DEVELOPING INDIGENOUS RESOURCES - INDIA

Summary of Activities

March 2012

THOUGHT FOR THE MONTH -

PEACE IS NOT ONLY BETTER THAN WAR, BUT INFINETLY MORE ARDUOUS (G.B.Shaw)

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.    CEO's MESSAGE

(Frederick Shaw)

This month, the Trustees of DIR-India came together for their Annual General Meeting. This happened on the second week-end of the month, when our President, Mr. K.T. Srinnivasan took time off from Bankok and Texas, when Mr Rajendra Mishra came from Delhi, and Attny. Guneet Chaudhary came all the way from Sector 34, Chandigarh. This was the first time for newly elected, Mr. S.M. Sharma, to attend an AGM, and his valuable participation made him a welcome addition. The deliberations were harmonious and plans were laid for expansion when this is financially possible. Guneet is convinced that we could receive good support from Indians resident in Australia, but this would only happen after we open a DIR-Australia which would be able to offer tax credit on donations. Accordingly, he requested our CEO to make plans as soon as possible and come with him to Australia to found the new organization. One highlight of the AGM was that Trustees unanimously elected a woman Trustee, Mrs Monica Sood, who has been providing help for DIR since we started. We look forward to her membership and active participation.

 

Another highlight of March was that I convinced Mr. Pannu to come out of retirement and re-join DIR. He is a seasoned veteran in Development circles having worked in the past for DIR and also for CARE. His informative Statistical Overview immediately follows my notes here.

 

Towards the end of the month, we started recruiting in earnest for two Physicians and one Nutritionist to fill these vacancies. Inflation in the price of essential goods and petroleum has caused inflation in salaries that is to say everyone else s salaries but ours. Our dismal record in fund-raising continues, and unless we improve in the near future, we will be unable to compete for good employees in the job market.

 

On the bright side, our CASE (Child Activists for Social Empowerment) program is about to start its new session. It may be recalled that last year, CASE children all aged between 9 and 16 were able to reduce the number of children who were diagnosed as chronically, severely malnourished. The highest eleven achievers won shiny new bicycles. Amongst activities planned for this session, in addition to the games and sports and educational experiences, are two that we hope will be exceptionally good for the children, for the slum, and for DIR. The first is that we hope to have the children make a stretch of the road into the slum spotlessly clean. Presently, the road is lined on each side with literally thousands of plastic bags and discarded trash. We hope to get the children to put the collected junk into a pit which the civic authorities will hopefully dig for us. In the second project, we plan to motivate our 230 CASE children to paint the exterior walls of all houses on the major lane through our basti. This will call for a lot of paint, and so we will need to awaken the spirit of donation in the minds of paint companies and retail outlets! We call this our Shining Houses project, and we have high hopes that it will brighten-up the look of our slum, that it will inspire other home owners to paint their homes, that its high visibility will bring DIR some media publicity, and - most important of all - it will allow the children to demonstrate to themselves and others that they can make a difference.

 

While we were delighted to celebrate the marriage ceremonies which attended the wedding of Administrative Assistant, Sukhwinder, we were sorry to learn that she will treat marriage as a full-time job, and provide for DIR, one more vacancy. We have never had such a small Senior Staff.

 

 

 

2.    STATISTICAL OVERVIEW

(Mr. IBS Pannu - Administrative Officer)

The most recent expansion of our project means that we have passed the 15,000 beneficiary level. Now our programs provide services for 15,252 slum residents.

 

The following table provides data on homes and families:

1	Number of homes in project area	3,547
2	Number of homes visited this month	3,429 (97%)
3	Average number of residents per home	4.3
4	Number of one-room homes with 5 or more residents	132
5	Number of homes with latrines	3,140 (88%)
6	Number of homes with newly installed latrines	24
7	Homes without running water	141 (4%)

 

The following table shows the most recent data on Child Nutrition:

