Reaching EVERY child

Yesterday was the inauguration of the routine immunization (RI) program. We decorated the room with flowers, posters and pictures. About 7 or 8 government officials came and gave a few speeches. Father also gave an inaugural address and a lamp was lit to symbolize the start of the program. Unfortunately we couldn’t understand too much of the inaugural ceremony because it was all in Bengali, but we were given a few translations from time to time.

Today I joined Manasi for a field visit to Malda (another district here in West Bengal) where the training of health workers was taking place for the RI program. The workers that were trained today function as social mobilizers. They are all women who live in the villages. Many health services are provided to the village people (like the immunization station every Wednesday) but many aren’t benefiting from those services either because they are unaware of them or they are resistant to them. The role of the social mobilizer is to connect the people and the services and to reach the “left-out children” (those not being properly immunized). They do this by increasing awareness and accessibility of services provided. They also determine the factors causing some families to remain resistant to immunization. Some families remain resistant due to various social and cultural beliefs and many superstitions. Since the social mobilizer also lives in the village, they are able to go to each and every house to ensure that no child is missed.

Another role of the social mobilizer is to teach their community about various health and social issues using flashcards (large posters). These flashcards have been drawn by an extremely talented artist and each has a message about different health issues facing pregnant mothers and children. This is a very effective way to teach the villagers. Many are unable to read or write, but they are able understand the message through the pictures and descriptions. I got the opportunity to meet the professional artist last week as he was working on some more flashcards in the office at SWI. I was so impressed; his work is incredible!

I feel like I could talk about the RI health program itself for a long time, in much greater detail, but that would probably not be too exciting for all of you readers (except for my professor Dr. Lindsey and former Community Health student colleagues)! Ask me for more details about the plan and implementation later! It's really exciting and quite impressive! ;)

Earlier in the week, Scott, Andrea and I got to attend the quarterly meeting for the SWI staff. Each department gave a brief presentation of their progress from the past three months as well as their goals for next quarter. The night before the meeting we were surprised to look at a schedule and see our names on it for a 45 minute sharing of our experience here…yeah. So we panicked a little and then decided to chat about what highlights we wanted to share. It wasn’t quite as scary as I thought it might be and we were comforted in the fact that less than 10 people in the entire room could understand us – the rest were relying on Father’s translations. We shared a few things and then had a question/ answer time with the staff. I started off the sharing by mentioning a few of the discomforts we faced when arriving like eating everything with our fingers and using the Indian toilet…it got some good chuckles among the staff. They asked a lot of questions about America – some questions were easier than others. We were very relieved and thankful that the questions didn’t turn political on us like they have before. That makes for an interesting and uncomfortable conversation…

Bummer News- Almost every day someone comes into the office asking Father where the USAID food is. USAID provides food to the hostel children. The food was sent to Calcutta months ago, but it's going to waste because the Indian government won’t pay to get it transported and distributed, so in the meantime, over 7,000 children are hungry. :(

Exciting News- The HIV project proposal that Scott, Andrea and I helped to create for the Clinton Foundation got passed!!! So that project will begin in a few weeks! :)

We're leaving tonight for Calcutta where we'll be for the next four or five days, then we're traveling to a place named Puri on the Eastern Coast. Just a heads up because I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have, so basically, if I don't blog, Mom and Dad, don't worry, I'm fine! ;)