Nearly 2.67 million people have been displaced by flood in Bihar, where over 2000 villages and 50 towns in North Bihar are completely submerged under the river Kosi, aptly called, ‘the sorrow of Bihar’. 351 people have died so far and about 338,000 houses have collapsed. The most affected district are Supaul, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga, Khagaria,Madhubani, Gopalganj. In the mid of the deluge that has devastated people, the worst affected are children and women. With our field reports received from Katariya village in the worst affected Katariya village (about 20,000 people affected) in Supaul district, some parents even abandoned their own children to save their lives. “My parents told me to move ahead saying they will follow me very soon but they took a different direction. Where should I go now”, said an abandoned, innocent and young girl, Kiran at a relief camp.
Child In Need Institute (CINI) has impeccable track record in responding to disasters in the past. Some of the major ones were: Bhuj Earthquake on 2001, Andhra Cyclone, Earthquakes in Latur, Jammu & Kashmir earthquake, Tsunami in 2006 in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, Bengal Floods, Bangladesh Cyclone and many others with your support and rehabilitated thousands of children and people's lives. CINI has decided to provide relief to the Bihar Flood affected people. A team is visiting the worst affected villages in Supaul district and detail reports will be made available soon.
This is an URGENT APPEAL to join CINI in its emergency flood relief support programme to the victims of this unprecedented natural disaster. The affected young children and families like Kiran are looking forward to your support right now. For them, tomorrow is too late.
With your assistance and our staff present in the ground, we will make sure of distribution relief at the earliest possible. This emergency programme will continue for the next couple of months. From the available assessment of needs, we are looking for the following relief materials for distribution: Materials support Dry ration, Medicines, Torch & Batteries, sanitation items, kitchen Utensils, Tarpaulin, Buckets, Bed sheets, all kind of usable clothing & footwear for adolescents and women. Needed-large quantities of Rice, biscuits, packed eatables Water purifier tablets, Basic medicines, Sarees, children clothing, Tarpaulins or thick polythene, Bed sheets, Cotton cloth for making sanitary napkins, Mosquito nets Stoves, cooking and water storage utensils/bucket, Dry Stuffs, Safe drinking water. Education - Study materials/books for students , Temporary school building, Reading books, repair of school buildings are required urgently .
Join CINI to support the flood affected children and families. To make donations, Please send cheque /draft in the name of Child in Need Institute, and send it across to Child In Need Institute (CINI), Daulatpur, P.O.: Pailan, Via Joka, Dist: South 24 Paraganas, Kolkata- 700104, West Bengal, India. Tel.: 91-33- 2497 8348/8192/8206 Fax: 91 -33- 2497 8241,
For more details, please contact us at cini.international@cini-india.org , visit us: www.cini-india.org
|
|
|
This year I have been awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor Global Humanitarian Award for the year 2008. This award, to a non-US citizen, was presented at a special ceremony on Ellis Island, New York on Saturday 10th May 2008. The Global Humanitarian Award is presented to individuals who has distinguished himself/herself for their outstanding commitment to the people of the world. These individuals are recognized for their significant contribution to humanity. The United States Senate and House of Representatives have passed resolutions officially recognizing the National Ethnic Coalition of Organization’s Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The award ceremony was held on Saturday, May 10, 2008 at Ellis Island in New York. The prize was granted by NECO (National Ethic Coalition Of Organizations Foundation), whose Ellis Island Medal of Honor has been recognized as one of America’s most prestigious awards. NECO was created in 1984 on the conviction of its founder, William Denis Fugazy, that the diversity of the American people is what makes the nation great. NECO is a non-profit organization with strategic alliances that support a range of diverse programs and insure that every dollar spent goes to creating a better world in the future for all. Each year since 1986, NECO has sponsored the Ellis Island Medals of Honor. The Medals are presented on Ellis Island, in a dramatic ceremony, to citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their communities, their nation and the world. Past Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients include six Presidents of the United S tates, Nobel Prize winners, athletes, artists and others whose work has made a lasting impact. NECO has renewed its commitment to working closely with its medalists in2007 and beyond to fulfil its goal of creating the world of the future today. Among the past medalists: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize recipient/author, Muhammad Ali, Former Heavyweight Champion of the World, Amin J. Barakat, M.D, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics of the George Town University Medical Center, Joe Di Maggio, Baseball Hero, Martin Scorsese, Sayed Jemal Houssein-Afghani, Warrior-Poet and Humanitarian, Frank Sinatra and many others. NECO advocates for positive change in the present by forming partnerships with outstanding organizations that serve a variety of communities and cultures here and abroad. NECO has teamed with Boys Hope Girls Hope, The National Italian
American Sports Hall of Fame, The Chinese Cultural Center, GOAL
|
|
|
Dear Friends, You may have heard recent reports about the rising prices of staples such as rice and wheat. There has been a warning given by the President of World Bank that this will push many countries to food riots and of course lead to more malnutrition in children. Many of my CINI colleagues in Kolkata, have complained about the rise in the price of wheat, rice, legumes (dal) and cooking oil, the basic food of the poor, by almost 30 to 40 %, as compared to last year. This is having a profound impact on the families with which we work. It means that the poor are cutting down on other vital expenses such as education and clothes. And the poorest will eventually have to cut down on food intake. This deficit of calories and protein during pregnancy and early childhood will have grave consequences. We expect to see a rise in morbidity, which will translate, to frequent bouts of common illnesses such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections in children as the malnutrition levels rise. We will keep a watch on whether our mother and child health clinic attendance increases along with admissions at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre and Emergency Ward over the next few months. Unfortunately the high morbidity season, which is from May to August, is already with us and we normally expect more attendance during this period. We will promote our low cost nutritious food, CINI NUTRIMIX which is available at the subsidised price of 5 rupees [less than 1p] per packet of 500g, (one third of the real market price) and provides a week's supplement of calories and protein to children below 5 years or pregnant women, as well as continuing to teach mothers how to make this at home. I do hope you will be able to continue your support through the difficult period we expect to face over the coming months.
