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India Malnutrition Program: Community Mapping Pilot

May 9, 2011 in Caitlin McQuilling, General, India, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | Comments closed

by Caitlin McQuilling

Community Mapping

The month of April was RMF’s Community Mapping Month in Barwani district as part of our Community Mobilization Pilot with the Department of Women and Child Development.  The team started this community mobilization activity by having a two day training on the method for Community Nutrition Educators (CNEs).  This was to ensure that all CNEs used similar, participatory methods in doing the mappings.

 The first day was at the office in conjunction with the weekly team meeting where mapping techniques, use of symbols, and methods to involve community stakeholders were discussed.  The second day of training, Anjana split the CNEs into two groups and took them out to a village near Barwani to do a practical mapping exercise as a group.  This hands-on mapping training turned out to be the most effective, with the feedback from many CNEs saying that this gave them the most clarity and confidence.

CNEs started the mapping exercise by meeting with the village Patwari wherever possible to discuss the village layout, ensure his/her participation in the mapping exercise and to obtain a village map.  They made an appointment with key community stakeholders, including anganwadis, Sarpanches, patwaris, and active mothers, to do the community mapping exercise on their next visit.

In each village, we ask the community to lead this exercise, with the CNEs prompting the community members to dive deeper and deeper into the mapping exercise.  CNEs were instructed to ask community members to map out both the things there were proud of in their communities and the things they thought were bad for health.  Good things included schools, new latrines, and village meeting places.  Bad places included liquor shops and open defecation sites.  In each instance, CNEs were instructed not to pass any judgment or not to make any suggestions, but to let communities do this analysis on their own.

Community mapping covers:

-          Households in the community (some villages got down to the level of detail of the names of the family members in each house, other just mapped out the homes)

-          Location of SAM kids

-          Water sources, streams, rivers, damns, ponds

-          Hand-pumps

-          Public buildings: AWCs, schools, panchayats, PDS shops, AWW homes, temples

-          Shops (general stores, PDS shops, liquor stores)

-          Local doctors, health centers, medicine men

One of the best examples of this method leading to community realization and behavior change was in Badgaon with CNE Saroj.  At the beginning of her mapping session, a handful of women sat around the poster paper, with their heads and faces covered and didn’t say much.  As the anganwadi and ASHA led the mapping and did most of the work the women started to contribute more and more, peeking out from behind their veils and laughing and arguing as they discussed various aspects of the community.  In the beginning, a few men stood around the outside of the circle, attempting to look as disinterested as possible.  As the mapping progressed, they too couldn’t help themselves with participating more and more.

During her mapping exercise she asked community members to map out the positive and negative things in their village.  The women listed newly constructed latrines (under TSC) as positive things in their village.  Then Saroj asked them if they were being used.  The community members laughed nervously and admitted that no one used these newly constructed latrines and still continued to defecate out in the open.  Saroj asked where the open defecation sites were.  The anganwadi worker plotted these right next to a stream.  Without passing any judgment Saroj asked the community what they used the water for.  They all said bathing.  Then as Saroj remained silent, women in the group all started to giggle at the same time.  They were making the connection between the open defecation and the proximity to the stream they used as a water source.  And in this moment, this simple mapping activity may have had the largest Behavior Change result of any of the activities RMF has undertaken in this village thus far.  Community members started to chatter amongst themselves and comment that they should start using the new latrines right away and started speculating that this contaminated water may be why children are getting sick.  It’s too early to see if this has made a true change in the community, but this kind of self-realization is bound to be much stronger than any lecture or training session.

This was the most dramatic example of the effects of community mapping observed so far by RMF Managers (Caitlin was present during this session), but the community mapping seems to be a very effective and well-received activity.  It’s a chance for local communities to show off their knowledge for a change and makes them feel proud of their knowledge.  RMF CNEs have reported enthusiastic participation of community members in each session.  Anganwadi workers have told us that this is “a very simple activity” and fun. 