1	Children under the age of 5 years (who are all weighed monthly)	1,620
2	Number of above children weighed this month (others were absent)	1,538 (95%)
3	Number of children of appropriate weight for age	741 (48%)
4	Number of children Malnourished (judging by weight for age)	511 (33%)
5	Number Severely Malnourished (judging by weight for age)	286 (19%)
6	Number Very Severely Malnourished (judging by weight for age)	20 (1.5%)
NB	It should be noted here that when our project started, 87% of the children under the age of five were severely malnourished. The new figure, as shown above is (19 + 1.5) less than 21%

 

Our present staff consists of: 13 H.P s, 2 Senior H.P s, a Field Coordinator, Nutritionist cum Administrator,

Administrative Officer, a Stitching Instructor, 5 Teachers, a Maid and a School Van Driver, and our CEO.

 

3. NUTRITION

(Ms. Natasha Bhardwaj - DIR-I Nutritionist cum Administrator)

A new Health Promoter joined DIR-I this month. So again Health Promoter s were re-taught about some basics things in the nutrition like nutrients, meal planning, breast feeding and its advantages to the child and mother, introduction of weaning foods and its benefits to small children. Apart from this, some other some important topics such as diets in anemia, diabetes and obesity were reviewed. In the end of month Nutrition quiz was planned for the Health Promoters to judge their overall performance in the subject and most of them scored very well.

Nurtition demonstrations were held in our bustee office and also in different areas of Janta colony and Adarsh Nagar on the preparation of Uttapam, a low-cost nutritious south Indian snack. Uttapam includes locally available ingredients of curd, semolina, seasonal vegetables. Curd and semolina are especially good sources of calcium, B-Complex, with some protein and calories. The included vegetables. carrot, spinach, tomato, onions, etc., provide us with iron, vitamin A and C, calcium and phosphorous, this makes this recipe especially valuable for growing children.

DIR-Nutritionist giving a demonstration of uttapam, to Health Promoters

 

 

 

4. MOTHERS HEALTH

( Ms. Meena Kumari - Senior Health Promoter)

Pregnancies

On the 1^st of March, there were 93 pregnant women in Janta colony and Adarsh Nagar. Of these, 17 women delivered their babies during this month. Twenty Six others shifted their residence permanently from the colony. Thirty Two new pregnancies were reported this month. All the 17 women who delivered during the month had had three or more Antenatal check-ups.

Deliveries

Out of 17 women who delivered this month, eleven delivered in the Government Hospital, Sector-16, one delivered in the PGI Hospital, one delivered in the GMC Hospital, Sector 32, one delivered in sector 21 Hospital, one delivered in ESIC Hospital in Ramdarbar and two delivered at home. Fifteen deliveries were assisted by qualified professionals and two assisted by local midwife. Remarkably - in view of the efforts made to have male children - the number of baby girls born was more than three times the number of boys born. Of the newborns, 4 are boys and 13 are girls. All the women who delivered had their postnatal examinations within 2 days of delivery.

 

 

 

5. IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMME

(Ms. Veena Rani Senior Health Promoter)

 

As usual, government immunizers came to the DIR Centre to give shots every Wednesday. Our Health Promoters maintain records of all the immunizations of all children under the age of five years and so are enabled to ensure that every child gets his/her shots on schedule.

In the four immunization days at the DIR office during the month of March, a total of 264 shots were given to the children. Details are as follows:

(a) Measles 22 (b) Measles Booster -18(c) BCG -3 (d) DT -19 (e) DPT Booster - 28

SHOTS	1st Dose	2nd Dose	3rd Dose
Hepatitis B	33	28	21
DPT	26	18	16
TT	16	8	-

 

 

In addition to these, 5 ten-year-old and 3 sixteen year old children were given tetanus shots, and 68 children were given a supplemental dose of Vitamin A.

 

Immunization Camp in progress at DIR s bustee Office.

 

 

6. D.O.T.S.

(Mr. Sunny Bighania Senior Health Promoter)

 

On the 1^st of March, 14 Tuberculosis patients were served medicines at our bustee office through the government DOTS program run by DIR. Our bustee office is an authorised DOTS centre, and patients from the vicinity get their supply of medicine from our office on a regular basis.One new patient has been diagnosed having Tuberculosis this month, and has started medication from our Centre.

