Mahila Shanti: access to health for all #2

Mahila Shanti's goal is to create a health and medical coverage by involving women in particular, in a region without doctors and where superstition is very present. In the Gumla region of India, there is still too little knowledge of sanitary and medical measures and too much mortality, especially in childbirth. By their place in the social structure of the village and by the education of their children, women allow the transmission and the assurance of a long-term change. "Mahila" in Hindi means "Lady" in English, "Shanti" in Hindi means "Peace" in English. Together, let's participate in the change by financing the trainings; let's support the 2nd year of this project! (a tax receipt will be issued and sent to each doner for the tax deduction) The origins of the project My name is Soline, I am French and I live in Switzerland. When I was 15 years old, I had the chance to visit my great-uncle Marc, who was a Jesuit in Gumla (Jarkhand, India) for 70 years. It was an opportunity to discover the association he created and to meet the people involved, a beautiful lesson in life! Two years ago, he talked to me about this project of education and empowerment of women to give them more place in the villages. In June 2021, thanks to you, we have collected to finance the 1st year of the project: again a BIG THANK YOU! (more info here: https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/fr/projects/mahila_shanti) In March 2022 I called Marc. Very enthusiastic, he mentioned the launch of the project a month before and strongly encouraged me to continue to allow the financing of the 2 remaining years. But he was feeling physically weak and said he was ready to leave when his time came. His peace touched me, it was beautiful. He died soon after and I got in touch with Sister Anna. After following the Mahila Shanti project for a long time, she has taken the lead and gives me regular updates. The project today (November 2022) Result 1 Out of 650 adolescent girls in these villages; 70% are attending to the weekly class and 50% know their health requirements. Result 2 Out of 90 trained village health promoters, 20 are already active and working with monthly reports and drastic reduction of the sicknesses and of the death rate in the villages; including better access to medication, farming medicinal herbs and preserving herbal plants from the forest. Result 3 Out of 60 women who plan to follow th classes; 15 are trained as midwives and meet families of expecting mothers to counsel them on pre and post natal care of the mother and the child, visiting them regularly and bringing them to the hospital for their checkups. Result 4 Out of 37 dispensaries; 25 are regularly meeting in the network to discusslocal health problems. Result 5 100% of the nurses attend the meetings and 50% now share openly about their problems. 80% of stock of medicine are supplied. 80% of the people trust the advice and treatment of the nurses. The project in detail Since 1992, 37 health centers have been set up in this region. In recent years, training in the villages to raise awareness of hygiene has shown that training supported by a medical structure has positive and lasting consequences on the quality of life of the inhabitants. In this region, the population is 90% tribal (Oraons and Kharias) and 10% of lower Hindu castes (iron workers, potters, cattle herders). The families are made up of 6 to 7 people on average and live mainly from rice cultivation. 135 villages and 27,000 villagers are concerned. Here are the different sides of the project, which would begin at the end of the campaign 1- Training of 650 adolescent girls from 6 different colleges on health and medical topics so that they have the necessary information to take responsibility in their lives and in their villages. 2- Training of 90 village health promoters. They are selected by the villagers and chosen for their commitment and sense of service. They will have monthly meetings at the nearest dispensary to report on the health and medical conditions of their village. 3- Training of 60 midwives. They will visit and follow up pregnant women medically and humanely. 4- The collaboration of the 37 dispensaries of the region. The nurses will have meetings every 2 months to share information on the problems encountered, to analyze the situation regularly and to find solutions together to local health or medical problems. The stocks of medicines will be controlled. 5- Regular visits by nurses to the patients who will have the necessary medication and will be reported in case of aggravation of their condition. Nurses will be reassured of their commitment to provide care in a humane and charitable manner. At the end of this project, the villages will be able to be completely autonomous and organize the necessary training and monthly meetings themselves. Other villages may also be inspired to adopt these changes :) The cost of this project is 32'000€. To optimize the chances of success, we are stagging the project on 3 years and are continuing the fundraising to finance the 2nd year of the project.