The key to making these mapping exercises work is to make sure the CNE understands that this is not just about drawing a map, but that it’s a community mobilization activity.  CNEs can facilitate the map making process, being the illustrator or scribe, but the actual process must be conducted by community members. 

We found that the mapping exercise is better with a small group of 5-10 individuals, otherwise it gets too crowded and confusing and leads to less participation.  To be able to include more individuals in the process, CNEs did the mapping in 2-4 sections per village, depending on the village size and number of anganwadis.  One map was made for each village, but the CNE drew the map in various stages depending on how many anganwadi centers there were in the village, so that each section of the community could participate meaningfully.  The final complete village map was then copied and given to each anganwadi center to hang on the wall so that each anganwadi center has a full map.  Another important pointer the CNEs found was to begin the mapping process by drawing the village boundaries instead of just diving into mapping locations.  This was scale could be developed.

To date mapping has been completed in 114 villages in Barwani district.  Given the success of this activity it will be scaled up to all RMF villages in the 4 other districts this quarter.

For more information about RMF’s Malnutrition Eradication Program in India, click here

We can use any financial help you are able to provide on this project to continue our Education, Treatment and Outreach and help towards our goal of Malnutrition Eradication in this region of India.

To contribute to this initiative, please click Donate button or visit our website at realmedicinefoundation.org.

Field report: Our Nursing and Midwifery College project in Southern Sudan

May 3, 2011 in Rebuilding Communities, Strategies for the Future, Sudan by Jonathan White | Comments closed

As our project in Southern Sudan, the Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery completes it’s First Quarter of 2011, we are proud that the College is continuing it’s program with the welcome support of all the partners within the Southern Sudan Government, Ministry of Health, United Nations (UNFPA and UNDP) and all other supporting NGO’s.  After the tense but succesful independance referendum was passed in January, the teachers and students were able to return to the College and continue with the second semester of their respective programs.

A full report has been published to our website here, some of the highlights are below:

The first class of Nursing and Midwifery students at JCONAM

  • The college successfully re-opened on the 15th of January after the referendum period with all 39 students reporting by mid-February. This is owed to the fact that the students are distributed within the 10 states which are quite a distance from Central Equatoria State where the college is located. They completed their foundation courses and began their clinical sessions in mid-February. The students are currently in their 7th week of practical sessions and will resume classroom lessons in on the first week of May whereby they will be split into nursing and midwifery.
  • With the support of the Ministry of Health, Department of Nursing and Midwifery, the college was able to identify six clinical mentors at the Juba Teaching Hospital and four clinical mentors from Al Sabaa Hospital. The clinical mentors’ major tasks are to instruct, supervise, monitor, assist and mentor the students to implement the course content outlined in the curricula. The students are currently placed at the Juba Teaching Hospital’s medical, surgical and pediatric ward whereby they are on weekly rotation among these three wards. They are also accompanied by their tutors who support the clinical mentors.
  • The Department of Nursing and Midwifery, Ministry of Health, college tutors and project management have developed a draft document outlining clinical objectives to be used by the students during their clinical sessions. The objectives form a part of the course content to be implemented by the students during their practical sessions and a basis of evaluation of their work by the clinical mentors and tutors. The project management is currently organizing a workshop that will invite the Ministry of Health, clinical mentors, tutors and several other stakeholders to endorse the document to form part of the course content.
  • The college library was further boosted in February when it received a donation of 187 books, 37 DVDs and CDs, journals and other teaching aids in both nursing and midwifery from the British Medical Association (BMA). In addition, in March RMF, with the help of a generous donation from The Dillon Henry Foundation, provided 87 nursing and midwifery books that are to be used as classroom reference books by the students. Both donations were highly appreciated by the principal and the Ministry of Health as the college hardly had any reference material.

