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Meet Dr. Athar Qureshi, of RMF Team India

May 19, 2011 in General, India by Jonathan White | Comments closed

 

Dr. Athar Qureshi is RMF’s Deputy Director Programs for India. He is a Medical Graduate with a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Administration. He is now pursuing his Masters in Marketing Management from Mumbai University. Athar is from Mumbai and his interest in Social and Preventive Medicine made him choose his career in the development sector. 

His first published work, “Health Services in Mumbai” was published as a booklet by Bombay Community Public Trust (BCPT) with support from FORD Foundation. He has worked in the development sector for the last eight years addressing Public Health issues, Reproductive & Sexual Health and Preventive Health. He designed and operationalized an Adolescent Reproductive Health Program for Niramaya Health Foundation and was instrumental in developing IEC booklets (“Aai Mala Saang”) for the program.  

Athar’s career spans working as a full timer and consultant with organizations like Centre for Health Promotion, NFI (DFID Challenge Fund), Avert Society (USAID), APAC (USAID), HLFPPT (USAID) and Family Planning Association of India. At RMF, he is looking after capacity building and training of the team, developing and strengthening MIS & reporting, program monitoring and day to day management of the programs along with his duties as Deputy Director of Programs. He enjoys cooking, reading and travelling to historical sites in India. He loves watching Hollywood movies and has a passion for the parallel cinema in India.

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SmileTrain and CHL Apollo-Indore bring new smiles to MP!

March 22, 2011 in General, Helping Children, India, Jaimie Shaff, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | Comments closed

by Jaimie Shaff

Shakuntala before surgery

We’ve all played the classic game “heads, shoulders, knees, and toes (knees and toes!)” Actually, I’ve been so wrapped up in adulthood, I had forgotten about it. One night when we visited the Bhil Academy, I saw Naiara playing the game with the smallest kids and remembered singing the song with my cousins and preschool students, back in the day. Part of the song goes “eyes and ears and nose and mouth…” and the children point to the respective parts of the face. Two eyes. Two ears. One nose. One mouth. Something so simple, most of us don’t even think about the meaning.

Shakuntala after surgery

For children born with cleft palates, the song is not so simple. The physical deformity is visually shocking, and can cause much stigma against the child throughout life. From what we have seen in rural India, when the child is first born, parents don’t know what to do or how to feed the baby, and some children end up severely malnourished. As the child grows up, he or she is often ostracized from his/her peers, leading to delinquency and absence from school. As an adult, the acceptance into society is reduced, and all social aspects of life are affected. For women in our region, a cleft palate is a serious burden to bear, increasing risks such as domestic violence and job discrimination.

Sharikia before surgery

Fortunately, a solution is simple. A procedure that takes only 30 minutes can change the entire future for a child. Unfortunately, the knowledge of available services and access to such is not widespread in rural areas, and the burden of a curable birth “defect” adds weight to an already difficult life.

20 February 2011, SmileTrain and CHL-Apollo-Indore Hospital held a health screening in Meghnagar for cleft palates, heart conditions, thyroid issues, and other ailments not screened for at rural health centers. Our nutrition team arranged for three children from three districts to be screened for cleft palate operations, and the team at CHL-Apollo offered to operate on any children we brought with us to pre-op.

Sharika after surgery

On Wednesday, Naiara, Edith, Pushpa, Manisha, and myself brought four children from the districts of Jhabua, Khargone, and Barwani to CHL-Apollo for pre-op (three children were sick and had to be postponed).

17 March 2011, all four children received successful operations for their cleft palates.  Thanks to the incredible support and efforts by SmileTrain and the team of CHL-Apollo, the lives of Shakuntala, Sharika, Pepita, and Pipu will be forever changed.

Pepita before surgery

I was absolutely overwhelmed with the quality of care and attention provided by CHL-Apollo, and am so grateful to see the generosity and compassion that exists in the world.  Out of all of the experiences I’ve had working here, this was certainly one of the best.

Pepita after surgery

Three of the children will be receiving a second surgery in June, and three more children are in line for their first.  We can’t wait to see their new smiles!

A special thanks goes to Mr. Rajul Bhargava, Dr. Jaideep Chauhan, the team at CHL-Apollo, and the staff of Hotel Infiniti for all that you did to make this possible.

SmileTrain’s website can be found here: http://www.smiletrain.org and CHL-Apollo-Indore Hospital can be found here: http://www.chlhospitals.com

For more information about RMF’s Malnutrition Eradication Program in India, click here and the Bhil Academy click here

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

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Voices from the field: “One Birthday Wish granting wishes” for many by Jaimie Shaff

March 18, 2011 in Helping Children, India, Jaimie Shaff, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | 1 comment

by Jaimie Shaff

For the friends and family who know me best, it goes without saying that my date of birth is a sore spot for me. Last year, I actually skipped town and went on an AcroYoga retreat out of state!

This year, I’m unbelievably grateful to report I had the best birthday ever, and it’s all because of you (and Causes, of course). I began with a goal of raising $1,000 for some of the sweetest kids, and ended up with an astonishing $7,025. The money raised gave us the opportunity to follow up with kids from my “love” list, and saved three lives in the first two weeks. Just like that.

Here’s a little update of what we’ve done so far:

-Gave toys and coloring materials to kids to promote their psychosocial development (and to let them be kids!) on Chinese New Year.

