I visited our project in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh and attended two training sessions in our oldest training block, Shahgarh and in the newest, Sereni. I was overwhelmed by the eager participants: our village women. They are smart, inquisitive, and open to new information. Our lively discussions ranged from hand washing to menstrual ailments. Their candor was a revelation and the transformation of activists that has taken place in Shahgarh in the past 18 months – since we started there – is [Read More...]
So, you read the newsletter, bought the T-shirt, and came to the fund-raiser… but you feel as if you could do so much more to help your charity of choice! I was in your shoes over two years ago, when the usual avenues of giving back to my community were simply not enough. That’s when I decided to create my own website so that I may be able to attract attention and funding, inspire similarly-minded individuals, and ultimately help a great cause. Starting a website can be a wonderful experience of self-discovery and personal growth, but as I learned very early on, you have to venture out of your comfort zone to really get what you want. Before you dive into your mission of saving the world through online activism, you should get familiar with the following rules [Read More...]
There are nearly 30 million low birth weight babies born annually. These babies often face severe short- and long-term health consequences. Low birth weight is a major factor of mortality, morbidity and disability in infancy and childhood. This also has a long-term impact on health outcomes in adult life. The consequences of poor nutritional status and inadequate nutritional intake for women during pregnancy not only directly affects women’s health status, but also has a negative impact on birth weight and early development. Low birth weight also results in substantial costs to the health sector and imposes a significant burden on society as a whole. Whereas the global prevalence of such births is slowly dropping, it is as high as 30% in many developing [Read More...]
Our training program has had one positive effect. In the beginning of this program, about 18 months back, we encountered some difficulty in motivating even one volunteer to attend our training session. But that has changed. Now, many more volunteers than we reach out to show up for our trainings. And we train them all, [Read More...]
I still get calls at home, asking if I want to donate to so and so cause, and which one of us hasn’t gotten stuck with letters that decry the ills of the world and how for the small amount of “x” dollars, we too can change the world? I am sure none of us are opposed to philanthropy in general, and many of us actively support some sort of community minded project. Which got me to wonder why do we get involved? Usually, we can relate to the cause in some way, but, for me, as a lawyer, it’s because I can see the results. I believe that in tough times like this while each of us have a limited amount of capital to invest in the things that interest us, the organization or cause that shows tangible results will succeed more rapidly than the one based on good intentions or slick marketing. [Read More...]
One of the objectives of the Save-A-Mother program is to scale up and replicate it in other regions. To fulfill this objective we conducted a ‘train the trainer’ program for 35 preselected leaders from 23rd to 28th June, 2009 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. International Institute of Health Management Research, Delhi was our training partner.
The participants [Read More...]