For the full first quarter report, please visit our website at: http://www.realmedicinefoundation.org/initiative/update/southern-sudan-first-quarter-update-nursing-midwifery-college

If you are interested in donating to this initiative please visit the donor page of our website by clicking on the Donate Button below…

 

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Voices from the field: We shall name her Anandini, Anandini is Joy!

April 20, 2011 in Helping Children, India, Naiara Tejados, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Naiara with Anandini

By Naira Tejados

I still rememer vividly those days, long ago in terms of time, but mentally like it was yesterday.

After two days in shock, unable to sleep or eat after finding Gila (5 year old girl with tuberculosis meningitis and hydrocephalus) in her home on January 27th, I recieved a call from Caitlin informing me that the poor little girl had died despite all the efforts of the doctors in Ahmedabad.  Honestly I must admit that I felt a slight relief, as I believe if she had survived her quality of life would not have been what a little girl who had gone through so many traumas so young deserved.  The events around Gila’s death were reported in this blog by Caitlin McQuilling here.

Anandini's grandfather

It was obvious that someone in the family must have transmitted the deadly tuberculosis bacterium to Gila. So, after questioning and observing, it wasn’t difficult to identify the most critical patient in the family: the grandfather, the patriarch of the home, who had spent a long period bedridden, the last few days with fever and bleeding when spitting. My biggest fear was of the possible transmission of bacteria to the other 5 children in the home.

After two days immersed in the hospital we came to know that, while the grandfather clearly was suffering from tuberculosis, nearly all family members were anemic. With the help of our star native worker, Sumitra, I asked what their diet consisted of. It took me a few words to know that the conditions in which the family lived were deplorable: they had some land with dhal, a very typical lentil in India, had a few crops with peas and corn from which they made flour to cook roti, cakes of bread. They had nothing else. It was a great pleasure to provide the family food and other everyday items that they could not acquire. It was obvious that the family had spent all their savings in the treatment of Gila and was now ruined…

The second day, two hours after we dropped the family off at home, already very late at night, I got a call from Sumitra saying that Gila’s mother, who was in its final stages of pregnancy, had begun to feel the pains of childbirth. A new life was on the way! The next morning, impatient, I went to the hospital to see the new baby, when to my surprise, I learned that Dhana had not yet given birth. A nurse warned us that Dhana was very anemia Dhana and her life was in danger. I could not believe it! I thought again and again how unfair life was being with this family. Of course this hospital had no blood bank. Suddenly, a lot of ideas my mind was: what was the blood group of Dhana? Could I donate my blood? I begged the staff to analyze my blood type and they told me that it was not possible at the hospital. We had no choice but to go for help to a private hospital run by Catholics located in the same town, the same hospital that just 2 weeks before had stolen Gila’s life by not providing her the necessary drugs because of the family’s inability to pay. Maybe we could beg this hospital in this case to save the life of her mother and her brother/sister. We asked the midwife permission to take her to the other hospital, where we thought everything would be better under their supervision, but the midwife and the nurses told us that the baby would be born in the vehicle if we did. There was no time for anything, only wait.

Suddenly, from the hubbub of the hospital, we heard the cry of a newborn baby. It couldn’t be anyone else other than Gila’s new sibling. Taking advantage of a nurse on her way out of the delivery room, I rushed over to ask if the one crying was the one we were expecting. She nodded and let us know that everything had gone well, both the mother and daughter were fine, and there was no need for a blood transfusion to the mother. It was a girl! I could not contain my tears of joy. It was inevitable to think about reincarnation, so present in the lives of these people. Is that what you call it?


Anandini

To my surprise and joy, the next day, I learned that the Gila’s parents had asked us, the Real Medicine Foundation staff, to choose a name for the girl. What an honor! Thus, we chose the name Anandini for her, which means “joyful.” Anandini never cries. It was without a doubt, the best gift I received in India.