Pankaj and toys

-Found Suriya and Amansingh close to death, and gave them a fighting chance to live. We’ve since uncovered a larger issue, in that the family is using these poor little children to exploit the system, but that’s for another blog.

Amansingh after 2 weeks at the Nutritional Rehab Center

-Provided emergency transportation and support to Rahul, a 2 year old with Tubercular Meningitis, to a prestigious public hospital in Ahmadabad, where he received a life saving shunt to drain fluid from his brain. He’s just returning from his first follow up appointment, and things are looking good, but his condition is far from stable. However, it does look like his sight might be coming back!

-Provided Basanti an operation for her clubfoot through the organization A Leg to Stand On (http://www.altso.org), at Civil Hospital. She’s recovering beautifully from her first operation, with a second operation scheduled for June.

Jaimie and Naiara signing Basanti's cast

-Transported Ayush (the happiest little guy in the world!) to Ahmadabad to follow up on his brain-shunt and evaluate his physical disabilities.

Naiara and Ayush

-Paid off the loan shark used to pay for Gila’s (rest in peace, little one) expensive private medical procedures, allowing the family to be free from debt in order to raise their new daughter, Anandani, to be healthy and safe. This story deserves justice, a blog to come.

Anandani

-Hired Anandani’s father as our first male CNE to help him avoid migrating for work and leaving his family struggling to survive.

Anandani's father

-Brought 4 children from the fields to Indore for cleft-palate operations at CHL Apollo through the organization Smile Train. (http://www.smiletrain.org).

Shakuntala before her cleft-palate operation

See Jaimie’s Birthday Wish Causes page here: http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/203560

Special thanks to “A Leg to Stand on” and “Smile Train” for helping make the operations possible.

Thank you everyone for allowing us to do this. The lives of these children will be forever changed thanks to your kindness, compassion, and support. You should just see the smiles.

For more information about RMF’s Programs in India, click here and here

We can use any help you are able to provide on this project to continue our Education, Treatment and Outreach in the Madhya Pradesh 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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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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Voices from the field: An angel, from Justdail.com

February 15, 2011 in Caitlin McQuilling, General, Helping Children, India, Providing Medical Support, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | Comments closed

An angel, from JustDial.com by Caitlin Mcquilling

I’m often asked what keeps me going in the face of the hardships and emotionally taxing situations we face working on issues such as childhood malnutrition and HIV/AIDS day in and day out.  My answer is simple: it’s all about finding inspiration in the most unexpected of places and circumstances.

Caitlin, and the mothers and children at the Malnutrition clinic

On Tuesday while out on a village visit we came across a little girl, Gila, who was extremely sick and dangerously malnourished.  She and her family had just returned from a month long stay at a private hospital in Dahod, Gujarat where Gila was properly diagnosed with tubercular meningitis, but unfortunately was not given the proper treatment.  Over the month she was there the family spent their entire savings and then some only to see Gila rapidly deteriorating.  After a month when the family could no longer afford “treatment” they were sent home.  This is when we found the family in the village, desperate for us to help in any way we could.  As soon as I saw Gila I knew she needed expert medical care not available in the state of MP.  We told the family that we would have to bring the little girl to the hospital immediately and they eagerly agreed without a second thought.

Along with Gila’s father, Suroj, we consulted a doctor in Jhabua to get his opinion on whether or not the girl could travel.  With the doctor’s immediate advice to go straight to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and BJ Medical College,  I set out along with Sumitra, our CNE who first met the family, our wonderful and uncomplaining driver Mesul, and the little girl’s father and cousin on the 8 hour car ride.

As soon as we reached BJ Medical College, one of the best government health facilities in the country, we were rushed straight to the pediatric ICU.  The wonderful team of doctors there immediately put the little girl on oxygen and started treatment immediately.  They told us that the little girl’s condition was extremely serious and her chances of survival weren’t good, but promised to do everything they could to save her.  I spent the day in the hospital with the family on Wednesday, understanding the next steps with the doctors, getting all the lab tests they needed expedited, and making sure that they were comfortable.   We set the family up with a network of kind local volunteers who promised to look after the family on a daily basis since RMF couldn’t station one of our team members at the hospital for the 3-4 weeks the family would need to be there.

At 5am on Thursday while I was rushing to get my things together for the airport, I got a phone call from Suroj.  Between sobs, Gila’s father told me that she had passed away a half hour before and he didn’t know what to do.  He wanted to go home as soon as possible to cremate Gila, but didn’t know how he would get her body the 10 hours home.  He begged me to help the family find a way home as soon as possible.  When I got into the taxi a few minutes later I knew my options were severely limited.  I had to be on a flight in an hour to go to an important meeting in Bhopal, but I also couldn’t leave this family stranded.  I’m not very familiar with Ahmedabad, especially to find an emergency hearse at 5am capable of making an 8 hour trip across state boundaries.  But as I greeted the taxi driver, that my friend found from JustDial.com, I immediately had a good feeling about him.  I had 20 minutes to convince Nitin, the driver, to drive 10 hours with a sobbing father and a dead body.

