Good response for grassroot NGO’s workshop
Eenadu (02 February 2014)
Month: November 2022
Categories
Educating a Family
Educating a Family
( October 31, 2019 )
Report by Santanu Mishra
The benefits of educating girls and how it can lead to an increase in family income, improvement in family health and better management of resources is no secret. A girl is not responsible for only herself but also for a generation. She is required to take care of the needs and health of her husband and children, manage household resources and make judicious use of available finances. Thus, giving importance to girl’s education is of foremost importance. It is rightly said that by educating a boy, you educate an individual but by educating a girl you educate a whole family.
As per McKinsey’s gender parity report 2018, 770 billion USD will be added to the Indian economy by 2025 if gender equality is achieved, especially in terms of education. In just a decade, the Government has done a remarkable job by reducing the percentage of girls between the ages of 11-14 years out of school, from 10.3% to 4.1%. This is a remarkable achievement in a country where girls are considered liabilities and are often subjected to human rights violations and injustice, early marriages being a glaring example. According to the data by UNICEF, approximately 650 million girls and women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. Child marriage is a curse as it violates the rights of children, primary being the Right to Education.
On closer evaluation, we see that another big reason that has long prevented parents from sending girls to school was menstruation. Lack of sanitation facilities like clean water, toilets (lack of separate toilets for girls & boys as well) as well as the availability of sanitary napkins have remained major stumbling blocks in girl child education in India.
A 2014 report by a non-profit titled Spot On! found that nearly 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to lack of proper menstrual hygiene management facilities, which include the availability of sanitary napkins and logical awareness of menstruation. The report also came up with some startling numbers. 70 percent of mothers with menstruating daughters considered menstruation as dirty and 71 percent of adolescent girls remained unaware of menstruation till menarche.
To counter these problems, the government implemented Swachhta Vidyalaya initiative in 2014 under which 417,796 toilets were constructed and made functional in 261,400 government schools in India by 2015.
Another major factor in low numbers of girls attending schools is that, they were considered a liability by their parents. Issues like dowry, lack of secure environment, an association of family honour with a girl, etc. are some made-up reasons why girls are not enrolled in schools.
A person earning a modest income from daily wages usually does not consider it a fruitful investment to educate his/her girl because she will one day leave for her in-law’s house with a hefty amount dowry. An increase in crime against women also deters parents in sending girls to school due to the perception of girls bringing shame to the family if they are harassed or molested by boys in and on way to school.
To tackle this, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao got implemented wherein girls are being awarded sum of 10,000 INR on 100% transition from class V to class VI; 15,000 INR on 100% transition from class VIII to class IX; and 20,000 INR 100% transition from class X to class XI. Additionally, a prize of a sum of 5,000 INR is awarded to the top ten girls at each level of education.
In rural India, only 367 higher education schools are within 1 km distance per 1000 distribution of households. Long-distance to schools and the imposition of a guardian to accompany girls to school also makes it difficult for commuting everyday schools for girls.
In 2006, the government of the Indian state of Bihar introduced an innovative programme that aimed to improve school access and reduce the gender gap in secondary school enrollment by providing girls who continued to secondary school with a bicycle. Researches have shown that being in the Cycle programme increased girls’ age-appropriate enrolment in secondary school by 30% and reduced the gender gap in enrolment by 40%.
As per the World Bank report 2018, three in four girls complete their higher secondary school. The increase in number is due to actions by the government through initiatives like RTE, Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan, and Beti Bachao Beti Padho. Not only have programmes to create awareness about girl education have increased but also efforts to improve infrastructure and environment of the schools have been undertaken that have helped in raising the number of girls going to school.
In a bid to aid the government initiatives to promote girl education, several NGOs and other civil service organizations have been working hard for years, even before the introduction of RTE and BBBP.
Mission Education programme of Smile Foundation is among the leading programmes aimed at promoting and pushing for girl education. With more than 261 centres in 22 states of the country, Mission Education supports more than 37,000 children every year by providing remedial and formal education. Since its inception in 2002, more than 200,000 children have benefitted from the programme. Out of the total students under Mission Education, 51% have been girls. Currently, in 2019, Smile has 25,308 girls supported under the programme, which is a drastic change from the number of girls that studied 5 years ago, which was only 9,476 in 2014.