About a week after the birth, Caitlin, Jaimie and I went to the home for a visit. The family welcomed us with open arms. Concerned about their economic condition and their future, we asked how much their debt from Gila’s treatment totaled. They reported that to treat Gila they had borrowed € 1,000 to be returned with a 25% interest from a local lender, an insignificant amount in Western society, but which converts a family like this into a debtor for many years, perhaps also to the next generation.

I received a lot of money after writing a personal email the night Gila died to all my family and friends: It was an email asking them, each within their desires and possibilities, to donate money to use with the various groups I work with in India. Therefore, I immediately thought that I would love to help this family to get rid of this horrible debt. Thanks to the generosity of Jaimie, who was also present, and because she has raised a lot of money of her own (http://www.realmedicineblog.com/2011/03/18/voices-from-the-field- one-birthday-wish-granting-wishes-for-many-by-Jaimie-shaff) we decided that we would pay equally between the two of us. A few days later we returned to the home with the money, allowing the family to be free of at least of this burden. We did this knowing that this was something outside of our organization, because the organization focuses on providing medical resources but not providing cash. We saw the first smile yet on Dhana’s face. Many thanks to everyone who made this possible!

Anandini's father, Chhatra

We could not resist asking Anandini’s parents what work they would do from now on. Their response was unanimous: when she was a few weeks older the family would migrate along with other farmers having to abandon their homes, greatly increasing risk of several diseases in appalling conditions to which they have to submit, and leaving the older children in the care of grandparents. This response left us all broken hearted. Already familiar with the good work and infinite human quality of this family, Caitlin and Jaimie did not hesitate to offer a job to Anandini’s father, Chhatra, as a Community Nutrition Educator (CNE) with our organization. Chhatra, now works joyfully in his own village and neighboring ones, going from house to house, making sure that other children do not become victims of malnutrition and other medical conditions that are so easily preventable but that steal the lives of many in these villages.

For more information about RMF’s Malnutrition Eradication Program in India, click here and for more on our HIV/AIDS click here.

We can use any financial help you are able to provide on this project to continue our Education, Treatment and Outreach and help towards our goal of Malnutrition Eradication in this region of India.

To contribute to this initiative, please click Donate button or visit our website at realmedicinefoundation.org.


Global Basecamps launches matching donation challenge for RMF Japan Relief

April 5, 2011 in Disaster Relief, General, Japan, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities by Jonathan White | Comments closed

We are excited to announce that the kind folks over at Global Basecamps (www.globalbasecamps.com) have reached out to their supporters and fans for a matching donation challenge.  They will be matching donations dollar for dollar for our Japan Relief Efforts for the first $2,500 of donations received through the Real Medicine website. (www.realmedicinefoundation.org/donors)

Global Basecamps is a specialty travel resource designed to simplify the process of researching and booking sustainable hotels, lodges and private tours worldwide. Travel at your own pace with a custom itinerary or simply find accommodation and excursions so that your trip priorities are met and you have maximum flexibility while on the road.

Beneficiaries helping out at JEN sponsored soup kitchen (Photo copyright JEN)

RMF’s Japan Relief efforts are currently focused on supporting our partner on the ground in Japan, the Japanese Emergency NGO (JEN), who are distributing vital food, clothing, and other supplies to those at evacuation centers or in the most damaged areas around Northeastern Japan.

We are continuing to update our website and blog with reports sent to us by JEN and will be closely monitoring the situation over the next few weeks.

If you are interesting in donating to the earthquake/tsunami relief efforts in Japan now, click on Donate below and be sure to mention Global Basecamps Japan Relief Efforts as the donation purpose.

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RMF Japan Update with our partner JEN: Out in the field providing relief

March 25, 2011 in Disaster Relief, General, In the news, Japan, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Our partners at JEN (Japanese Emergency NGO) have teams busy on the ground in the northern tsunami affected areas providing food, shelter, water and other basic survival items to the thousands of people stranded in shelters.

JEN staff prepare food for emergency shelter residents

Thanks to everyone’s donations, JEN is able to provide far more care than would have been previously possible.

