Ladies Self-help Group Support & Medical Camp JP-BFP
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We decided to club the medical camp at Janathepada with the parents’ meeting this time. We started off our association with Janathepada in Oct/Nov 2012. We could see tremendous improvement in the infrastructure, gardens, cleanliness, health and hygiene over a period of time. Dedicated and innovative sirs created good library for the students using the books, which we donated. He also ensured that each kid is Aadhar registered. Each kid has his own bank account. We regularly supply them the creative games viz ludo, chess, Lego, Snakes & Ladder and lot of educative stuff. We could see teachers using those to the fullest to improve the analytical abilities of the students. Amongst the 16 schools in the cluster, Janathepada is always rated as number 1. Our only challenge is that since there are many schools in the proximity, the number of students in JP never cross 40 mark.
The health camp was good. Majority had seasonal cough and cold. Hygiene was better. Dip in water consumption resulted in some kids having dry skin. Overall, we were very satisfied with the progress. With support from Suhrid Foundation, the teachers got the kitchen repaired and painted completely. We may sponsor the redevelopment of toilets next year for Janathepada.
Barafpada school was the last entrant in the Suhrid Foundation family. We started off well with the water project last year. We could see transformation in the school after our entry. All the projects viz healthy mid-day meals, de-worming, clean water, cycles, toys, books, tetanus etc were running well. However, one of the main teacher was transferred out of Palghar district, which created major impact on the functioning of the school. One teacher had to manage 5 classes with almost 63 kids overall. His wife or some senior kids were helping the main teacher to balance the workload. Dry and infected skins, seasonal cough were the two main ailments. We might have to work on rain-water harvesting project since ground water is not sufficient to recharge. Teachers were extracting the water once in two days to drag it till the academic year end (and before June when monsoon sets in).
Another Community Initiative to support ladies from the village
In addition to the medical camps, we also had another objective of the visit – meeting with bachat gat ladies (informal groups of ladies formed for the income generation to support the family) for support. We took sample of work (from a small scale industry) which can be carried out by ladies. This sample of work was small work required to make imitation jewelry. Our friend industrialist accepted to carry out this to support the cause. This work is expected to be carried out by females of the village and once done, would carry it back to the manufacturer.
Once this get regularized, ladies from the villages would not necessarily have to go out of the village for work or even do hard-labour on the farms in scorching heat – instead they can work from home while taking care of their kids and elderly parents. We would be engaging with more villages with this kind of work once this model is successful.
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