The Mission Education programme is focused on promoting girl child education and discussions with parents and community are done on educating the girl child at all levels. The programme aims to work on providing an enabling environment for girls which includes separate toilets for girls. Celebratory days like International and National girl child days are also observed at the majority of the centres. Health check-ups are conducted and adolescent education awareness is done regularly. As girls usually have the responsibility of sibling care, to support that many of the centres allow bringing siblings to the centre while girls come to attain their education.
Along with Mission Education, integrated efforts are pulled off with Swabhiman, where Smile reaches out to girls 13 years onwards supporting them in scholarships, and 10 years onwards in adolescent education awareness.
About Author: Mr Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder, and Executive Trustee, Smile Foundation has been involved in making Smile Foundation a structured and successful non-profit organization since 2005. Smile Foundation began its journey formally in 2002, pioneering the principles of good governance in the non-profits and the innovative concept of Social Venture Philanthropy (SVP), with the latter handholding grassroots NGOs to achieve accountability, scalability, sustainability, and leadership
Three-day workshop held for community-based organisations
DNA (02 February 2014)
स्कूली लड़कियों में खून की कमी को दूर करने का प्रयास कर रहा है स्माइल फाउंडेशन
( October 18, 2019 )
बनेगा स्वस्थ, स्वच्छ इंडिया के तहत नवजात बच्चों के स्वास्थ्य की दिशा में काफी काम किया गया है. इसमें क्षेत्र में काफी सुधार भी देखने को मिला है. इसी मुहीम के तहत स्माइल फाउंडेशन गुरुग्राम के एक स्कूल में किशोर लड़कियों में खून की कमी को दूर करने का प्रयास कर रहा है. देखे रिपोर्ट
Sustainability workshop for grassroot NGO’s.
Vijayavani (03 February 2014)
In India’s Health Capital Chennai, Smile Foundation Provides Free Medical Counselling And Treatment At Door Step
( October 16, 2019 )
Smile on Wheels in Chennai’s Pattinambakkam and Velachery block is addressing to the primary healthcare needs of the poor by offering free, door step medical facilities
New Delhi: “I remember in 2016 I saw a van standing close to my house, on enquiring I was informed it is a mobile medical unit van called Smile on Wheels, present in our village to address our medical needs that too free of cost. The medical van came as a blessing for people like me who can’t afford private hospitals and going to government hospitals means taking a day off from work”, says 30-year-old Jaya from Mattan Kuppam village in Chennai, while speaking to NDTV. Jaya is one of the many villagers reaping benefits of NGO Smile Foundation’s Smile on Wheels initiative launched in the city in 2015.
Smile on Wheels is a custom-tailored mobile medical unit van, armed with modern equipment, a doctor and qualified nursing attendant on board, made available to cater to the primary healthcare needs of beneficiaries. The mobile van addresses three challenges – accessibility, affordability, and unavailability by providing free of cost, door step consultation, basic medical check-ups and follow up medicines.
Smile on Wheels, mobile medical unit van, providing free healthcare at doorstep
Talking about getting free medical treatment, elated Jaya belonging to anglers community says,
Be it cold and cough or stomach ache, I and my family reach out to the doctor at SOW. One of the major problems I had was UTI (Urinary tract infections) which has been completely eradicated through medication and counselling.
In September 2015, Smile Foundation with the help of Ericsson Global India Pvt. Ltd. introduced Smile on Wheels in Pattinambakkam and Velachery block of Chennai, covering 20 villages and since then it has been meeting villagers for all their medical needs. Talking about the selection of project location, Santanu Mishra, co-founder and trustee, Smile Foundation, says,
Whenever we start a new project, the broader location like Chennai is selected by the donor. In the second step, urban settlement or a particular community is identified by assessing the current status of healthcare – need, accessibility and availability, population, size of the families, number of bread winners in a family, their occupation, among others.
