The project in a few words

Mahila Shanti aims to create a health and medical coverage by involving women, 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 during childbirth.

By their place in the social structure and the organization of the village and by the education of their children, the 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 make this change happen!

The origins of the project

My name is Soline, I am French and I live in Zürich (Switzerland). My great-uncle's name is Marc. He has been a Jesuit for 70 years in Gumla (Jharkhand, India). For many years he has been organizing projects with the villagers of this region and finding donors to finance the construction of bridges, schools and dams for example. When I was 15 years old, I had the great chance to visit him and that trip left a deep impression on me, especially the hospitality and kindness with which I was welcomed. Last year, he told me about this project to train young girls with the support of this health and medical coverage, and the difficulty of finding the necessary funds. I thought about participatory financing and how lucky we are to be able to participate in changing the world by supporting projects that speak to us!

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 starting the fundraising with 11'000€, which will finance 1 year of the project.

The rewards

The totality of the donations made -even if the objective is exceeded- will be used for the realization of the project! All donors will receive a newsletter to be informed of the progress of the project.

For the deduction of donations in your tax return, a request to the Swiss tax department is underway: we should have confirmation in a few months that we can provide a tax receipt.

Mahila Shanti: access to health for all

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