JEN has been updating us with photos and updates from the field, and also posting regularly to their blog.

Most recent update from JEN of this week’s relief work:

JEN staff preparing food for emergency shelter residents

On March 23rd, JEN dispatched its third team (members: Kenta Ohno and Hiroyuki Kobayashi) to the area affected by the Tohoku Earthquake. They joined the second team currently on an assessment mission in Ishinomaki City, in the north of Miyagi Prefecture. In addition to the material and hot food distribution in the evacuation centers in Sendai City, JEN will expand its activities starting from the towns of Minamisanriku, Higashimatsushima, Onagawa and Ishimaki. These are towns which have been receiving the least external support despite the massive damage and loss they have been suffering.

JEN also received information that Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture was not receiving emergency items due to radiation scares caused by the nuclear plant accident, and consequently sent materials from Tokyo tonight. A two-ton truck carrying three tons of urgently needed items was sent from JEN’s warehouse in Tokyo, containing diapers (both adult and children), feminine hygiene products, pre-cooked and sealed food, canned fish and meat, and wet wipes for elder care.

As progress picks up in restoring roads surrounding Sendai City, more and more communities are becoming accessible. However, there are still many isolated areas and evacuation centers. As a result, the difference between the amount of assistance being offered to the accessible and non-accessible communities is becoming clearly noticeable. In the coastal areas, the town hall itself was swept away and there are no bodies to request or coordinate external assistance that they need. In the urban areas, on the other hand, those who have lost their homes by the tsunami have no hope of returning home, and continue to live in extremely poor living conditions. Many people are expected to face long-term displacement, and their situations and needs are becoming increasingly complex.

Following the Earthquake, three teams were sent to the affected areas consisting of two members on March 13th, three on the 20th and two on the 23rd. The teams distributed emergency items and hot meals (rice and miso soup etc) in evacuation centers in Sendai City. To date, JEN has provided fresh food (to be cooked and distributed in the centers), clothing, blankets, sanitary items (feminine hygiene products, antiseptics, wet wipes, diapers for adults and children), and fuel. While distributing these items, JEN is also conducting assessments in the less accessible areas in order to shift to mid- and long-term assistance including the provision of psychosocial care.

Stay tuned for further updates from on the ground in Japan on our website.

If you are interesting in donating to the earthquake/tsunami relief efforts in Japan, click on Donate below and be sure to mention Japan as the donation purpose and we will continue to organize funding to JEN’s relief efforts.

Also, as part of a matching donations challenge, Rudy’s Barbershop, Ace Hotel, Bimbos Cantina, and Cha Cha Lounge have together agreed to match up to $18,000 in donations made through our website and at their business locations!  More information on this matching donations challenge can be found here

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Real Medicine Foundation To Participate in LA Marathon For Second Year, Portion of Proceeds to Go Directly to Relief Efforts in Japan

March 18, 2011 in Athletes for Real Medicine, Disaster Relief, Helping Children, Los Angeles, North America, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Los Angeles, CA – March 18, 2011 – Real Medicine Foundation is proud to announce that for the second year, it will be an official charity of the LA Marathon this Sunday March 20th.  Runners from across California have joined Athletes for Real Medicine raising $18,000 so far for the non-profit which provides humanitarian support to people living in disaster and poverty stricken areas.

Some of the funds raised will go directly to Real Medicine Foundation’s relief efforts in Japan. The organization has partnered with JEN (Japanese Emergency Non-profit) to provide food and supplies to emergency shelters. JEN’s motto of “psycho-social care and assistance for self-reliance” is very similar to Real Medicine Foundation’s focus on the person as a whole, providing medical, physical, emotional, economic and social support.

Forty LA Marathon runners have opted to run and fundraise on behalf of Real Medicine Foundation, which operates in 15 countries throughout the world, including at home in Los Angeles, serving more than 6 million people a year. Donations of any size are accepted, and donors may earmark funds to be dedicated to specific projects, including relief efforts in Japan.