I laid it on thick.  In my remedial Hindi I told him about the work RMF does in Jhabua, about the malnourished kids, about this caring family who tried to do everything for their daughter but who were failed by the medical system.  I wasn’t ashamed to beg this man to do us this favor.  By the end of the taxi ride this driver had no choice but to agree to my outrageous request to go directly from the airport to the district hospital to find a family who didn’t speak his language (Bhili v. Gujarati) and to take them and child’s body 8 hours to a tribal area which many individuals in Ahmedabad have prejudice about.   The driver was hesitant to take on this responsibility but conceded to take the family as far as Jhabua (not their village) as long as there was a death certificate.  While the taxi driver seemed honest, I could only wish for the best as I handed him money and ran into the airport to catch my flight.

While going through airport security I arrange an expedited death certificate from the hospital and connected Nitin with Suroj and Suminta.  As I boarded the flight Nitin was lost on the hospital campus.  On my layover in Indore I confirmed that Nitin had in fact picked up the family and that they were safely on the way to Jhabua.  Phew.  Job done.  I could now concentrate on PowerPoints and process indicators.

Thursday evening I got a call from Sumitra, our CNE who met the family in Jhabua when they arrived.  After she filled me in on how the family was doing, how the cremation went, and so on, she also had a message for me.

Not only had Nitin driven the family the 10 hours to Jhabua as agreed, he also insisted on driving them all the way to their remote village himself.  Not only did he go out of his way to drive them to the village, he attended Gila’s cremation as a member of the family.  The next morning he called Sumitra, not to complain, as many people would, but to thank her.  He told Sumitra that he was grateful that RMF asked him to do this.  He said it made him feel so good that he was able to be there for this wonderful family during their time of need and was just happy to be part of all of this.

Thank you Nitin.  Its individuals like you who keep us going and remind us that even in the most terrible of circumstances, humanity can be found from the most unexpected places.

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.

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Goong Hay Fat Choy, Day 2: How your donations saved two lives

February 9, 2011 in Helping Children, India, Jaimie Shaff, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Continuing with our series from Jaimie Shaff in the field in India, here is Part 2!

by Jaimie Shaff

Naiara joined me on the second day and we began the day with a quick trip to the toy store. Luckily, the toy storeowners had just gone to Indore and had some more toys for us! We picked up a couple of our CNEs and headed back out to the villages, this time starting with some of the kids living in villages outside of our program’s reach.

Day Two:

Manoj

Manoj lives in a village that we do not cover in our program. It took us a little over 2 hours to get to the village, and then another half hour to find Manoj. Manoj was the victim of an inept doctor’s IV rampage, and had over 16 needles stuck in him in just two weeks. By the time we got another doctor to give him appropriate treatment Manoj was traumatized. His mother and I shared tears of frustration, but worked hard to get him better. And then he came for follow up in the middle of a measles outbreak and was promptly stuck with a measles vaccination! Poor kid. But, I’m happy to report he’s super healthy, afraid of me, but very happy with his new toys!

Vijay

Vijay was the first serious case at the NRC in June 2010. I didn’t know him, but the CNEs did. It turns out he lives right next door to Manoj! He and his twin brother are happy and healthy, and received some toys to share.

Neha is finally starting to gain some muscle in her legs, but is still in serious need of psychosocial support. She makes an attempt to walk and doesn’t hide as much, but is still needs a lot of TLC. Her father just grew a kitchen garden filled with green leafy veggies, so we shall see how she progresses in the coming weeks.

Amansingh before

Amansingh from house

On Day Two, we had a whole list of children to see. However, there was one child we absolutely had to see. Amansingh had come to the NRC in October, when our nurses Jana and Rachel were here. He was severely malnourished, filthy, covered in a fungal skin infection, and absolutely miserable. After a month in the NRC, he came back for follow up with a severe case of the measles, complicated by bronchial pneumonia and conjunctivitis. At this follow up, we were introduced to his little sister Suriya, 6 months at the time and ineligible for a vaccination. She was a beautiful baby girl, smiling all the time, and we hoped the mother’s breast milk would protect her.

Amansingh

Amansingh’s village is extremely far away and not covered by our program. I had never been out to his home, but quickly realized why his case was so severe. Their home is a 15-minute drive from the Anganwadi center, and does not have a water pump within a reasonable distance. There is no crop around the house right now, and the parents do not have any other form of income or access to markets.

Suriya how we found her

We arrived at the home to our worst nightmare. Amansingh’s little sister was lying on the ground outside naked, covered in flies, filthy, and crying. She was severely malnourished, and covered in the black marks indicating a recent case of the measles. She was also covered in scars. Her mother was sitting about 10 feet away rocking back and forth, laughing. Her mother is mad.

Amansingh emerged from the house with his father naked, filthy, and miserable. His skin infection had returned with his edema, and he was once again presenting with SAM. With a few words, we whisked the family into our car and began the trip to the Jhabua District Hospital, 2 hours away.

Amansingh and Suriya at hospital

In the car, I felt a little hungry (it was 3pm at this point and none of us had eaten since breakfast). I brought out a couple of snacks, including some dried fruit and a Luna bar. I offered around the car, and back to Amansingh’s family. To my absolute horror, I watched as Amansingh began to practically inhale the food. He hadn’t eaten in days. Needless to say, my hunger quickly disappeared.

We got to the hospital and our favorite doctor came to meet us, sad but not surprised that Amansingh was back. In good hands, we left the hospital and headed back home.

