biodegradable reducing our impact on the environment particularly given that waste disposal is another burden particularly in rural areas.


As with all things I believe that a variety of different solutions are needed to address this issue as there is never a one size fits all to any problem.


I’d like to leave you all with an amusing advertisement we have in Australia which shows the marked difference between the countries views on the topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg2-ZzSBl5s

Links on that mentioned above can be found below.


Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AarogyaSeva and AarogyaSeva does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.


To get in touch with the author or to join our team write to us at – Volunteer@aarogyaseva.org














Sunday, February 7, 2016

2016 AIPNO Medical Yatra

 

As was previously noted, Aarogyaseva was again part of 2016 Medical Yatra in Gujarat which ran from 23rd January to 30th January in connection with the following organisations
  • Association of Indian Physicians of Northern Ohio (AIPNO)
  • Action Research in Community Health (ARCH)
  • Rotary Club of Dharampur 
  • Shabri Chhatralaya
  • Intal

It brought 37 both medical professionals and general volunteers from USA, UK, India and Australia in conjunction with local health workers, Rotarians and ARCH workers.  We had with us a mix of internal/family doctors, emergency physicians, paediatricians, obstetrics/gynaecologists, dentists and an orthopaedic surgeon.  Apart from seeing the patients we also conducted CPR and dental hygiene education sessions as well as have patients take part in blood pressure research.


AIPNO was founded in 1983 and is a non-profit membership organisation of physicians of Indian origin in Northern Ohio. It has membership of 300 physicians and have they organised Medical Yatras since 2001.  They have provided aid to Mexico, Haiti, Peru, Ecuador, Uganda, Kenya, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Burundi and India. What is amazing is that the volunteers who came were in the late 60s and 70s who were either semi retired or retired.  Visit their website http://www.aipno.org/ for more information

ARCH currently provides provides primary health care services to approximately 25,000 patients along with basic health education and preventative services such as vaccinations and prenatal care. In addition they provide movie health camps in surrounding villages.  More about them can be found here: http://www.archgujarat.org/ 

We were split into 2 groups each visiting 5 locations over 5 days seeing up to 1,000 patients daily and ~4,000 patients in total. (The exact numbers are still to be finalised.)  People came from nearby villages and waited patiently for several hours to be seen. At each spot we spent 4-8 hours depending on the number of patients that presented.   For some of us we stepped into unfamiliar roles of dental, paediatric, gynaecology or pharmacy assistants, whilst others had to recall prior knowledge to diagnose, prescribe and dispense medications.   All of us had to improvise with limited supplies and diagnostic tools whilst working in a team to provide the best possible outcome.

Each stop was unique with a different variety of diagnosis and facilities. On some days it took us only about 30 minutes to get there and on others over 90 minutes across dirt roads. The majority of time we were situated within the local school which meant the kids had a disruptive day and were free to interact with the group, be seen by paediatricians or dentists and/or attend educational sessions being run. Regardless of where we were, the locals were all very welcoming and patient. It was heartwarming to see some of the older children assist with translation, directing people and/or helping the older patients to where they needed to go. 




Undernutrition was massive problem with 14-16 year old teenagers looking like they were 9-10 years old. The adults on the other hand looked much older than they should be due to physical outdoor labour with in many cases extremely high blood sugars and blood pressures. 

Language was a massive issue with local tribal languages being spoken in many instances as opposed to Gujarati or Hindi which become a case requiring up to 3 interpreters sometimes depending on the translator and Doctor.   


Observations

  • all who came were strong, happy and didn’t complain about the wait or their lot in life with physical examinations easy due to the lack of fat (many of those in their 40s/50s had six pack abs!) 
  • Biggest issues were undernutrition, undiagnosed hypertension, diabetes, goitres, cataracts, dry skin and cavities 
  • Introduction of fluoride, reduced salt and sugar diets and iodised salt would greatly assist these communities as part of preventable health schemes  
  • Girls were particularly shy with all being curious particularly around the tall Americans, our smart phones and cameras 
Outcomes from 2016 Medical Yatra
  • Recommendations to reduce cavities and improve teeth health particularly in children to be provided to local government officials 
  • ARCH has committed to follow up patients seen including scheduling of 33 cataract surgeries 
  • A piece for AJ+ (on online news and current events channel by Al Jazeera Media Network AJMN) is being finalised.  







