Success Stories
Eswari is from Ellapatti village of Madurai District, Tamil Nadu. She and her husband are agricultural labourers. A few years after the birth of her first child, she experienced a sudden loss of weight and prolonged cough and wheezing. A check up at the government hospital confirmed that she had tuberculosis and she had to undergo treatment for at least six months.
A few years later, Easwari was pregnant again at 35 years of her age, with her second child. By this time she had joined the Kalanjiam organised by Kurinji Vattara Kalanjiam, a federation of women SHGs promoted by DHAN Foundation. So she was registered for prenatal care under the Kalanjiam Reproductive and Child Health Programme (KRCH) devised by the federation. She was placed under the 'risky mother' category due to her age, physical weakness and long interval between two pregnancies.
The health guide appointed by the federation, took her for regular monthly checkups to the Primary Health Centre (PHC). Soon, it was noticed that she was getting severely anaemic and very weak. So based on the PHC staff's advice, the health guide took her to the government hospital in Madurai, where all the necessary check ups were done. A relapse of tuberculosis was ruled out and she was prescribed medicines and advised on following a good diet for anaemia and weakness. The Kalanjiam helped her through a loan of Rs.2000 to take care of her health. The health guide also helped her to get Rs.1000 through the Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy Scheme of the TamilNadu Government.
The health guide advised her to take nutritious food, gave iron-folic acid tablets and visited her daily. She was made to attend the Village Health Forum meetings, where the discussions on anemia, malnutrition and personal hygiene helped her to understand her situation, gain confidence and improve her health.
As a result of all this support, Eswari finally delivered a healthy baby girl without any complications. At the PHC, she was given the due care and advice on how to take care of the newborn baby.
Now Eswari has been registered under the postnatal care of the KRCH programme. She takes the child for timely immunizations and growth monitoring something which she was not aware of, when she delivered her first child. She gets the nutritional supplements provided by the Integrated Child Development Scheme of the Government. She is now preparing for family planning measures in a few months.
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