Local people from the Tribal Villages in Dindigul District in Tamilnadu
India
Project Overview
India has a maternal mortality rate of 230:100,000 live births. 117,000 women die annually from childbirth related causes. The highest number of any country.
BKFA works with the following organisations;
1. Social Action Women’s Education and Development (SAWED)
2. Society for Women’s Education and Awareness Development (SWEAD)
BKFA will be funding two training programs this year (one for SWEAD, one for SAWED).
SWEAD will conduct a baseline study to identify 250 volunteers and midwives who are educated women, traditional midwives and well-wishers of their community. Two women will be selected from each of the 100 villages in the district.
SAWED will select 200 women who are TBAs, Tribal/Dalit women or Village health volunteers from each of the 25 villages.
The women will be selected based on:
· Basic obstetric knowledge and practices
· Willingness to undergo training and work in their village
· Willingness to be involved in activities such as door to door visiting, awareness training and meetings, STD/HIV/AIDS screening and training, dissemination of information, Education and Communication materials, and use of clean birthing kits
· Ability to carry out referral services to the government hospitals and health care institutions for intensive treatment and promote collaborative health action on this project
· Ability to provide education on safe sex, sexuality, reproductive tract infection, personal hygiene etc.
· Promotion of the rights of motherhood and providing healthy citizens for a better India.
SWEAD/SAWED have both worked in development activities in these villages for the past 10 years and 19 years respectively. The decision to focus on maternal health was based on health screening that identified that almost all rural poor women and children were suffering from malnutrition and anaemia and that there were high levels of maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. Sustained improvements in health will come from long term health sector improvements alongside improvements in the ability of people to access these health services. As many of the rural poor, especially the tribal and Dalit women currently do not access medical services, the two NGOs are striving to find sustainable solutions to address health problems by working with local health authorities to fill gaps in the present health system rather than starting new services.
SWEAD/SAWED also continue to work towards finding permanent solutions for these problems through socioeconomic development, participation of the communities in local governance, promoting self-reliance, equality of women and men in the development process and entitlements from the State for meeting of basic needs and amenities.
Almost 10 per cent of families in the target villages have lost a newborn or mother around the time of delivery. The SWEAD and SAWED initial training projects funded by BKFA prompted the social responsibilities of communities to reduce the infant and maternal mortality rates: 95 per cent of trained women and their husband/fathers/sons think that the training has benefited the community. One man said “My wife, my mother and my sister saved two lives (mother and child)”. The men are helping the trained trainers with their mobility to attend births and the training centers. Five per cent of men think that the training meant an income loss during the training days due to their extreme levels of poverty.
Participating Organisations
SAWED is a new organisation to our programme. They request a supply of kits to complement a midwifery training programme to assist 25 Tribal Villages in Dindigul District in Tamilnadu State in India. BKFA has supplied almost 3,000 kits and hopes to supply another 400 in 2012
SWEAD is a new organisation to our programme. A trial of 200 kits was successfully supplied in 2009 and a further 1,400 have been provided to date. The BKFA plans to send another 400 kits in 2012.