The problem is, this is not going to have an easy solution. The two little children’s lives have just been saved, but the problems are far from gone. The mother is psychologically disabled. The father is in his late 50s/60s. The house still has no access to water, food, or health services. The mother abuses the children during her fits.

Currently, there are no services available for children like this. Their rights as human beings do not exist, as there are no support structures in place to safeguard these elusive “rights.” They are safe, now, in a hospital, but they will no longer be protected when they return home. We cannot remove them from their homes.  We can barely stop ourselves from whisking these children away to a better life.

The sunny side is that without this toy-giving extravaganza, these children may not have had a chance. While we make every effort to follow up with our kids, sometimes it takes just a bit longer. For these two, we came just in time. Suriya still has innocence in her eyes, and it is beautiful.

Your donations and your generosity to my Facebook Cause saved the lives of Amansingh and Suriya. They changed the lives of many others and will keep on changing lives. It’s incredible how a little bit goes such a long way out here. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I can’t wait to continue giving.

For Amansingh and Suriya, we can give our attention and our awareness. We cannot do more than offer services and provide access to basic human necessities. We can only do our best. Our best, right now, is to spread the word, increase awareness, and incite change. Through change, be it policy or a magical group that knows how to help these kids, we are doing our best.  We can change the lives of so many future children by starting now.

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

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.

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Goong Hay Fat Choy! Your donations bringing Chinese New Year to India

February 7, 2011 in Helping Children, India, Jaimie Shaff, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities, Voices from the Field, Whole Health by Jonathan White | 1 comment

by Jaimie Shaff

We have lost seven children since I arrived. For these seven children, our best was not enough. They were too sick, adequate medical care too scarce, and their bodies too weak. We have treated hundreds of children at the NRC since I came here late July, but some of these cases were so terrible and challenging that our “best” was all that we could promise.  Most of them made it, their resiliency evident by the smiles we finally saw, but a few we just couldn’t save.

In honor of these children, I decided to stop ignoring my birthday and use it to grant the wishes of a couple of kids via the “Causes” application on Facebook. In just three days, I had surpassed my target of $1,000. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the giving nature of my friends and family who all pulled together to grant the wishes of these children.  I also figured that if we could grant the wishes of two children in three days, we could grant more wishes before my actual birthday—so I upped the goal!

February 3rd marked the beginning of Chinese New Year, and the year of the Rabbit. With all of the donations that had already come in, I decided to do a little Goong Hay Fat Choy celebration for our most serious cases. We made a list of the kids who touched our hearts—the most complicated cases of malnutrition—that could use a little bit of psychosocial stimulation. For about $100, Anjana and I purchased every non-motorized toy in the local toyshop and went out to the field with some of our Community Nutrition Educator’s (CNE’s.

Oh yea, and keep in mind that the last time most of these kids saw me, I was having someone stick them with a blood test, IV antibiotics, malaria rapid test, or measles vaccination. They definitely do not associate me with toys….

Day One:

“C”, our little HIV+ baby boy, got a truck and a coloring book. I also saw his mother smile for the first time ever. He just started ART (after months of battling the system) and is finally in the green of the MUAC tape! (Photo used with permission)

Lalita, a little girl we’ve been supplying with in-village therapeutic food, has chubby little cheeks and received a tea set, ball, and coloring book.

Sangeeta and Pannu, our post-measles SAM cases, got dolls, walkers, coloring books, and balls. Pannu, whose eyes are scarred from his bout with measles, needs to have a corneal transplant, an operation not covered by the government schemes for children below the poverty line. This will cost over 2.5 lakh rupees (approximately $5,500) and will require a donor and significant amount of hospital time. Even if we get the donation and the donor, it is unsure whether the parents are able to take that much time away from the fields. For now, we’re happy with the two little one’s being nice and chubby.

Salem, a measles/SAM/malaria/anemia case, received in-village TF and heavy-duty malaria treatment. He was very confused when we handed him a truck and ball instead of a malaria rapid prick and yucky yellow medicine.

Mamta, a little girl who had suffered with severe post-measles bronchial pneumonia, received a tea set and push toy. We also met her new little baby brother!

Kavita is a little girl who left the NRC without finishing her malaria treatment. She was severely malnourished and sick, but the family just couldn’t stay. We weren’t able to bring her malaria treatment in village, as she suffered from a type of malaria that did not have a simple form of medication, and it was too dangerous to allow the family to self-medicate. When we saw her in the village, we were all amazed! Her grandmother had taken our counseling and used it to start feeding her properly. Fortunately, the partial medication had worked on the malaria, and Kavita is now a healthy little girl!

Basanti, our intense case of full body edema and anemia, was woken up from her nap when we arrived. Her mother first introduced us to her new little brother, and then showed Basanti what we had brought her! We asked the mother if her husband would come with Basanti to Amedabad to have an operation to fix her foot, and her mother was so excited she ran into her fields and came back with a bundle of corn! It’s incredible how giving people are, even when they have nothing.

Pankaj and Maria are the epitome of inspiration. After all of the attention we’ve paid them (and plethora of field visits), the Anganwadi worker decided to bring them into her home for the past couple of months until we can all find a more sustainable solution. In just one month, Pankaj began walking, talking, laughing, and playing. Maria has started school. They’re both just incredible lights of my life, and what a joy it was to see the Anganwadi worker so active with them!