Dr. Martina Fuchs, founder and CEO of Real Medicine was honored earlier this year with Lifetime’s Remarkable Women recognition.  Fuchs says, “We are thrilled to be included in the LA Marathon again this year.  With every step these runners take, they are bringing people around the world closer to complete health. If that’s not a great reason to run, what is?”

Real Medicine has received considerable support from the community, including Fox Entertainment Group’s FoxGives, CAA, Environment Charter High School of Lawndale, and Comfort Chiropractic of Monterey Park. Sole Runners Long Beach has runners dedicated to Real Medicine as well.

Lisa Suen, who oversees Real Medicine’s Creative Development, says, “The support we are receiving in the LA Marathon will allow us to continue battling malnutrition, providing screening tests for children, or even just providing the food people need to survive another day, whether in disaster areas like Japan or areas of on-going need such as Haiti and India.  We spend every day promoting health, so to see runners use their extremely strong health to benefit our work is doubly powerful.”

Real Medicine is sponsoring a cheer station at Mile 22 (San Vicente and S. Canyon View Drive) and invites the public to come and show support. The station will feature cheer boards to encourage runners, made by the children who benefit from Real Medicine’s Community Outreach Programs at Florence Western Medical Center in South Los Angeles.

About Real Medicine Foundation: Real Medicine Foundation (www.realmedicinefoundation.org), a 501c3 registered non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, provides humanitarian support to people living in disaster and poverty stricken areas.  RMF believes that “real” medicine is focused on the person as a whole, including medical/physical, emotional, economic and social support.  RMF’s unique approach to humanitarian relief involves partnering with local groups wherever they are to ensure that the clinics and solutions it creates will be sustainable long after the public spotlight has moved on.  Real Medicine’s CEO and Founder Dr. Martina Fuchs was recently honored by Lifetime as one of Lifetime’s Remarkable Women for the work she and her organization have been doing around the world. RMF currently has clinics and projects around the world, including Haiti, Peru, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, the United States, and more.  For complete listings of RMF’s projects, please visit www.realmedicinefoundation.org/our-work.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Efforts

March 11, 2011 in Asia, Disaster Relief, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and all those affected by the 8.9 earthquake that struck off its northeastern coast and the devasting tsunami that followed on Friday, March 11, 2011.

Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coastline were affected by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter.

Google Inc. has just activated a Person Finder page to help people concerned about loved ones in the area affected by Friday’s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Person Finder page can be found athttp://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/ and is available in both Japanese and English

Real Medicine is working within our network to see where we might be able to contribute our funding, resources or expertise.  We will update our website with further information as it becomes available.

If you are interesting in donating to the earthquake/tsunami relief efforts in Japan, click on Donate below and be sure to mention Japan Earthquake as the donation purpose.

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The first two months of our new clinic in Gulbella, Pakistan

March 9, 2011 in Asia, Disaster Relief, Helping Children, Initiatives, Pakistan, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Whole Health by Jonathan White | Comments closed

by Dr. Zahoor Uddin and Dr. Rubina Mumtaz

Real Medicine Foundation in collaboration with the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) established a primary health clinic in Gulbella, Charsadda District of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, aiming to provide free health services at the unit for the Pakistan flood affectees.

This clinic was established in a record short period of time – 7 days – and was formally inaugurated by Dr. Rubina Mumtaz, Country Director, RMF Pakistan, on December 19, 2010. People of the area consider the establishment of the BHU a noble act on the part of the RMF/APPNA since health has always been one of the basic and the most important issues of the region. The facility treats an average of around 50 patients a day.

From December 15th, 2010 through January 30th, 2011, 1,897 patients were diagnosed and treated at the RMF- APPNA Basic Health Unit, Gulbella, 38% of these patients were males and 62% females. 7% of the all patients were children. 19 women came for antenatal visits, 86 women visited the clinic for OB/GYN problems, and 15 women came to receive advice on family planning.

