We crossed our target of training 400 new health activists in 2009 by November. December trainees will be an added bonus. Over 1,000 women have attended training sessions in 2009 and 412 have been designated as health activists. We have loftier targets for 2010.

We have expanded to a new district. Our team of trainers went to Babina, Jhansi and trained over 20 women. We are attempting to replicate our program there. We will also launch our program in Azamgarh on 6th January, 2010. Starting this month we are for the first time expanding our work to another state, Karnataka. Our trainers will conduct their first training in Chikbalapur, Karnataka. Our training books are currently being translated into Kannada. Mr Kamalkar Hallambi, Ex-Director of the Rural Literacy Mission of Karnataka will lead this program.

We are evolving into a health literacy organization with maternal mortality as our entry point into a community. Recognizing our potential to promote health literacy, our program is getting noticed. The Ministry of Health has asked us to participate in a national health literacy program through a national health portal.  The Ministry of Health will own and manage the portal with private-public partnership. We have already started on this project and in the next few months we will see the launch of the national program to spread health literacy.

• In September, we conducted four, three-day long trainings for new health activists. We trained 79 new activists in all
• We conducted eight refresher training courses for those already in the field
• We are now working in 459 villages and will reach our target of 600 villages by the end of December 2009

REPLICATION

• Our project manager visited Phoolpur in Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh to conduct a preliminary survey. The district does not have a larger NGO for us to piggy back on, as we are doing in Sultanpur district. But the district does have a well run girls school, so we will launch our Save A Mother program (health education, trainings, activism) in that school and see how far we can progress. This is a new district for us with a new twist
• Jhansi district in Uttar Pradesh has a micro-credit NGO of moderate size. We will enter this new district by launching our program using that NGO’s support base

LINKAGE WITH ASHA

• Our project manager attended a master training program for training ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers (they are part of the Government of India’s National Rural Health Mission). The program was conducted by Shabhagi Kendra and PATH in Lucknow. This gives us a better understanding of the ASHA methodology and stronger links with ASHA workers in our area.

USA CHAPTERS

• We are launching a Los Angeles chapter on 7th November, 2009. The chapter will have a small function in Niravana Restaurant
• Our New York Chapter will have a gathering at Sundaram Tagore Gallery on 11th November, 2009. Our Board Chairperson, Ms. Shabana Azmi will attend
• Our Chicago chapter will have a fundraising event – a Masquerade Ball – on 24th October, 2009
• We are exploring chapters in Toronto, San Francisco, and Philadelphia

OTHER UPDATES

• Our Chairperson, Ms Shabana Azmi spoke at FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) in Delhi in September on health care and talked about Save A Mother’s work. A full transcript of her speech can be found here
• This is an amazing, inspirational story about what one person can do to bring about change to the lives of so many. And, that one person is only 16 years old!! Introducing Babar Ali…

One of our objectives in 2009 is to expand to another district. We conducted our first survey of Phoolpur in Uttar Pradesh to understand local need. Even though membership of the local NGO is not large, we will start a small pilot program. Our program manager Anoop Pant and I will visit the area to start the program at the end of November.

Anoop Pant will also attend a training program in Lucknow, conducted by PATH – an international NGO. Subsequently, he will become a master trainer for ASHA workers of the National Rural Health Mission. This will bring us even closer to the public health workers in our area, with whom we already have a working relationship. We will supplement the public health programs sponsored by the government.

Solution: Changing the lives of women and girls in the developing world can change everything. The empowerment of women could help solve many of the world’s problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism. Click on the link below to read how – contributed by Hemant Kashyap

100% of the proceeds from the event went towards training village health activists to reduce maternal mortality and improve health in rural Uttar Pradesh, in India.

Solution: In Africa and South Asia pregnancy and childbirth complications are still the leading cause of death for women. 85 percent of maternal mortality occurs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Click on this link to learn more about the problems and solutions of maternal mortality in the developing world today – contributed by Shiban Ganju

The participants came from Sultanpur district and two other districts: Azamgarh and Jhansi. The syllabus included extensive interactive training pertinent to rural health. We hope that these participants will help in carrying out further training in their regions with minimal outside help. We will closely monitor the progress and take action to improve. They will also assist with our ongoing training program.

We also continue to train local women to be village health activists who educate and assist the villagers. In July 2009 we will conduct four training sessions at Bhadar, Gauriganj, Amava, and Singhpur Blocks in Uttar Pradesh. 15 to 20 participants will attend each training and the recently trained trainers will assist. 

We will continue to keep you informed of our progress through our newsletters.

• Trained 32 new women health activists from different villages
• Conducted three refresher training courses for activists who have been trained in the past
• Signed a collaboration agreement with the International Institute of Health Management Research, Delhi, to train 40 block level trainers who will conduct trainings for village activists in their locations. This is an effort to scale up the program

Please visit Save-A-Mother Volunteer page to find out how you can get involved today!

 

Photo taken by Save A Mother staff.