Vishal saw us coming and ran up with his arms wide open and cheeky little grin on his face. He immediately grabbed a little pull-toy duck and started pulling it over the dirt living space. He also reached for the MUAC tape to show off how much weight he had gained! We got to meet his new little sister and all left with huge smiles on our faces. What a wonderful day.


By the end of the first day, we had visited 12 villages and completely run out of toys. We had a whole list of children left, and decided to regroup the next day. Little did we know that Day Two would turn our lives upside down. Little did you know that your donations honestly would save two little lives.

Stay tuned for the Day Two story from Jaimie and further updates from the field!

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

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.

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Voces del Voluntarias: Naiara Tejados en India

January 31, 2011 in India, Naiara Tejados, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Jhabua, 24 de enero de 2011

Pienso en cada momento cuán feliz me hace saber que he tomado la decisión correcta. Desde que tengo uso de razón he querido vivir una experiencia así: recuerdo, cómo el primer año después de haber comenzado mi Tesis Doctoral intenté contactar con algunas ONG-s para durante mis vacaciones estivales ofrecer lo mejor de mí en algún país en vías de desarrollo. Tal y como me dijeron entonces, pocas ONG-s aceptarían mi ayuda de ser sólo para un mes. Fue entonces cuando decidí definitivamente posponer la experiencia hasta completar mi Tesis.

Me siento realmente afortunada aún en estos días pues en el año 2006 en Gobierno Vasco me concedió una beca para ir a Minneapolis (EEUU) para realizar un curso de identificación, aislamiento, caracterización y expansión de un tipo de célula de la médula ósea de ratones; fue allí cuando primeramente contacté con esta India maravillosa aún sin tocarla. Preferí convivir con una familia local en vez de hospedarme en un hotel. Así es como tuve la ocasión de conocer a la persona más interesante que he conocido en mi vida: Nancy Ramer, una señora mayor muy religiosa de origen escocés. Ya al día siguiente de llegar recuerdo cómo me empezó a contar que tras haber estudiado enfermería, atendió a muchos heridos en la Segunda Guerra Mundial en Inglaterra, y después recibió una “llamada de Dios” requiriendo de su ayuda: su ayuda era necesitada en un país lejano. Ella pensó que sería destinada a Manchuria, pero finalmente, y muy a su pesar, fue destinada a Sangli, cerca de Pune, Maharashtra, India. Estaba convencida de que la odiarían pues India recientemente había conseguido la independencia de Inglaterra. Fijó sus condiciones remarcando que bajo ningún concepto residiría más de dos años en India.

Pero Nancy –más conocida como Adji que significa “abuela” en Marathi- había también prometido algo más: nunca se casaría. Sin embargo, al poco de tomar el primer contacto con el país, conoció al hombre de su vida con el que pocos años después contraería matrimonio: un ingeniero americano también destinado a India. Así, además de romper su promesa de mantenerse soltera, también ignoró sus condiciones iniciales de que no residiría en este país por más de dos años, pues ella residió 37 años en este país dando a luz a cuatro criaturas. Ha sido ella quien me ha traído aquí con sus cuentos relatados hace casi 5 años llenos de magia.

En el año 2010, viendo ya el final de mi Tesis Doctoral, comencé a ponerme en contacto con distintas organizaciones que ejercen su trabajo en India a través de mis amigos de Minneapolis. Primeramente me puse en contacto con una ONG recién nacida denominada Help Kids India ubicada en la ciudad de Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. Sin embargo, estando yo completamente adentrada en mi Tesis que cada día se retrasaba más, estos contactos iniciales no dieron su fruto. Un poco después contacté con una fundación española denominada Asha-Kiran y me presté a moverme a su casa de acogida para niños semi-huérfanos o huérfanos ubicada en Pune, Maharashtra. Sin embargo, debido al retraso de la defensa de mi Tesis, perdí la oportunidad de venir a trabajar con ellos pues ya no encajaba en sus planes.  Mis esperanzas se desvanecían a una semana de defender la Tesis.

El día de la defensa de la Tesis Doctoral, el 7 de octubre del 2010, un miembro del tribunal de la misma, Luis Rodríguez-Borlado, tras haberle expuesto lo sucedido, me hizo saber que una amiga suya estaba trabajando en India con una organización, y si deseaba, me podía poner en contacto con ella. Pensé que no sería necesario, pues prefería contactar con alguna organización vasca o española simplemente por tener la ocasión de conocerla mejor antes de adentrarme en esta experiencia. Sin embargo, tras contactar con muchas personas de distinta índole y diversas profesiones, me dí cuenta que mis esfuerzos estaban siendo banales. A punto de tirar la toalla, y con pocas esperanzas, contacté con Luis para preguntarle si podía ponerme en contacto con su amiga en India. Dudaba de si podría estar forzando la fuerza del sino que no me quería en India, y si por ello mi experiencia podría no ser positiva.

