Kalanjiam Health initiative

As part of deepening microfinance activities, the Kalanjiam Programme has undertaken civic interventions on reproductive and child health, curative care, malaria control, programme on HIV/AIDS, sanitation, safe drinking water, electricity and housing.

Kalanjiam Reproductive and Child Health(KRCH) Programme

The Kalanjiam Programme undertook a pilot projecton Reproductive and Child Health in eight advanced Kalanjiam federations to promote health seeking behaviour among member families through behaviour change communication (BCC)approaches. The project was supported by ICICI bank.

The baseline on KAP and Haemoglobin clinical test revealed that the prevalence of anaemia was 89.5 percent among pregnant women and 95.5 percent among adolescent girls. BCC was first piloted in anaemia control component that gave good results in changing behaviour and practice towards anaemia control. In the end line survey, the change in knowledge from 65 per cent to 93 per cent was noticed. About 85-90 percent of the target members have changed their behaviour and practice especially in consumption of iron rich food, IronFolic Acid and de-worming tablets. About 35.4 percent of adolescent girls and 25.7 percent of pregnant women have come out from anaemia. There was not a single case of severely anemic. As part of interventions on childhood malnutrition aninterim assessment was undertaken during the reporting period. The results showed that around 20 percent children have become normal and the percentage of grade IV and V children have significantly reduced. The focus during ante natal as well as post natal periods has brought good impact on the birth weight of children.

The fund mobilized for the cause of anaemia reduction through Madurai Marathon 2009 was allocated to initiate anaemia control project among adolescent girls and pregnant women in Singampunari block of Madurai district and Malkapuram block of Vizag region. Building on from the positive experience of the first phase of interventions, the programme has expanded the KRCH programme in 10 locations. The preliminary analysis of the baseline survey showed that 91 percent of the adolescent girls and pregnant womenwere anaemic.

Anaemia Control Project - Collaboration with the state government of Tamil Nadu

DHAN Foundation has partnered with the State Health Society, Tamil Nadu to implement anaemia control interventions in five selected blocks. The project covers entire population in the block and aimed at enabling Village Health and Sanitation Committee(VHSC) for implementing this project. Preparation of inception reports, placement of project team in locations, creation of baseline, formation of adolescent groups, initiation of cultural campaigns and other educational activities were undertaken during the year. Now haemoglobin test for all the adolescent girls and pregnant women is being taken. A convention on VHSC was conducted to clarify about role of VHSC members and prepare action plan for anaemia control.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project was taken up in 50 locations. Creation of awareness among the Kalanjiam member families was the primary focus of the project. Followed by an orientation, a technical training on the subject was given to block integrators, community accountants and cluster associates of the project locations. Abaseline survey on KAP on the subject was completed in the project locations during the year. Communication materials to ensure practices on safe drinking water, hand washing and usage oftoilet have been developed in consultation with resource persons.

Interventions on HIV/AIDS

Campaign for creatingawareness on HIV/AIDS among member households was taken up in 50 Kalanjiam locations. A work place policy on HIV/AIDS was developed and work place training on HIV/AIDS to all the blockintegrators, community accountants and cluster associates in 12 regions has been organised. Focused HIV/AIDS intervention was taken up in Sellur location from Madurai Urban and Ponnamapet and Kondalampatti locations in Salem. In addition tocreating awareness, the project focuses onidentifying the HIV positive individuals, linkingthem with the positive network and government system for counseling, treatment and care, promoting livelihood opportunities for the affected and breaking the stigma and discrimination among the community. So far four men and three women with the infection were identified and referred to Integrated Counseling and Treatment Center run by the Government. Three medical camps were conducted at Sellur in which 115 persons benefitted out of it. The Kalanjiam members in Madurai urban locations participated in the exhibition cum screening camp organised in Red Ribbon Express by Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society to create awareness about HIV/AIDs. Cultural campaigns with three trained teams using folklores programmes were conducted in 192 places.

Sustainable Healthcare Advancement (SUHAM)

In order to create access to quality and timely healthcare service at affordable cost, community managed SUHAM Hospitals have been initiated inTheni and Madurai. In Theni SUHAM Hospital 8,705 outpatients and 189 inpatients including 51 surgery cases were treated. The hospital could cover 80 percent of its operational costs. Similarly the Madurai SUHAM Hospital has served 20,186 outpatients and 864 inpatients including 147surgeries. As many as 21 camps have been conducted on different ailments. Likewise, fourhealth centres housed in Federation offices have served 7,243 patients and they could meet all their costs themselves. (Source: Annual Report 2009-2010, Pages 50-52)

The evaluation report of the Anaemia Control Project implemented by the Kalanjiam Federations by Dr. Abel Rajaratnam and Dr. Jolly Abel (Source: Annual Report 2009, Pages 70-74)

Combating anaemia! Ensuring maternal and child health! - Achieving MDGs, DHAN’s way (Source: Achieving MDGs, DHAN’s way, Pages 14-15)