The response of the community has been very positive. They appreciate the presence of a doctor and Lady Health Visitor (LHV) who handles female related diseases (maternal cases). There were few medical facilities available in the region only far from their homes

Being poor, people were unable to hire vehicles to get to the health centers. They perceive the establishment of the Basic Health Unit at their door steps as nothing less than a blessing. And the people are therefore very thankful to RMF and APPNA for the establishment of the facility.

For more information on this initiative visit our website here

More blogs on RMF’s  flood relief efforts and medical outreach camps in Pakistan can be found here: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th,  5th and 6th,  7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, 11 and 12th

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or become a fundraiser for us at Causes.com

To contribute to this or any of our other initiatives, please click the Donate button below or through our website at realmedicinefoundation.org.

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Healing Communities, One Child at a Time: Running for “Charity”

March 7, 2011 in Athletes for Real Medicine, Donate, Helping Children, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Whole Health by Jonathan White | Comments closed

A touching story from Lisa Suen, member of our Athletes for Real Medicine team, who is in the final stages of fundraising for RMF for the LA Marathon being held on March 20th.

by Lisa Suen

The holiday spirit was in full swing at Real Medicine’s Kids Holiday party at Florence Western Outreach clinic. Despite heavy rain, approximately 50 kids came ready to enjoy the holiday festivities of story-telling, dancing, cookie decorating and wreath making. The party offered a fun-filled morning for the underserved and at-risk children of south Los Angeles.

This is where I met a sweet girl by the name of Charity. She had this beautiful charm and energy about her when she introduced herself to me and volunteered to help me throughout the morning. Imagine that! This child, who the clinic runs its programs for, did not just want to enjoy the festivities, but wanted to help us! So we got busy, decorating her wreath and cookies while also helping to pass out decorations to the other kids. She was an amazing artist, as she decorated her paper wreath with a spectrum of colors. She then carefully decorated her sugar cookies and kindly offered them to me as a gift. I felt touched that this child was so giving and loving despite the environment she is growing up in.

Lisa and Charity at the Holiday Party

When it was about time to wrap up our decoration projects, Charity turned to me and started crying. I asked what was wrong and she said that she knew it was time to go. She said she was having such a good time that she did not ever want to leave and that this is the place she looks forward to all the time. I reassured her that she would have the chance to come back to the clinic in a few weeks for even more fun. I gave her a hug and it broke my heart knowing that this child may not have the luxury of any of the activities we did today back at home.

Charity is the reason I’m running 26.2 miles on March 20th, 2011 and fundraising for Real Medicine Foundation’s Florence and Western Outreach clinic. A program like this can give children like Charity the opportunity for personal and social enrichment which are definitely worth supporting.  After all, we are ONE community and these children are our future. Let’s help Real Medicine heal communities, one child at a time.

Consider this, your donation of…

$30      would provide arts and craft supplies for a project

$60      would provide one health and fitness workshop

$100    would provide sports equipment for 20 children

(or two physical therapy sessions)

Simply go to Lisa’s Crowdrise Fundraiser page to donate

(http://www.crowdrise.com/athletesforrealmedicine/fundraiser/lisasuen)

Thank YOU for your generous support!


Voices from the field: Returning to Khandwa

March 4, 2011 in Caitlin McQuilling, Helping Children, India, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Voices from the Field, Whole Health by Jonathan White | Comments closed

by Caitlin McQuilling

RMF Community Nutrition Educator, Samoti, and a child recovering from SAM. Photo Credit: Ximena Prugue

In March 2009, when I was conducting the initial field visits to develop RMF’s Malnutrition Eradication Program I visited a village called Shali Dana, in Kalwa block of Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh.  I remember being shocked and overwhelmed by the amount of children with severe acute malnutrition I saw in this village and the complete apathy and absence of government services in this village.  We saw dozens of glassy eyed children with thinning hair, bulging stomachs, and protruding ribs, empty anganwadi centers, and children who had been tortured by traditional healers in the name of recovery because of the absence of government health services.  Seeing this village convinced me that RMF had no choice but to do something drastic about this problem.