Aun así, el 9 de noviembre, escribí mi primer e-mail con pocas esperanzas de que nada fuese a salir bien. Aunque la conozca muy poco, puedo asegurar que Valeria de Azcoitia es una persona excepcional con muy buena voluntad y sensible, pues enseguida se puso en mi lugar y destinó toda su voluntad a ayudarme a cumplir uno se los sueños más grandes de mi vida. Ubicada en Mysore, me habló de su posibilidad de entregar mi Curriculum Vitae a una persona que trabajaba para Real Medicine Foundation (RMF). Siendo conocedora que los procesos en este país toman mucho tiempo, y habiéndose disminuido mis esperanzas por completo, para mi sorpresa y felicidad, en seguida Dheepa Rajan, la coordinadora de proyectos de RMF se puso en contacto conmigo mostrando su interés en tenerme en Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. ¡Qué felicidad!

Desde entonces he de decir que todo ha ido sobre ruedas. En seguida percibí la profesionalidad de la organización, y sinceramente ahora que la conozco de más cerca, he de decir que no estaba equivocada.

Tras obtener el visado que me permite estar en el país 6 meses, el día 12 de enero del 2011 tomé el avión que me llevaría a Bruselas para después allí tomar otro que aterrizaría en Delhi. Aunque un poco inquieta, he de reconocer que el viaje lo realicé muy tranquila. Llegué a Delhi como a las 22:30 de la noche, y allí esperé a Jaimie Shaff, una chica de corta edad pero madura, que desempeña un puesto de Gerente de Programas de Salud y Nutrición en la fundación.

Al día siguiente, tras pocas horas de sueño y aún cansada y después de encontrarnos encontrado con Caitlin McQuilling, la Directora de Programas de RMF en India, nos pusimos camino a una reunión. Era la primera vez que veía los alrededores de India de día. Camino a la reunión, recuerdo cómo me fijaba en todo, pero en el camino de ida puedo decir que nada llamó especialmente mi atención excepto unas cuantas vacas comiendo basura y mucha gente caminando aparentemente sin rumbo. Pero fue a la vuelta de la reunión cuando viví uno de los peores momentos, si no el peor, de los vividos hasta ahora: de repente dos golpes secos sonaron en una de las ventanas traseras. Cuando miré se me encogió el corazón: eran dos niños, dos angelitos, uno de unos 6 años, el otro de alrededor de año y medio, pidiendo; el más pequeño estaba desnudo de cintura para abajo, y ambos estaban mugrientos, Caitling abrió la ventana y extendiendo su brazo, les dio chikee que compramos antes de la reunión. Con sus tiernas sonrisas se retiraron mirando una y otra vez lo que les habíamos ofrecido. Puedo decir que este fue el peor momento de los que he vivido en India. Supongo que el cansancio, el nerviosismo… todo tendría que ver, pero no pudiendo contener mis lágrimas les indiqué a Caitling y Jaimie que no se preocuparan por verme llorar, que ese había sido mi primer shock en India. Entonces dudé de mi misma, dudé de mi capacidad para residir en este país, apasionante pero duro al mismo tiempo. Pensé incluso en la posibilidad de tener que abandonarlo antes de lo previsto.

Han pasado ya casi 15 días desde entonces, y puedo decir que ni en un único momento he deseado regresar a mi país aunque he de reconocer que hay varias cosas que echo de menos. Este país creo que me está enamorando poco a poco. Si he de elegir una única cosa, elegiría a su GENTE. He estado en contacto con gente nativa tribal, paupérrima a nivel económico, pero la más rica del mundo a otros muchos niveles. Estoy viviendo algo que no era capaz de imaginar antes de pisar estas tierras. Ellos son la gente más entrañable que jamás he conocido, niños, adultos, y ancianos, los cuales sin tener nada te brindan todo.

He tenido también la suerte de conocer una escuela de cerca. Me encanta sentarme allí y observar, ¡ y es que es todo tan diferente de nuestra cultura occidental! Sus estudiantes, sobre todo los menores, me han robado el corazón. Qué ternura! En este remoto lugar de la Tierra no he conocido envidias, perezas, celos, no hasta hoy al menos. ¡Estas gentes son todo un ejemplo a seguir!

Estoy deseando empezar a trabajar duro, pues debido a que el tiempo que tengo es escaso, no me gustaría abandonar el país sin haber contribuido a la mejora de algo o alguien, por leve e insignificante que sea. He venido aquí a dar lo mejor de mí, a mi manera o a la suya, cueste lo que cueste, pues ellos lo merecen. Y sinceramente creo que, sin bien no puedo ofrecer un testimonio fehaciente aún, la organización para la que trabajo hará todo lo posible para que este sueño tan añejo se haga realidad, pues el entusiasmo, el buen hacer y el ímpetu de sus miembros son infinitos.

Naiara Tejados

Voluntaria de Real Medicine Foundation

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Voices From the Field: A Volunteer’s Story by Naiara Tejados

January 31, 2011 in India, Naiara Tejados, Voices from the Field by Jonathan White | 1 comment

Jhabua, January 24, 2011

I cannot stop thinking of how happy I feel knowing I made the right decision. For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to have an experience like this. I can still remember how during the first year of my PhD studies I tried to contact several NGOs to try and volunteer in a developing country during my summer holidays. Most of the NGO´s would not accept my help for only a single month. I decided at that point to postpone this experience until my PhD was over.

