Maria and Pankaj
The Importance of a Whole Health Approach: malnutrition and psychosocial neglect
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Tags: India, malnutrition clinic, malnutrition crisis in india, malnutrition in india, nrc in india, rmf in india
By Fabien Toegel
RMF-Jeevan Jyoti HIV care center receives award, Government to make our model a policy
Meghnagar, August 25: The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) decided last week to expand the function of so-called Link ART Centers (LAC). RMF set up and has been supporting such a center at Jeevan Jyoti Hospital in a public private partnership, which recently received an award as best Link ART Center out of the 5 attached to the main Indore ART Center and is currently treating 44 patients with free antiretroviral drugs supplied by the Government. On Saturday, August 21st, NACO’s data manager from Indore visited our center and was pleased with the thorough recording and reporting.
The expanded role proposed by NACO acknowledges the model of care already provided by Jeevan Jyoti Hospital for more than 200 patients which had been identified with RMF’s support over the past 5 years. The specific LAC services will include enrolling patients into care, pre-ART management including basic investigations and sample collection for CD4 count, following up on patient not yet eligible for ART, screening for HIV-TB co-infection, and tracking of patients who missed appointments. RMF has been supporting these activities which involved taking patients on a weekly basis to 150-km far Indore, a long and expensive journey on bad roads which will become largely redundant under the new program.
NACO has already developed a revised 3-day training module which includes clinical examination for adult and pediatric patients, case discussions in the wards as well as exercises to practice the pill count system, recording and tracking, and RMF will ensure to have the Jeevan Jyoti staff trained as soon as possible. The RMF-Jeevan Jyoti link ART center was inaugurated on July 25th, 2009 and continues to excel in patient care in the form of a public private partnership.
Tags: India, india hiv, indian government hiv, jeevan jyoti, NACO, real medicine india
By Jaimie Shaff
Program Manager: Health and Nutrition
This past Tuesday marked my 14th day in India, aka my deadline for registration with the government of India. Since landing in this beautiful country, I have hit the ground running. The programs developed and implemented by RMF-India are absolutely incredible. Despite the fact that I was here evaluating the malnutrition program in January, I was certainly unprepared for how much the programs have expanded. The community has become more familiar with the faces of Caitlin, Michael, Fabian, and the rest of the field-staff, and the programs are developing with a strong focus on community.
With some slight confusion, train travel, and broken Hindi, I finally registered with the government powers that be this morning. My handwritten FRO note is in my passport, and I’m about 60% sure that I’ll be able to leave the country in December without any major hurdles.
In my short time here, I have met with many of the major organizations contributing towards humanitarian and developmental efforts in under-nutrition and HIV/AIDS in India. RMF is well received and respected by large organizations, as the only International NGO working directly with the Bhil tribal population in MP. I look forward to becoming more familiar with our programs, working to increase our efficacy and community-based sustainability, and creating technical/operating partnerships with other actors in this field.
Tags: Bhil population, HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS in India, India, jaimie shaff, madhya pradesh, malnutrition in india
Very good article published in Sunday’s New York Times about the malnutrition and food crisis in India. This focuses specifically on the crisis in Jhabua and Madhya Pradesh where our Malnutrition Initiative and Team India are based.
Link to New York Times article here.
There’s even a photo featured in the article of the treatment center (NRC) that we support in partnership with the Jeevan Jyoti Hospital. Photo here.
Tags: children in india, donate to india, food crisis in india, India, Jhabua, malnutrition clinic, malnutrition crisis india, malnutrition in india, new york times
By Sharon Levy
This May I had the privilege of volunteering as a Registered Nurse for the Real Medicine Foundation’s Malnutrition Eradication program in Jhabua, India. Jhabua is located in Madhya Pradesh, one of the poorest states in the sub-continent. 60 per cent of children under the age of 5 are malnourished in Madhya Pradesh. RMF’s program targets this age group to be assessed for severity of malnutrition, need for inpatient treatment, and family education to decrease the incidence of malnutrition.
Working with Michael Matheke- Fisher, RMF’s Regional Programs Coordinator in South Asia, Caitlin McQuiling, Director of Programs for RMF in India, and Community Nutrition Educators, (local women hired and trained by 
RMF) I went on several follow up home visits to see children who had been recently treated at one of RMF’s Nutrition Rehab Clinics (NRC) The NRC provides 14-21 days of medically monitored feedings of micronutrient rich food for children with severe acute malnutrition. In addition to weight gain, other ailments such as respiratory illnesses, infections, and diarrhea are treated as well. A pediatrician and a specially trained group of nurses follow each patient. While there the family member who stays with the child, usually the mother, is given education about helpful ways to add protein and calories to the child’s food as well as clean food handling practices.
