DIR in India
The Janta Colony Project, Chandigarh [ photo tour ]
In a crowded slum where
8996 people live in 2,047 tiny
homes, located just outside Chandigarh, capital of the Punjab, DIR has
a project being implemented by the residents. This "bustee" is called Janta
Colony.
News from Chandigarh, October 2007
Author: Dr. W. Frederick Shaw[ Read previous updates: September 07, June 07, April 2007, January 2007, October 2006, June 2006 ]
‘Ganesha goes to lunch’ unveiled
Our paragraph title is lifted from an article title written by (reporter) S.D. Sharma in the 13 October edition of the Indian daily newspaper The Tribune. The article is reproduced below:
The Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi organised a dramatic rendering and release of US-based Indian author Kamla K. Kapur’s book "Ganesha Goes to Lunch; Classics from Mystic India" at a simple but highly impressive function at the Government Museum auditorium, here, today…
Born and raised in the cradle of nature - Himachal Pardesh, internationally acclaimed poet, playwright and short story writer Kamla K. Kapur is steeped to the core, in the Hindu way of life and her classic literary creations are inspired by the spiritual and Indian mythological themes. She read out her poems "The Bird who Fought War" and "The Toad Who Did Not Croak", both drawing their thematic essence from the epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana…
"Ganesha Goes to Lunch", brought out by Mandala Publishing, USA, brings 24 insightful tales from the traditional Indian stories and part of the sale will go to Developing Indian Resources, an NGO, Kapur told us. The NGO's chief, Dr Fredrick Shaw and Kapur’s artist husband Payson Stevens, both spoke on the occasion.
Immunization Programme (Contributed by Harsh Sharma)
This month Yuvsatta, a peace and environmental NGO in Chandigarh, also got associated with the immunisation campaign in the Janta Colony, their interest primarily being the health of pregnant women. They provided supplements to the pregnant women when they came for TT shots. In the month of October 2007, 161 shots were given in all, 54 having been given in the first week (Monday, 1st of October, 2007) and 107 in the second week (Monday, 8th of October, 2007).
Nursing and pregnant women (Contributed by Asha Katoch)
In October 2007 we have 77 pregnant mothers. All are immunized.
Deliveries – 23 Deliveries; 14 male, 9 female
6 home delivery, 17 hospital delivery, 4 caesarian sections, 19 normal deliveries
D.O.T.S. (Contributed by Asha Katoch)
We have a total number of 14 cases of Tuberculosis.
Category 1: 7 cases, one of which is new for October
Category 2: 4 cases
Category 3: Three cases – Only 2 cases
Nutrition (Contributed by Aparna Kohli)
As stated in the previous month's report about introducing nutrition teaching training into the daily schedule, this new system has proved very successful. Its impact can be seen in the committee meetings. This has improved their confidence level as well improving their teaching skills.
This month a nutrition demonstration of "Spinach Pancakes" was given. The recipe proved a great success in the basti as it is made of locally available seasonal vegetables. In recent times, the acceptability of such recipes has increased as more and more people are realizing how they can easily and economically raise the nutritional status of their food by combining and adding easily available and inexpensive local ingredients which overcome many prevalent deficiency diseases.
Education (Contributed by Neetika Kapur)
(i) Open School
As stated in the last months report our efforts are fully placed on the wheel of progress for now starting the proposed "OPEN SCHOOL" programme of DIR.
In the recent scheme of events, the most encouraging one has been the keenness of the Sociology Dept., Punjab University to help us with the provision of "Volunteers" that we need for running this programme. They have, from this session only, started a Masters degree course in Social Welfare, and the students of this degree course need to undergo practical training in Social Work, as part of their curriculum. Hence their services, of the order of 2 hrs/week/student fits well within our plan of requirements for the volunteers, needed for operationalizing the Open School programme.
At the same time various city colleges are also being contacted, to be able to rope in as many volunteers as possible for the programme.
Now, the next course of action, for the coming month would be to finalize the place, in liaison with the U.T. Education Dept. for the programme to take off really soon.
(ii) Aanganwadi
In keeping with our principle of measuring the progress we make, we will employ a quantitative as well as qualitative way of analyzing the level of learning and progress achieved by the Aanganwadi students. There has been obtained a test, from one of the Child Development and Growth analysis bodies in Chandigarh. The test is being adapted to our needs.
Also there is a dire need for a school room for running the DIR Aanganwad. As winter is approaching we need to go indoors. Sponsors have been located to fund the building of a one-room school and the work is expected to start soon on building the room in the "Kali Mandir" complex, where the Aanganwadi is presently run.
Income Generation (Contributed by Vinay Chopra)
Rotary has signed the micro-lending agreement with us in October, and preliminary planning has begun to get the program off the ground. A specialist in micro-finance who works with the Voluntary Health Association will be coming to speak with all interested DIR staff the first week of November, and we look forward to any insight she may have.
The micro-lending program will enroll persons whose business proposals are accepted into collectives of 25 members, three of whom will initially be given loans. Once funds become available through repayment, interest-free loans will be available to other members of the collective. Rotary is providing the funds and support for this programme, and DIR will administer it in Janta Colony.
Dental Health Programme (Contributed by Lieke Heijnis)
We are organizing a dental screening among all Janta Colony residents in cooperation with Dr. Satpreet, a local dentist with an MPH from the United States.
The planned screenings will start on 21 November, and continue on the following weekends:
1st and 2nd of December
15th and 16th of December
29th and 30th of December
12th and 13th of January
Third year dental students and interns will provide the screening, under supervision of their teachers and other dentists. We are presently in the planning phase; we have less than 5 weeks left to prepare for the first screening, so time management and planning is critical. By the end of the first week of November tasks will be divided to ensure staff members are aware of their responsibilities.
Sports Programme (Contributed by Lieke Heijnis)
We have continued the sports programme we started last month through October. Most health promoters seem to enjoy the training, and local bustee kids are enthusiastic to join us. We also managed, thanks to Dr. Asha, to get a football coach from St. Stephens High School, who will start visiting us twice a week from October 30 to train our HPs.
Personnel Activity (Contributed by Pannu Singh)
Visitors
04.10.07: Dr. W.F. Shaw escorted Ms. Tessie Campbell from Canada (Her husband is with The Canadian Consulate General’s office) to visit the bustee to gain first hand information about the residents of Janta Colony and their living conditions.
10.10.07: Dr. Satpreet Singh, who has kindly consented to be Co-chairman, along with our CEO, of our Dental Health Committee, has visited us several times and has supplied a list of nearby dental colleges for our reference and contact information.
Changes
Final farewell dinner was hosted at the bustee office on 5 October 2007 for Marat Yu who is returning to Hong Kong. The DIR-I staff contributed in cash and kind to fund his farewell party. One and all expressed appreciation for Marat’s dedication to DIR. We wish him good luck and hope he will come back.
Vinay Chopra (our U.S. Intern) has successfully picked up some of the responsibilities of Marat at the office besides taking sports activities in the Bustee.
Lieke (our Dutch Intern) is a good help in the office and very ably promotes women and girls’ participation in sports activities in the bustee.
Veena HP – Has been given temporary two month reassignment as a Senior Health Promoter effective the first day of November 2007.