AARTI’S STORY , Say hello to Aarti Chotelal Dhikar from Amravati District.
After completing her education, she became a community worker under Plan India's tuition India initiative. She has been working with ANC mothers for child care, sanitation, nutrition, dietary practices and combating malnutrition. She enjoys working with mothers and when she conceived, she was able to take good care of herself and gave birth to a healthy baby.
Happy Mother’s Day to the mothers who make the world a better place.
MAINAVATI’S STORY , Meet Mainavati Shantaram Padvi from Nandurbar District.
She has been an integral part of REC since the beginning she has been working on-ground to bring a behavioral change in people. She was able to increase the use of IFA tablets and calcium tablets, Hospital delivery and regular health check-ups. She also gave detailed information about 1000 Days, handwashing, and benefits of breastfeeding.
Happy Mother’s Day to the mothers who make the world a better place.
“Proud to announce, not only did Rani survive but now she is a healthy growing baby” – her CNW
Rani, a 6-month-old baby girl in Dharni, a tribal block of Amravati district of Maharashtra, was diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, she was also suffering with an edema (swelling) and risked losing her life.
One of REC Community Nutrition Workers (CNW) came into contact with Rani in the village and urged the family to bring her to a health institution. After two days of discussion, the family agreed and the child was admitted to the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre (NRC).Baby Rani underwent intensive treatment for 21 days at the centre, where she gained weight and was eventually discharged. The Community Nutrition Worker monitored the child after her discharge and advised her mother on post discharge nourishment.
“Ritu is healthy, and is now motivating other pregnant women to complete health checkups and opt for institutional delivery.” – Ritu’s CNW
Ritu (name changes), who became pregnant at the age of 16. The girl took several abortion pills but was unsuccessful due to the advanced stage of pregnancy. Ritu weighs 32kg and is severely anaemic (HB 5). She was at a high risk of delivering an underweight baby and losing her own life.
AA Community Nutrition Worker (CNW) came into contact with Ritu and urged the family to register for an antenatal check-up. She also gave them guidance on diet and took the girl to the hospital, where Ritu was administered with two units of blood. She received benefit from the voucher scheme to cover transportation costs and subsistence allowance, covering the cost of food for 4 days, compensating for the loss of her parent’s wages.
The CNW visited Ritu on a regular basis, offering counselling at every stage. Ritu started gaining weight but her haemoglobin levels remained low. The girl's parents agreed to an institutional delivery where the baby was delivered safely, weighing 2.5kg. Ritu later became a campaigner for the project and urged other pregnant women to go for their checkups and opt for an institutional delivery.
REC helped Sajan not only survive but thrive!
Rajan, a 2 year old boy with Severely Acute Malnutrition, the child failed his appetite test and had numerous boils in his head.
Community nutrition worker identified the child in the village, persuaded by the child's family to admit the child in health institution. The child’s family is very poor hence, we provided a voucher to cover the transportation cost, and subsistence allowance, which had food cover for 14 days and cover for livelihood loss of parents, which happened during their stay at the NRC. Parents were facilitated to open Bank Account in postal payment bank, wherein they received door step delivery of cash as part of voucher scheme of REC.
The treatment at Nutrition Rehabilitation Center ensured that he was stable, the child recovered after 15 days of intensive onsite treatment.
Fulabai and her baby is healthy, with her now other women of Danel village started reaching out of the Anganwadi for benefits including Take home ration and Antenatal check-ups, Immunization.
Fulabai (name changed) Fulabai, a lactating mother is pregnant with the 6th child. Due to her believe in traditional norms, practices and her fear for injection, she had rejected modern medicines. She had never visited Anganwadis, even not for collecting the take-home ration and hot cooked food, which is provided free of cost to all pregnant and lactating women. The Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Days, were known as immunization days, which she has always avoided.
7th July 2019, was the Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day at her village, when somebody knocked at her door, it was Community Nutrition Worker, Manisha. Manisha was very new to the village but she has collected all basic information about under-five children, pregnant and lactating women of the village, she knows Fulabai is her target household with five malnourished children and a possibly a high-risk pregnant women.
After a long persuasion, Manisha could convince, Fulabai and her husband, and could take stock of Fulabai’s maternal health. Result of the interaction shocked Manisha, when could understand that despite all her five children malnourished, the pregnant women is proud to her believe in traditional norms and practices of not taking medicine. Actually, it was the story of most of the women of village of Danel, they shared beliefs on unspoken cultural norms. There was a high influence of traditional healers and peers, which guided their individual behaviour and imposed believe on traditional healers.
Manisha, communicated the information to the project team leaders, she needed additional support to work with the situation. She made repeated visits to Fulabai’s house, had multiple discussion with her on importance of 1000 days, breastfeeding, antenatal check-ups, proper nutrition, diet diversity, the spacing between pregnancies, post-natal care. Manisha introduced games and videos to convince Fulabai, got her registered to the Anganwadi and made her mother-child protection card and started her antenatal check-ups. Fulabai was diagnosed as high-risk pregnancy with very low haemoglobin (6 g/dl), administered with five doses of Iron Sucrose Injection and 200 Iron Folic Acid tablets.