Tags: children in india, India, Jhabua, malnutrition, Related Links
Real Medicine India is proud to introduce its newest staff member, Jaimie Shaff, as the team’s Program Manager for Health and Nutrition. Jaimie recently completed her Master of Public Administration for International Public and Non-Profit Management and Policy Analysis at New York University.
While Jaimie is new to the RMF team, she’s not new to our programs. For the past year Jaimie has been a part of the 4 person “Capstone” team, assigned to help RMF’s “Eradicate Malnutrition” program through NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service’s Capstone program. Jaimie and her colleagues spent two semesters helping RMF analyze the program, providing valuable inputs for program development, including helping us finalize baseline surveys and conducting an important pre-program gap analysis.
While visiting us in Jhabua in January, Jaimie and the Capstone team conducted surveys on the healthcare access and nutrition information in many of the villages that became part of our intervention. In addition to the actual report, Jaimie and her team’s information gathering process was extremely helpful for our team on the ground for targeting our intervention and connecting our Community Nutrition Educators with local health workers. Furthermore, Jaimie and her team’s identification of gaps in systems in Jhabua helped us gain a better understanding of some of the causes of malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh.
Tags: India, jaimie shaff, Madhhya Pradesh, malnutrition, new team member, NYU Capstone Program, NYU Wagner School of Public Service
We’d like to give thanks to Carly Shankman for holding a succesful fundraiser in San Diego for the Malnutrition Inititiative in India. Here is the blog she’s written about the fundraiser and her upcoming volunteer trip to India with RMF
By Guest Blogger, Carly Shankman
I was introduced to the Real Medicine Foundation through Michael Matheke (RMF India Programs Coordinator) about 4 months ago. It was at that time I decided to leave my life in San Diego and take the journey of a lifetime backpacking through India. Even greater than my desire to travel and learn for my own personal growth, I wanted to contribute to the people and communities of India. My passion in life is to see, do, explore, meet, live, love, appreciate and experience everything I come across on my journey. I believe in contributing to the greater good of the world and leaving the world a better place than when I arrived. RMF provided the platform for me to do this. After reviewing the website I immediately resonated with the malnutrition eradication program and the work they are doing with children.
I spoke with Michael and expressed my desire to volunteer on-site. After the plans were set for me to stay onsite with RMF I started to brainstorm fundraising ideas to make a monetary donation prior to my arrival. Since I am traveling with 3 other girls to India, Bri, Kayla, and Laura, I wanted to do something we could all work on together. We ran the idea of having a car wash at the restaurant with our GM, James Stephenson, and he was completely on board. He even allowed us to advertise the event to all our customers that came in.
The car wash was held on Saturday, July 10th and it was a complete success! We were a little concerned because the carwash was being held on the 4th day San Diego had been really overcast and cloudy and thought it might deter people from coming. Right after we were done setting up the sun came out and the cars started lining up. We had a steady flow of 3-4 cars at a time all day long and all our friends stopped by with cars to clean, snacks to share and the DJ kept the music jamming all day. There were approximately 15 volunteers helping to wash cars and collect donations and nearly 50 people stopped by to support us. The event went perfectly and thanks to LJ Strip Club, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Vons, Einstein’s Bagels, Trader Joe’s and all the amazing volunteers that came out, we raised $750 for RMF!
Tags: children, fundraising, India, malnutrition, san diego, volunteering
Please watch this great video made by our friends at the World Bank. They do a great job at explaining malnutrition in India and what we can do about it. WB recently gave RMF a longer, India-specific version of this video, in Hindi, that has been edited and adapted as a tool to train field workers in nutrition. We’re using this video during our training sessions with local NGOs and self-help groups to give them an introduction on malnutrition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoWmbd-Nx6U
Tags: India, malnutrition
Real Medicine Foundation and Jeevan Jyoti Health Service Society Inaugurate Integrated Counseling and Testing Center (ICTC) and Link ART Center in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh
A milestone for both Madhya Pradesh States AIDS Control Society’s and the people living with HIV/AIDS in Jhabua Streets of Fire ipod
Tags: Art, HIV/AIDS, ICTC, India, madhya pradesh, Public Private Partnership
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