preventive activities
health awareness
The principal aim of this organization is "health". Pursuing our belief that only by providing treatment facilities and medicines the problems of the villages cannot be solved unless awareness through health education is successfully created, the Sangha has laid utmost importance to this aspect. Though it is a long term programme but we are happy to note the appreciable changes already brought about in the villages through health awareness bringing benefits of health habits and healthy living.
Primary Immunization has been the oldest activity of the Sangha. The programme particularly covered all the villages under consideration and has shown encouraging results.
At present in 50 villages covered, 100% immunization has been achieved. Most of the children are covered in the rest of the villages under our Centres owing to spread of awareness by our activities.
The Sangha now locates the drop-out children on the basis of a door-to-door survey in the areas of its activity and thereafter helps to complete the vaccination of these children through Government and Non-Government Agencies running immunization programmes.
With due stress on 'safe motherhood and child survival', the Sangha has undertaken antenatal, natal and post-natal services including immunization coverage of the mothers as well as pathological tests, general health checkup, councelling of pregnant mothers on child care and distribution of medicines to them. In the working schedule of the Sangha's Mobile Healthcare Unit, a separate time slot has been kept exclusively for Mother & Child Health Care programme for each centre. The endeavour has been directed towards encouragement, motivation and practice in relation to family planning. At present, the programme has been largely expanded. Adolescent girls have been brought under the programme where they are provided with regular health check-up and made aware regarding aspects of their health.
Malnutrition is predominant in interior rural areas. The Sangha has come forward with a successful scheme to arrest this problem of malnutrition - the NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTATION THERAPY Scheme by identifying the malnourished children and to maintain their Road-to-Health Charts, regularly providing them with ready-mix Nutrition Supplementation Therapy. These food packets, prepared as per the approved formula of CINI, National Institution of Nutrition - Hyderabad, are taken by these children everyday along with their regular meals. It has been observed that by taking the nutritional packets, malnourished children gained weight. The Centres of Gopalpur and Sikrakulingram were initially selected for the NST Programme.
Family planning and welfare programme is but an essential part of the overall Rural Development Programme. With a view to create awareness for control of population growth, the Sangha, through its Centres, conducts this programme through Home Visits. As a result, many mothers have been made aware of the importance of the issue and have largely adopted temporary methods for family planning.
In the previous years, Laparoscopic Litigation Camps were organized with mothers having undergone strilization operations successfully. However, the Government does not allow conducting of such camps directly nowadays. Health Guides of the Sangha motivate mothers to visit the nearby Government Health Centres for such sterilization and ligation requirements.