One Medial Unit, 20 Villages: How Smile On Wheels Addresses Primary Healthcare Needs
As per the information shared by Vignesh, project coordinator, one mobile medical unit van has been allotted for the two target blocks in Chennai. The medical van covers five villages in a week (Monday to Friday) which means, it visits every target village once a month. With an aim to reduce the out of pocket health expenses by urban slum dwellers, the mobile van provides free healthcare – check-up and medicines usually for 7-10 days. In case a patient needs long term treatment, the medical practitioner (from SoW) refers him/her to a better hospital.
Explaining how do villagers get to know about the arrival of SOW, Jaya says,
The days are fixed like for our village Mattan Kuppam it is the first Monday of every month. Also, on its arrival, ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery) informs and mobilises us.
In the last four years, the SoW in Chennai has reached out to over 1.5 lakh (1,54,834) people in the villages and has impacted 66,261 beneficiaries through 1,008 OPD (outpatient department) session, as of August 2019.
Sharing her experience of availing healthcare facilities from SoW and why she chooses it over government hospitals, 50-year-old Kalai Selvi says,
I dread going to a government hospital for three reasons: it is 5 kms away, the usual waiting time is of 5 hours (approximately) and standing in long queue increases my blood pressure (BP). Through SOW, in the last six months, I have got my health check-up done on a regular basis, treatment for headache, body ache and fever and even a face mask for my smoke allergy.
Talking about providing healthcare, Satnam Singh, head, health vertical at Smile Foundation, says,
Most of the patients coming to us are women in their reproductive age group of 18-45 years. While gynecological problems are by far few, the maximum disease burden comes from lifestyle ailments like diabetes, arthritis and respiratory tract infections.
The team working in Chennai tried identifying top symptomatic ailments in MattanKuppam in Pattinambakkam Block and the findings majorly revealed the prevalence of lifestyle diseases like respiratory problems, diabetes, skin, anaemia, muscular skeletal system, alimentary tract infections and other infectious diseases. Talking about the reason behind the rise in lifestyle diseases, Santanu Mishara says,
Lifestyle diseases are not restricted to the rich populations alone. The diet pattern of a community is responsible for this sharp rise in diabetes and hypertension. A leaning towards carbohydrates, sugars and fats in the diet is responsible for this growing trend of non-communicable disease burden in this part of the country. As part of our programme, doctors and paramedics often hold awareness sessions on lifestyle diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, the importance of nutrition, right eating and sanitation among other things.
Community outreach is a crucial component of Smile Foundation’s health initiative and the team aims to continue with it to inculcate health seeking behavior in the community.
Smile Foundation supports & empowers grassroot NGO’s
Vijay Karnataka (03 February 2014)
‘We change lives through our programmes’
The New Indian Express (20 February 2014)
National Nutrition Month: This NGO Is Aiming To Eradicate Anaemia Among Adolescent Girls In A Gurgaon Community
( September 12, 2019 )
Through its project Swabhiman and support from Avery Dennison, NGO Smile Foundation has helped adolescent girls of Surat Nagar Phase 2, of Gurugram (erstwhile Gurgaon) overcome iron deficiency anaemia
New Delhi: In 2016, World Bank estimated that India loses 0.9 percent of GDP, amounting to a loss of up to $ 20.25 billion (RS.1.35 lakh crore) because of anaemia. The disease primarily caused by lack of essential nutrients like iron, vitamin B12 reduces the productivity of people it afflicts and in extreme cases can be fatal. In India, Anaemia is more prevalent among women (pregnant and non-pregnant) belonging to the age group of 15-49 years when compared to men of the same age group. 53.1 per cent of women were found to be Anaemic in National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 of 2015-16, as opposed to 22.7 per cent of men who were Anaemic.
A small effort to improve the health of 100 adolescent girls by controlling iron deficiency (anaemia) in the selected community of Surat Nagar Phase 2 Gurugram (erstwhile Gurgaon) was initiated by a Delhi based NGO Smile Foundation and adhesive manufacturing company in January this year.
he project was introduced under Smile Foundation’s umbrella project Swabhiman instigated in 2005 to make a difference to the status of women’s health. Giving out details of the Swabhiman project, Seema Kumar, project lead, says, “Unfortunately, far from being empowered, most women are denied even their basic rights like health, education, employment and a respectable status in the society. To address these challenges, a tailor-made strategy called the ‘4 S Model’ has been developed under Swabhiman (self-respect) project.
