Activities

Some of the important achievements accomplished by the project and grouped into areas of activity, were :

Work with tribal Panchayats

• Added to the existing 75 panchayats another  75 were formed this year.  They all identified with each other to take up issues of  sexual health and initiated many actions in this period.

• 42 training personnel with the panchayats were given further training for engagement in productive health activities  and they actively networked with other trainers. Through these people, 421 peer educators and volunteers of community forums were given training to do voluntary work on issues of sexual health, problems of infertility, lack of services, immunisation, contraceptive supply and conducting camps in collaboration with the Primary Health Centres / Sub-centres.

• 104 tribal leaders were given training on issues of reproductive health either in their villages or in the AID training centre in Jamshedpur.

• In this period, 252 video shows, 102 health camps and 35 campaigns on adolescent sexual health, family planning, safe delivery, abortion, maternal deaths, health rights of the villagers and malaria and maternal health were conducted with the participation of the local health services, private health service providers and village leaders.

Developing stronger Community Organisations

• 192 community organisations comprised of youth, self-help groups for women, cultural groups and NGO representatives were given training on sexual and reproductive health.

• 178 village volunteers and 168 sexual health peer educators with focus on family planning, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV and AIDS were appointed. They are now the information channels for the community on scientific aspects of sexual and reproductive health. The volunteers have been serving as supportive personnel who identified many cases of STD, infertility whilst also organising village level camps and campaigns. They also rendered support by distributing various information kits to their peers and community.

• 241 community leaders with health concerns were appointed with a view to articulate the community rights and entitlements related to health. They played an important role in utilising the available government health services.

• The project also trained 28 traditional birth attendants, 43 assistant private health service providers and community health workers and their skills on quality syndromic case management of STD care was provided.

Developing partnerships to promote and  sustain reproductive health services

• The project strengthened the partnerships created last year. The associations  with private health service providers increased their scope of contact and influence in quality of services, whilst also becoming the point of distribution of condoms and other services.

• The project added values by engaging qualified doctors providing sexual and reproductive health services. The project used their services at reduced rates and many referrals made use of the services.

• The partnership made new contacts with the highway truck service stations, line hotels, condom distributors and travel agents consequently strengthening and increasing interaction which mutually benefited them and the project.

Influencing Government improvements to obtain better public /  private services

• The project contributed to improving the quality of government Primary Health sub-centres and 3 Primary Health Centres (PHC) in the operational areas. The evidence is obvious from the increase in the uptake of immunisation, family planning, health and reproductive health services.

• Through the initiative of the project, many camps and campaigns on sexual health and reproductive health were conducted. The STD detection camps were jointly conducted with various organisations through the support of the project.

• In the project villages, there is increasing utilisation of Integrated Child Care Services (ICDS) through the local partnerships. In just a few villages there is a  lack of and poor quality of services.  This led people to take action against the service providers.