All of us came with open hearts, warm smiles, positive and flexible attitudes and a sense of humour but left with so much more.  We have much to learn from each other and language is not a barrier.


I would highly recommend going on Medical Yatra as it is so much more than volunteering with an amazing bunch of people and seeing the countryside and interacting with the locals in a unique way as it includes component of spirituality as we stayed at Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur and were even fortunate enough to have an audience with Baba Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai.  More about the Ashram and their work is here: http://www.shrimadrajchandramission.org/

More photos are available here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1582019118687142.1073741860.1384301005125622&type=1&l=4335feceba 

Number of Doctors: 14 including 2 dentists
Total number of volunteers: 37
Number of patients seen: ~4000
Number of sites visited: 10 

Volunteer hours (based on average 6 hour day for 37 volunteers) : 1110 hours






















Thursday, February 4, 2016

Pre Medical Yatra-Community Engagement/Education





In line with prior years, AarogyaSeva was again part of 2016 Medical Yatra organised by/in association with  AIPNO, Rotary Club of Northern Ohio, Rotary Club of Dharampur and Gram Seva Trust. This year it was held in Gujarat. 

To further broaden the volunteer experience of the Medical Yatra they organised a 2 day Community Engagement and Education program.   We were welcomed and thanked by the local schools with speeches and presentations, and song and dance.  We had a tour of the Gram Seva Trust Hospital, we participated in “Swachh Bharat” which was an initiative to clean up local community and reduce littering. We also visited local communities touring their water filtration facility, local diary collection facility/co-op and also visited the installed toilets which were made possible through Gram Seva Trust and the Rotary Club of Dharampur.   

The Gram Seva Trust was established by husband and wife team Dr Harsha and Ashwin Shah in 1994 starting as a 30 bed hospital with 5 staff has now grown to 80 bed facility with 100 staff and includes running of many community project which aims to assist women, children and the elderly including the establishment of libraries, boarding facilities for children, mobile clinics, and education on health, nutrition and hygiene.  More on Gram Seva Trust can be found: http://www.gramseva.org/


The local diary facility we visited has become its’ own social enterprise and is a co-op for the local community. The sale of the the milk has made it possible for the community to save and fund additional local initiatives such as heifer micro-lending program.  The heifer are purchased via a loan and once the cow produces milk and thus an income the loan is repaid.  The villager are then able to have a continuous sustainable income going forward for their families.  Given it’s success this co-op will be used as model for nearby villages.
Those of us from more developed countries take for granted our access to toilets. We were initially a little puzzled by our tour of several villages just to see the constructed toilets however this is actually a very important initiative for the villages as we were told stories of women being raped when they ventured out for the bathroom alone. Prior to the construction of toilets, the women would meet up as a group to go to a secluded spot in the field to do their business.

While we were there Gram Seva Trust Hospital they had a children's education fair. Just like at a fete/fair there was a jumping castle, giant snakes and ladders, ball throwing games, hola hoops etc where the children are taught about health topics whilst having fun.

By far my favourite community initiative was the sanitary napkins women empowerment project. This is run by the women for the women and provides improved health and education as well reducing the stigma around menstruation.   The sanitary napkins are made by hand from cotton and wood pulp which importantly are also biodegradable. These are then sold by women to women in their local villages at much lower cost to that which are mass produced and made from plastic and other non-biodegradable materials. This facility was based within the Gram Seva Trust Hospital and with this success they are looking to expand and replicate this to up to 15 facilities.
Key Takeaways
  • it is together that we are able to make a bigger difference
  • be grateful for running water, toilets and waste collection services
  • access to health and education and also knowledge of these are the biggest barriers to progress


There will be more on the actual Medical Yatra in the coming days.


Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AarogyaSeva and AarogyaSeva does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
To get in touch with the author or to join our team write to us at – Volunteer@aarogyaseva.org