Samoti visiting Shali Dana

Fast forward to March 2, 2011.  Today I spent the day with our Community Nutrition Educator Samoti in Shali Dana.  She’s been working in this village for exactly one year and has made over 25 visits to this village, every 2 weeks.  Samoti has spent this last year developing a strong relationship with the community, visiting each house with malnourished kids on a bi-monthly visit, and has supported and encouraged government anganwadi workers.  Also over the last year, our friends at Spandan, a wonderful local NGO, have worked closely with the government anganwadi center to upgrade the center using community resources and have been working with the anganwadi worker to improve the quality of preschool education and other services offered to the community.  They have also done a lot of work to promote education in this village in both Hindi and Korku, the local tribal language which is in danger of dying out.

I almost started crying today as I sat in a beautifully painted anganwadi center listening to excited, energetic kids singing nursery rhymes in their native Korku when I remembered that this was the same village which shocked me so 2 years ago.  While being serenaded by the children Samoti showed me her register and went over the details of all the children with severe acute malnutrition in the village.  When she did her baseline survey in March 2010, this village had 14 children with severe acute malnutrition, roughly 15% of all children under 5 in the village, an alarming rate of SAM.

Photo credit: Ximena Prugue

Now the village has 0 SAM children.  We visited the households of 10 kids today who were formerly SAM.  Some of these kids were positively fat, while others were now moderately malnourished.  Watching Samoti made me proud.  As she walked through the village, she was greeted by each family walking by.  She scooped up children as she walked, joked with elderly women, and walked straight into people’s homes announced to pinch babies on the cheek.  If I didn’t know Samoti to be one of the warmest and most compelling women I’ve met, I would think this was all staged.  But having terrified 100s of kids by measuring their mid-upper arm circumference to assess their level of malnutrition I know that you cannot just come to a village once or twice and have kids walk up to you with their arms out, waiting for their MUAC reading.  And that’s exactly what a few of the toddlers in this village did!

If you’ve read the annual report from the Eradicate Malnutrition Program its easy to be overwhelmed by the numbers:

  • 65 staff across 600 villages
  • 37,141 families and 56,194 children reached during the baseline survey
  • 6,857 village nutritional training sessions conducted, training over 68,410 people
  • Counseled 91,034 individuals on malnutrition prevention and treatment
  • Successfully referred 895 children to NRCs
  • Achieved a 25% reduction in childhood malnutrition across intervention villages, 17,994 children who directly improved because of this intervention

They’re unbelievable numbers when you add them up, even for those of us who saw the progress in the field and did the adding.  I’m one of the members of the RMF team who spent hours and hours analyzing our program data.  Eyes bleary from staring at excel sheets and going absolutely crazy over the errors while cleaning data, we sacrificed our sanity and eyesight to make sure our data is as accurate as possible.  Even though I personally verified forms and conducted spot checks in the field to ensure the accuracy of reporting, I have a hard time believing that we reached over 80,000 children!

Young mothers and their children in Shali Dana

But today watching a new mother glow as she was breastfeeding her chubby infant and watching Samoti joke with mothers in the formerly tragic Shali Dana, I saw beyond the numbers and graphs to what RMF’s best at.  Here’s an invitation to every RMF supporter: come out and see for yourself the reality behind our numbers.  There’s nothing like it.

For more information about RMF’s Malnutrition Eradication Program in India, click here

We can use any help you are able to provide on this project to continue our Education, Treatment and Outreach and help towards our goal of Malnutrition Eradication in this region of India.

To contribute to this initiative, click on the Donate button below or visit our website at www.realmedicinefoundation.org

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