|  Partner
: The Arpana Research & Charities Trust
Pfizer
has adopted 35 villages in rural Haryana for a Primary Healthcare Program.
Pfizer has been supporting the Arpana Research &
Charities Trust, in rural Haryana, since June 2002, for a three-year term,
with the objective of conducting an effective Mother and Child Primary
Health Care initiative to reduce anaemia in pregnant women and adolescent
girls.
The project covers 35 villages in and around Karnal
district, Haryana, and a population of approximately 60,000 persons.
- The program targets the reduction of anaemia
in pregnant women, adolescent girls, and those with diseases linked to
anaemia.
- It provides services for women and girls (including reproductive
health care and care of adolescent girls) and child care services.
- It also promotes community health covering diarrhoea management,
antenatal care, child nutrition, immunisation etc.
It
is a 3-tier Healthcare Program :
Primary Level - Village Health
Workers: Community based preventive health services, implemented by closely
knit teams of primary level community workers from villages, including
the traditional midwife.
Impoverished villagers are trained for healthcare
and rural development activities as health workers, midwives, motivators
and community organisers. These workers help change practices in health,
gender equality, environmental sanitation, mother and childcare, care
of the handicapped, mobilisation of women, and increasing people's accessibility
to education, employment, and income generation. 71 women's community
based organisations are becoming involved in health/development activities.
Secondary
Level - Mobile Health Teams: Mobile clinics, linked to the referral
base, visit all the project villages monthly to deliver a wide range of
health care services for mother and child, including immunisation, and
family planning components. It provides treatment of common diseases and
a village level referral centre, and also technical backup for the primary
level team of village based health workers.
Immunisations
now cover over 98% of the children in these target villages.
Tertiary
Level - Referral to the 170-bed Arpana Hospital : Patients and
pregnant women are referred to the hospital by midwives and health workers
who are based at the target villages. Cases commonly referred are difficult
delivery cases/complications; severe anaemia, other maternity and child
cases needing referral, family planning operations; pneumonia and other
chest conditions; diarrhoea with extreme dehydration; and renal and other
stones endemic in the area.
Highlights
of the Pfizer- Arpana Partnership
- Focused attention to reducing the incidence of anaemia.
- Reduction in child and maternal mortality
- Better all round healthcare and awareness of health needs of pregnant
women and children less than five years.
- Smaller families that would ensure better living standards.
- Growth of community based institutions that will initiate and take
responsibility for healthcare and other development needs of the community.
- Alleviation of malnutrition.
- Control of preventable diseases (e.g. diarrhoea, malaria), especially
in women and & children.
- Combat ignorance, superstition, and low level of literacy especially
among women, which compounds health problems, feeding prejudices and harmful
practices.
- Prevent the growing incidence and burden of Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
About
The Arpana Research and Charities Trust
 The Arpana Research and Charities Trust was founded in 1980, specifically
for promoting health and rural development. Its uniqueness is its composition
of approximately 70 people of diverse nationalities and religions who
have pledged themselves to a singular purpose – Rural health care.
These individuals include experienced professionals from a wide variety
of disciplines ranging from medicine to law to architecture and engineering
to accounting. They share their expertise voluntarily for the well being
of the rural community.
Prince
Charles visits Pfizer’s Community Health Care Project in Haryana
During
his recent visit to India in October 2003, His Royal Highness, the Prince
of Wales visited Kutail Gamri village, one of the 35 villages adopted
by Pfizer for the Mother & Child Primary HealthCare Community based
program in rural Haryana.
Prince
Charles, walked through the streets of the village, visited several houses
and interacted with a number of people, including women and children.
The prince also met the village's 20 midwives and saw how the Arpana Trust
was working with locals to educate them in skills such as midwifery.
The
problem and need addressed by the Project
In November/December 2001, Pfizer India had supported a survey, which
was conducted by the Voluntary Health Association of India, (VHAI) in
the 35 identified villages. The following are some of the key findings,
with the improvements achieved by the end of the second year and the targets
for the third year, i.e., 2004 :
Measurable
results at the end of a 3-year period will show improvements in infant
and maternal mortality; decrease in anaemia and iron deficiency in women
and children through nutritional supplements including iron; majority
of women receiving pregnancy care and safe delivery; elimination of malnutrition
through better nutritional interventions for children and pregnant women;
better birth weight babies; substantial immunisation coverage; growth
monitoring of children; and identification and management of infectious
diseases, diarrhoea, childhood pneumonia, etc.
| Subject |
VHAI Study 2001-2 |
Achieved By end Year 2 June 2004 |
End of project, June 05 |
Anaemia
| Anaemia
in pregnant women |
71% |
35 – 50 % |
34 - 40 % |
| Anaemia in adolescent girls |
about 80% |
55 % |
50 % |
| Pregnant women receiving 100 or more IFA tablets |
about 86% |
89 % |
90 - 94 % |
Diarrhoea Management
| How many mothers can explain ORS preparation |
38.41% |
55 % |
60 - 70 % (Subject to KAP study*) |
| How many mothers can make ORS |
37.95% |
55 % |
60 - 75 % (Subject
to KAP study*) |
| How many mothers gave ORS to child when last
had diarrhoea |
34.09% |
60 % |
70 - 80 % (Subject
to KAP study*) |
Antenatal
Care & Delivery
| Women having Antenatal checkup |
87.6% |
90 % |
92 - 95 % |
| Women having Tetanus immunisation |
78.4% |
86 % |
90 - 94 % |
| Conduction of delivery – by untrained midwife |
7.2% |
5 % |
4 % |
Mortality Rate (per 1000 live births) and Birth
Rate (per thousand)
| Infant Mortality Rate |
53 |
- |
40 – 44 Neonatal Mortality ** |
| Birth rate |
18.78 |
18.78 |
18.78 per thousand |
Child
nutrition
| Mothers breast feeding |
86.59% |
90 % |
90 - 94 % (Subject
to KAP study) |
| Mothers giving colostrum |
74.55% |
88 % |
90 - 94 % (Subject
to KAP study) |
| Mothers doing exclusive breast feeding (no
prelacteal feed given) |
27.5% |
40 % |
50 % (Subject to
KAP study) |
Growth monitoring of children
| Weight taken at birth |
85% |
89 % |
90 - 94 % |
| Mothers using growth card |
90.23% |
93 % |
92 - 95 % |
| Mother can effectively explain about growth
of child from the card |
48.86% |
55 % |
60 - 70 % (Subject
to KAP study) |
| Prevalence of Malnutrition |
8 |
6 % |
4 % (2nd & 3rd degree
malnutrition) |
Immunization of children - Prevention of six diseases (DPT & polio, measles,
TB)
To
increase the coverage of primary immunization
| Complete immunization Status (0-1 years) |
84.5% |
90 % |
92-95 % |
NB
: 1. Where indicated, estimates for end of project are subject to KAP
studies to be conducted in the first quarter of the third year of the
project.
N.B.
: 2. Targets given above are for 32 villages covered from the beginning
of the project.
*
KAP study – Knowledge – Awareness – Practice study **.
N.B.
3. Special efforts will be made to further reduce neonatal mortality.
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