Naiaraat with child at Jeevan Jyoti Hospital

During my studies, I was lucky when in 2006 the Basque Government gave me a grant to go to Minneapolis (USA) to attend a training course and learn how to identify, isolate, characterize and expand a stem cell type from murine bone marrow.  It was during this time when I first had contact with lovely India without actually visiting. I preferred to stay with a local family in the Minneapolis rather than staying in a hotel and that is how I met the most interesting person ever: Nancy Ramer, an elderly Scottish very religious woman. She told me, the day after I arrived, that after finishing nursery she attended many patients during the Second World War in England, and during this time received “a call from God” asking her to help: her help was needed in a foreign country far away. She thought she would be destined to Manchuria, but finally, much to her regret, she was destined to Sangli, near Pune, Maharashtra, India. She thought everyone would hate her because India had at this time just recently become independent from England. She stated her conditions emphasizing she would never stay longer than two years in India.

But Nancy –also know as, Adji, which means “grandmother” in the Indian Marathi language- also promised something else: she would never get married. However, shortly after reaching this country, she met the man of her life, with whom she  married a few years later: an American engineer also destined to India. Besides breaking her promise of never getting married, she also ignored her initial conditions of never staying in this country more than two years, as she had lived 37 years in India, giving birth to four children. She is the one that brought me here with her magic stories told almost 5 years ago.

Naiara at the Bhil Academy school

In 2010, after determining that my PhD studies would soon be over, through my friends in Minneapolis I tried to get in touch with several organizations working in India. In the beginning I contacted a new NGO called Help Kids India located in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. However, as I was so immersed in my PhD studies that these initial contacts did not work out.  Soon after I got in touch with a Spanish organization called Asha-Kiran, and decided to go to their Shelter-House for semi-orphan or orphan children located in Pune, Maharashtra. But this time due to the delay of the presentation of my PhD thesis, I lost the opportunity to work with them and did not fit in their plans anymore. My hopes to visit India were diminishing just a week before the presentation of my PhD thesis.

The day of the PhD thesis, the 7th of October of 2010, a member of the tribunal, Luis Rodríguez-Borlado, let me know that a friend of his was working in India with an organization, and that if I wanted, he could get me in touch with her. At first I thought it was not necessary, as I preferred to contact a Basque or Spanish organization just to be able to know it before hand. However, after contacting several people I realized that all my efforts were not bearing fruit. About to give up on everything, I emailed Luis to ask if he could put me in touch with his friend in India.

On the 9th of November, without much hope, I sent the first e-mail to Valeria de Ascoita. Even if I do not know her very well, I will say that Valeria is a wonderful person, that put herself in my shoes and did everything she could to help me achieve one of my biggest dreams. Living in Mysore, India, she let me know she that could give my Curriculum Vitae to one of the staff members of the Real Medicine Foundation (RMF). Surprisingly quickly and unexpectedly Dheepa Rajan, the RMF Project Coordinator for India soon got in touch with me showed Real Medicine’s interest in having me in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh. How happy I felt!

I must say that since then everything has worked out smoothly. I recognized the professionalism of the organization immediately, and honestly, now that I know it first hand and have been with them for a couple of weeks, I must say I was not wrong.

Children at Jeevan Jyoti Hospital

After getting the visa that allows me stay in this country 6 months, I took the plane to Delhi on the 12th of January after stopping in Brussels. Even if I felt a little bit nervous, I must say that I was calm during the trip. I arrived in Delhi at 10:30 pm, and met with Real Medicine India team member, Jaimie Shaff, a young but mature lady that is the Program Manager for Health and Nutrition in India.

The next day, sleepy and tired and after being introduced to Caitlin McQuilling, the Director of Programs for RMF India, we went to a meeting. It was the first time I saw India in broad daylight. I remember how I analyzed everything on our way to the meeting; nothing attracted my attention especially but some cows eating garbage and a lot of people seemingly wandering aimlessly. But on our way back from the meeting, I witnessed one of the worse, if not the worst, moments of my time in India: suddenly we heard two sharp knocks in our back window. When I looked at them, my heart contracted: two little boys -two little angels- one about 6 years old, the other one about one and a half, were begging; the younger one was naked below the waist, both filthy. Caitlin opened the window and extending her arm, she gave them some food we had bought before the meeting. Looking at our gift, they moved away with big lovely smiles. I guess probably due to my tiredness from travelling and nerves…in tears I told Caitlin and Jaimie not to worry to see me cry, that this was my first shock in India. I began doubting my abilities to live in this country, fascinating but hard. I even thought of the possibility of having to leave India before expected.

RMF staff in the field

I have now been here more than 15 days, and I can ay that I have not felt the need leave early again even if I admit there are several things I miss. I think that little by little I am falling in love with this country. If I had to choose something, I would just choose the PEOPLE. I have been in touch with native tribal people, the poorest of the poorest economically, but the richest in the World in many other aspects. I am feeling things I would never expect before reaching this land. They are the most pleasant people I have ever met, children, adults, elderly men and women, who having nothing but give everything.

I have also had the chance to get to know one of the local schools closely. I love to sit down and look around; everything is so different compared to our western culture! The students, especially the younger ones, have stolen my heart. How tender they are! In this remote area of the World I have not seen any envy, laziness, jealousy, at least not by now. These people are a role model for everyone!

