Projects & Activities: Current Projects

Fact sheet and budget (pdf 197KB)

Just in: reports and photos, 2009 evaluation & 2010 funding request (pdf 265KB).

Dharmacharini Nagasuri acted as our liaison in Pune, India. Please see her snapshot (pdf 157KB).

New for 2010

*Anaemia testing for 150 women

* Classes for adults on the importance of nutrition and education

* Stress on awareness of family planning and early girl child marriages

Undernourished Nomadic Tribes Children, Pune, India

Since 2007, BODHI has provided thirty-five 0-5-year-old children of the Gosawi nomadic tribe in the Pune slums (population: 5000) with nutritious food and medical care and created awareness about health and hygiene issues amongst the parents. The project is locally run and monitored.

BODHI's support for the Balsangopan Day Care Centre expanded in 2009 to include three awareness programmes on family planning, early child marrriage and nutrition. We also provide thongs so the children do not have to go barefoot.

Contraceptives are freely distributed in India and will be given to the parents. Early child marriage has been identified locally as a problem. These will help approximately 150 women.

Some outcomes for 2009

* Satisfactory weight and height growth for the children, with reduced incidence of infectious diseases
* The parents say that their children are urging them to bathe daily & use tidy clothes
* The children love coming to the day care centre
* The children now look quite energetic and engage themselves in playful activities
* The parents are now inclined to cleanliness and hygiene and send in their children neat and tidy
* The parents are using family planning contraceptives
* Some women through one-to-one dialogue were counselled about family planning operations and keeping surroundings hygienically clean
* The parents have started using contraceptives
* Some mothers are very young, around 20, and already have two children, so our doctor advised them to use contraceptives
* The children are given education through songs and displays

About 75% of Gosawi children are undernourished. They receive food, medicine and education at the one-room centre they attend Monday-Saturday at 10am. They are fed both breakfast and lunch before leaving around 1.30pm. The food includes whole grains, vegetables, milk, eggs and fruit. Any food and tonic left over at the end of any session is given to the handful of older children who came as carers for a younger brother or sister. The milk and eggs given to the children would not be part of any food provided by the parents, as they are very expensive relatively speaking and there is little knowledge about the nutritional value of different foods. Children are given tonics and deworming medication. They receive pre-primary education through such activities as nursery rhymes, poems, drawing and stories. The centre is cleaned daily.

Objectives
* Improve the health status of 35 malnourished children belonging to scheduled nomadic tribes
* Inculcate habits of cleanliness and hygiene
* Awareness of parents regarding cleanliness, health, hygiene and waterborne diseases
* Create awareness regarding family planning and the importance of it
* Create awareness of the disadvantages of early marriage