SNEHA l Improving maternal, child and adolescent health of slum dwellers of Ahmedabad city.

Описание: SNEHA - Ahmedabad
SNEHA project in Gujarat is being implemented since 2019. It has entered last year of its implementation cycle. It aimed to improving maternal, child and adolescent health of slum dwellers of Ahmedabad city.
Community mobilization through awareness activities were organized to improve access to maternal health. At the end of three years more than 98% women were enrolled for maternal health services. All the deliveries are taking place in the institute which was not the reality when we initiated the project. Initiation of nutrition cente in the project area which aimed to counsel the mothers on child feeding practices and develop a feeding habits among the children, which includes washing hands before eating, keep nails cut, sit at one place and eat and not to waste food. Undernourished children were fed milk and an egg once a week. Mother were taught traditional recipes like sukhadi, laddu, upma and vegetable khichadi from ICDS supplementary food and home based ration. As a result the children started eating home cooked food which was replaced by the salty and sugary “namkeens”.
Moderately undernutrition has decreased from 68% to 52% and severely under nutrition from 32% to 23% in March. 25% children were shifted to normal nutritional status.
To break vicious cycle of malnutrition, the project has focused on first 1000 days of life and organized various participatory activities like pre-mamta divas, mamta divas, gaud bharai and family counseling at community level. To make sustainable change, target group were encouraged to enroll and access the government services like “Khilkhilat”. More than 70% pregnant women have completed 100 IFA tablets and undergone minimum 4 anta natal checkups as per November, 21. Similarly, more than 70% children were feed colostrums and breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of age.
Project also focuses on the adolescent girls’ issues, during the year girls were orientated on healthy nutritious practices, pubertal changes, menstruation and its hygiene through various participatory activities. Around 35 adolescent girls who had tobacco chewing habit , quit it due to continuous mentoring support, made them aware of health hazards and sensitize them on economic burden.
Apart from this, the project has sensitized community members on COIVD-19 vaccine. A “Suraksha Abhiyaan” campaign was run to provide COIVD-19 vaccines to the community members at filed level. Around 2500 community people got vaccines from this campaign.