Identification Of The Target Group
Over the years, Gurugram, known as the financial and technological hub, has witnessed a rise in the number of migrant labour, moving into the city for work. The demographic study of the identified location revealed that it is dominated by underprivileged and gender-biased community where girls are often deprived of proper nutrition.
Through regular health check-ups, the prevalence of anaemia among the women and girls was noted. It is only then Smile Foundation and Avery Dennison decided to improve the health of 100 adolescent anaemic girls (10-19 years) through education and awareness.
Improving Iron Deficiency Anaemia In The Selected Community Of Surat Nagar Phase 2, Gurugram
In January 2019, when Haemoglobin (Hb) tests were done, on an average, Hb levels were recorded between 6-11 gm/dl (grams per decilitre) as opposed to ideal levels of 11-16 gm/dl among children. After six months, in June, another blood test was done and significant improvement in the Hb levels of the beneficiaries was recorded.
Among all the beneficiaries was a 15-year-old Sapna, working as a volunteer with Smile Foundation since 2018; who was diagnosed with anaemia during one of the health check-ups. Recalling the day and how her Hb levels improved in just six months, Sapna says,
“One day my mentor noticed my eyes and asked me to get a health check-up done because my eyes looked extra white. In January this year, I was diagnosed with anaemia and my Hb levels were recorded at 7 gm/dl (as opposed to the ideal Hb of minimum 11 gm/dl). I was given iron and folic acid supplements and asked me to inculcate nutritious food in my diet which majorly included add green leafy vegetables, milk, chick peas and jaggery. Back then I didn’t know how severe anaemia can be, let alone how to cure it.
After six months, in June, Sapna’s Hb level rose to commendable 8.5gm/dl. But the question here is, what motivated the 15-year-old girl and other adolescents to adopt healthy practices and diet and how did they do it.
To create awareness among girls and educate them about the health benefits of having adequate Hb levels, focus group discussions, group meetings, one on one counselling sessions, workshop with nutrition expert, and community medical doctor was organised.
Until and unless individuals are educated about the health implications of a particular disease, they take little to no preventive and corrective measures. Keeping that in mind, during all the discussions and workshops, various aspects of anaemia – symptoms, treatment and prevention, and nutritious diet were discussed. Talking about the same, Seema says,
“People residing in the rural region can’t afford luxurious or expensive nutritious food like red meat, fish, tofu, sea food, so we would suggest low cost nutritious food like lentils, sprouts, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and jaggery. We discussed good practices of cooking to preserve nutrients like steaming and boiling, nutritious and balanced diet (protein rich food like lentils, beans, seasonal fruits and vegetables, whole grains, iron and vitamin C rich food and dairy products) for overall development, among other things.
With education and expert guidance, the team managed to improve the Hb levels among the adolescent girls and within six months results started showing. Earlier, in January, the minimum Hb among the target group was 6gm/dl, but in June, it shot upto 8gm/dl. Also, before Smile Foundation’s intervention, only a couple of girls had Hb levels more than 9gm/dl, but today 82 girls have Hb levels at 9 and above.
“The adolescence period is an intense anabolic period when the requirements for all nutrients increases. The poor food habits, lack of resources and lack of nutritional awareness are considered to be the main factors in determining nutritional status. During the intervention period, we tried to change the poor food habits, and raise awareness about anaemia and how even poor people can have nutrients rich diet, says Seema Kumar.
Dangers Of Anaemia
Experts believe Anaemia can be acute to fatal. People with severe levels of Anaemia may face cardiac attack and can die due to complications. Pregnant women, if Anaemic, can witness impediments during delivery. Also, if a pregnant woman is anaemic, new born will also be anaemic which can hamper the child’s growth.
“Most of the people who have Anaemia have decreased capacity to work and are often breathless, they are less productive and can’t exert themselves. Even GDP contribution will be less from such people, suggests Dr Giridhara R Babu, Professor, Head Lifecourse Epidemiology, PHFI, Bangalore.
Skill development for the unemployed youth
Eenadu (23 February 2014)
