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DIR in India The Janta Colony Project, Chandigarh
News from Chandigarh, April 2007 Authors: Aparna Kohli & Dr. Kanwaljit Singh(Read previous updates: June 2006, October 2006, January 2007] Cultural evening: One of the major highlights last month was to be a
Health Promotion-cum-Cultural Evening on 28th February. It was to be
a gala outdoor event, held in the grounds of nearby Suraj Complex. We had
started preparing for the event weeks in advance, with numerous rehearsals (ably
directed by our Dr. Asha) throughout the month of February. Unfortunately,
inclement weather, which turned the venue into a pond, forced us to postpone it
by one day. The program was finally performed in the auditorium of DAV College
Chandigarh. The program started with a prayer by Senior Health Promoter, Rajbir
Singh, followed by a performance of a Rajasthani Folk Dance by our female Annual General Meeting:
Dr. Scott Weissman lecture in PGIMER: Dr. Scott Weissman, Board Member of DIR, is a researcher in Infectious Diseases at University of Washington at Seattle. He is currently doing research on the Evolutionary Patterns of the Escherichia coli bacterium. He shared some of his knowledge and experience when he gave a lecture on the subject to the physicians at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh on March 1. The lecture was well received by the audience, as evidenced by the response and enthusiasm showed by the audience in the post-lecture question and answer session. Lake Lunch:
Puppet Show on Women Rights:
Puppet Shows on Health Related Issues:
Punjab Government Requests DIR India To Help: We feel lucky these days to get Punjab Government’s support for our projects. At the invitation of our Trustee, Dr. Amrit Bolaria, Mrs. Surinder Kaur Badal, wife of current Chief Minister of Punjab visited our Janta Colony Office on 12th March. There she interacted with the DIR-I staff, and got a closer look into the working of our project. So impressed was she by our project that she convinced her husband that we should have programs widely in Punjab State, and that the Government should foot the bill. The very next day, our CEO met the Chief Minister Punjab, Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, and visited Badal Village for an overnight stay at the Minister’s home. He inspected the village and started to study the feasibility of extension there. The initial impressions of our CEO have been mixed. He found that though having good physical health facilities, it was a very poor village, in an economically depressed area. Also, the facilities that currently are present in the village are not being optimally utilized. Drug addiction is said to be rampant amongst the local people. Our CEO thinks that although it will be difficult to extend our project to such a remote village so early in the history of DIR-I, the opportunity is one which we should seize. Staff Additions: This month we got new valuable additions to our Staff, with three new members joining us. First, we had Mr. I.B.S. Pannu, who has worked with (the NGO) CARE for over 20 years before coming to work with us. Here he is helping DIR-I in diverse areas such as working at ground level in improving the sanitary conditions in Janta Colony by getting government to clean the drains in the Bustee; Acting as DIR-I’s liaison for interaction with various government officials and agencies besides giving his valuable expertise derived from his long running experience in the field of Public Health. We are sure that his experience will be of much use to us. Second, we now have a new physician- Dr. Harsh Sharma who is trained in India's traditional Homeopathic System of Medicine. We hope to use his expertise in the medical field for our new upcoming projects. Then, we have employed Mr. Rajinder for the post of Senior Health Promoter. These additional Staff are essential for the planned expansion of our programmes. Daily Duties:
The training of our Health Promoters is almost complete and soon their schedule will be taken over entirely, except for one half day a week, by field work. This half day will be used for additional training and administrative details, checking reports, etc. The field staff we presently have is being augmented by new employees so that when we expand, the most senior Health Promoters will move to the new areas as trainers. |