I am working as hard as I can, as my time in India is so short. I don’t want to leave the country without contributing to the improvement of something or someone, even if it is weak or insignificant. I came to give my best, in my own way or in theirs, at all costs; they deserve it. And honestly I think, even if I have only been with them for so long, Real Medicine is doing as much as possible to make my old dream come true, as the enthusiasm, the efficient working practices and the energy of the staff are boundless!

Naiara Tejados

Real Medicine Foundation Volunteer

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

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.

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India: Barwani Pilot Program for our Eradicating Malnutrition Initiative

January 24, 2011 in Asia, Caitlin McQuilling, General, Helping Children, India, Providing Medical Support, Rebuilding Communities by Jonathan White | Comments closed

Introducing a new pilot initiative within RMF’s Eradicate Malnutrition Program:  Strengthening Community Management of Childhood Malnutrition through community mobilization, and nutrition and health education of mothers and pregnant women in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has the highest rate of childhood malnutrition in India, with upwards of 60% of all children under 5 years old underweight.  In many tribal communities in the state, this rate may be even higher, with alarmingly high rates of severe and moderate acute malnutrition.  These communities often have limited access to government resources meant to prevent and treat malnutrition and have low levels of awareness about proper young child care.

To respond to these alarming levels of malnutrition in Madhya Pradesh, the Real Medicine Foundation (RMF) launched a childhood malnutrition program across 5 of the worst hit districts in Southwest Madhya Pradesh – Jhabua, Alirajpur, Khandwa, Khargone, and Barwani – employing 55 local women to act as Community Nutrition Educators to help empower communities to combat malnutrition and to identify children with severe acute malnutrition.  Given the success of these women in addressing malnutrition at the community level over the last year, RMF is teaming up with the Department of Women and Child Development and the Madhya Pradesh Technical Assistance Support Team MPTAST) to roll out a pilot program in Barwani district to address childhood malnutrition through community mobilization.  This program is supported with financial help from DFID and from technical assistance from Action Against Hunger.

Our staff attending training session

Project Objective

To build the capacity of anganwadi workers and supervisors to drive community mobilization and provide high quality health and nutrition education services in order to develop community capacity to recognize malnutrition, respond to malnutrition using local resources and make referrals when necessary, and to prevent malnutrition in the long-run.

Target Area

This pilot program will provide full coverage to two blocks in Barwani District – Pati and Barwani blocks –with a total of 204 villages and 370 anganwadi centers.  The target population will be children under 5 years old and pregnant and lactating mothers.

Barwani is a remote and rocky district at the southern most corner of Madhya Pradesh, boarding Maharashtra and Gujarat, with a population of 10,81,039 (2001 census).  It is the second most tribal district in Madhya Pradesh, with 67% ST population.  The size of each village varies from roughly 800 and 3000 people, with larger towns scattered throughout the blocks.  Barwani is considered one of the most remote districts of India.  Many of its villages are located in hilly regions, cut off from roads and access to markets.

Staff in the field

Social Mobilization Approach

The project’s social mobilization approach is founded on strengthening the capacity of the government’s ICDS programme to mobilize communities for child nutrition by delivering quality nutrition and health education classes to mothers.  This will lead to increased community understanding of child nutrition issues, more women and families adopting better nutrition practices, and increased demand for government services that people are entitled to.

The project will achieve this by capacitating Anganwadi Workers, Supervisors and CDPOs to hold regular monthly community sensitization meetings to generate interest in and sustain momentum for community action.  The sensitization meetings will increase awareness of malnutrition, its signs and the care that malnourished children need. Tools are being developed to help raise awareness of the scale of malnutrition in the village, how it can be identified, the location of pockets of malnutrition in the village, and stimulate debate on what individual families and the community can do to address this problem.

Through awareness raising events, influential persons and opinion leaders will provide support to the sensitization program through the Village Health, Sanitation, and Nutrition Committee which will serve as the local nutrition monitoring group. These newly formed Village Health, Sanitation, and Nutrition Committees will monitor the regularity, reach and quality of services provided at the Anganwadi Centre.  They will provide feedback and suggestions to key members of the local community and will report any gaps in services to the panchayats for community action. Community leaders and influential persons and the local monitoring group will meet regularly to share monitoring information, help resolve local problems and enable the smooth functioning of Anganwadi Centres. Additionally, by focusing on strengthening anganwadi supervisors’ capacity for supportive supervision, the project will not only institute a system of stronger monitoring and evaluation into the program, but will begin a process of on-going trainings.

Output

As a result of the on-going capacity building and trainings, this project will capacitate Anganwadi Workers to hold regular, participatory and practical health and nutrition education sessions for the mothers of malnourished and underweight children.  It will also strengthen their interpersonal communication skills which will benefit other elements of their duties.

Anganwadi Workers with support from Supervisors and CNEs will hold nutrition and health education classes twice a month.  CNEs will also assist supervisors and anganwadi workers on active case finding in children from hamlets and areas within villages who are not currently accessing anganwadi resources and will help connect these families with the system.  Referrals for complicated cases of SAM and MAM will be made to the Barwani NRC.

Progress thus far

RMF began the groundwork for this project in November 2010 and officially started working on the project at the project’s approval in December 2010.  The first step was to introduce the program to local leadership, and then work to recruit new positions for the program, begin developing manuals and IEC/BCC tools, hold the training for new CNEsm and to make the plan for the project moving forwards.

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

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.

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