We have Twelve Category I Patients, and Two Category II Patients.

 

Following is a brief description of what each Category is:

               Category I All those new patients whose pulmonary smear is positive for Tuberculosis Bacilli or those whose pulmonary smear is negative but are seriously ill or those who have extra pulmonary Tuberculosis but are seriously ill are included in Category I. This month, we have 12 patients in this category .

 

               Category II Those old Tuberculosis patients who had either defaulted from the treatment at an earlier stage and have re-started the treatment or those who have again contracted the disease after being cured once or those who had not been cured even after completing a full prescribed course. This month we have only 2 patients in this category.

 

 

 

 

7. INCOME GENERATION

( Ms. Meena Kumari - Senior Health Promoter )

SKILLS TRAINING

Under the program of skills training, a total of fifteen women from bustee are learning stitching in our bustee office. Aside from stitching classes being held in DIR bustee office, DIR also give paid assignments to bustee women in form of stitching of wine, i-Pad, Craft and String Purses. Under our program they daily improve their skills, and many - at the same time - increase the family income by making products we market. In the month of March they made: 146 wine bags, 34 craft bags, 8 i-Pad bags, and 4 Purses. They are making good money from these assignments and fulfil the basic needs of their families.

 

 

 

Women learning sewing in DIR bustee Office

 

8. EDUCATION

(Ms. Sunita Sharma Head Teacher)

Holi is one of the major festivals of India and is the most vibrant of all. The joys of Holi knows no bounds. The festival is celebrated across the four corners of India or rather across the globe. The festival is filled with so much fun and frolic that the very mention of the word 'Holi' draws a smile and enthusiasm from most Indians. Holi also heralds the arrival of Spring, a season of joy and hope. SWAD Kids celebrated Holi on 7^th March. Final academic examinations were conducted on 16^th March for all the classes, namely, Pre-nursery, Nursery and Kindergarten in our School With A Difference . Results of these examinations were out on 23^rd March. School was closed for the Spring break on 26^th March and will reopen on 2^nd April, with a new session and a number of new students in our school.

 

On 22^nd March, Fruit Party and Birthdays of Seven pupils born this month were celebrated in the school and sweets were distributed to the children.

9. PERSONEL ACTIVITY

Visitors

1.     Trustees Mr S.M. Sharma, Mr G. Chaudhary, Mr. KT Srinivasan and Mr Rajender Mishra along with their friend Mr R K Singh.

2.     Dr. Sethi , Ms Nidhi and Ms. Poonam from INPA.

3.     Ms. Anna from Germany.

4.     Mr. Arjun Singh.

Absences:

 

Name	Paid Leave		Unpaid Leave
	Days	March Dates	Days	March Dates
Ms. Natasha (Nutritionist cum Admn.)	1	19
Mr. I B S Pannu ( Administrator)	1	20
Mr. Sanjeev (HP)	3.5	9,12,14 full and13 half
Mrs.Banita (HP)	1.5	26 and 29 half
Ms. Sukhwinder (Astt.Admn)	11	16,19,20,21,22,23,26,27,28,29,30	11	16,19,20,21,22,23,26,27,28,29,30
Mrs. Meenakshi (HP)	1	5
Ms. Sangeeta(HP)	10	5 and 6 half, 19,20,21,23,26,27,28,29,30	9	19,20,21,23,26,27,28,29,30

Mrs. Maya (HP)	0.5	29 half
Mrs. Sushma(HP)	2	22 and 28 half and 23
Ms. Sarita	1	12
Mrs. Anupama (HP)	9	20,21,22,23,26,27,28,29,30	9	20,21,22,23,26,27,28,29,30
Mrs. lata (HP)	0.5	22 half
Mrs. Veena ( Sr. HP)	1	16 and 22 half
Mrs.Sunita (School teacher)	1	7
Mrs.Hema (School teacher)	1	21
Mrs.Reena Paul (Schoolteacher)	2	1,2	2	1,2
Mrs.Krishna ( Stitching teacher )	1	12
Mr. Vinod Singh (Driver)	2	12,13