 |
|
|
Jai Wadia In the backward tribal hamlets of Jharkhand, the Child In Need Institute is working to nurture a healthier, happier new generation Salakho Murmu was 20 years old. She was poor, anaemic and underweight, lived in a tribal hamlet of Sarwaha village which has no health service, and was expecting her first child. The community has strong faith in traditional healers and people visit the primary health centre only in a crisis. Naturally, things did not look very bright for her unborn child. But Salakho was fortunate in having a sahiyya (literally, a friend) — Suganidevi, a village community health worker from the Child In Need Institute (CINI) — who advised her on the importance of a proper diet, helped her gain weight and improve her haemoglobin level. When she suddenly started bleeding one night while in the ninth month of pregnancy, her husband realised the need to take her to a clinic and, with Suganidevi's assistance, she was admitted to a nursing home late that night. Without Suganidevi's intervention, both Salakho and her unborn child could have been at risk; one more addition to the high maternal and infant mortality rates in the backward Churchu region of Hazaribag district, in neglected Jharkhand. But thanks to her sahiyya, Salakho gave birth to a healthy baby. CINI was set up in 1974, when Dr Samir Chaudhuri — director of CINI — Sister Pauline Prince of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and Rev Fr J. Henrichs S. J., decided jointly to take on the widespread problem of malnutrition and ill-health among children and women in the poverty-stricken rural belt of south Kolkata. It was clear that mere medical intervention would be inadequate, as the real problem was a lack of awareness about basic health, poor hygiene practices and insufficient food available to growing children as well as pregnant and nursing mothers. Since then, CINI has helped empower mothers to take important decisions on behalf of their growing children. It tries to improve their economic conditions and helps them understand their environment. Three decades on, CINI's work has spread far beyond its home state. It reaches out to a population of over eight lakh women and children in the rural and urban areas of seven states, including Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. It has been recognised as a national mother NGO by the ministry of health and family welfare, government of India. Since 1998, the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, recognises CINI as a collaborative training institute. In November 2005, CINI received the National Award for Child Welfare from the government of India's ministry of human resources, for the second time (the first was in 1985). Last year, Dr Chaudhuri was given an award by the Italian Parliament, in a special session in Rome, in recognition of his contribution towards promoting the rights of the child through CINI's initiatives.
To improve the health status of the communities it works in, CINI disseminates information about childbirth and related health issues, promotes community participation and networks with government officials and agencies. Early prevention is an important part of its campaign to curb the problems of underweight babies, malnutrition and high mortality rates. West Bengal continues to be its main area of work. Here, CINI directly implements projects like an outpatient department that provides medicines and conducts minor surgeries on children below six years of age. It has reproductive health clinics for men and women suffering from reproductive ailments and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as counselling services. In the other states, CINI mainly provides training and technical assistance to established local NGOs that can reach a wide target group. In Jharkhand, CINI is working with two projects. The Hazaribagh life cycle approach (LCA) project, begun in 2004, is with partner agency Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra. It aims to cover a population of 88,000 in 13 health sub-centre areas of the Churchu Block. The Gumla LCA project was started in 2005, in collaboration with the Lohardaga Gram Swarajya Sansthan. It will benefit a population of 30,000 in six health sub-centre areas of Sadar Block. CINI's contribution to these projects is to build up the capacity of these partner agencies to improve the maternal and child health status in their areas through the life cycle approach. "The life cycle-based approach," says CINI senior programme officer and unit in-charge of Jharkhand and Bihar, Debashis Sinha, "starts at pregnancy and moves through birth, infancy, early childhood and adolescence. It is beneficial not just for the target group but to successive generations as well, because the interventions have a cumulative impact, being prioritised at several critical points across life." The organisation also encourages male participation, and sharing of responsibilities in critical events like childbirth. To build a movement in which the local community takes on the onus of people's health and demands the services due to them from a functional health system, CINI sets up village health committees (VHCs). These select the sahiyyas, who represent women from each tola or hamlet. The project staff train them to educate not only the women but also the men in the community on health issues. Says Sinha, "Initially, the men were reluctant to participate and asked us to speak directly to the women. But after the formation of the VHCs, they are venturing to take part. We still ensure, though, that at least 60 per cent of the VHCs constitutes women." Funding for the Jharkhand projects has come from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), Mumbai, and the Population Foundation of India (PFI), New Delhi. The Trust has granted CINI Rs 1 crore over a period of three years, beginning March 2005. Jasmine Pavri, senior programme officer at SDTT, says, "This region has a large tribal belt which is steeped in poverty, illiteracy and has high maternal and infant mortality rates. Jharkhand is a needy state and while deciding to fund projects we look at both the requirements of the area and the credibility of the NGO." CINI being one of the four national NGOs with a mandate for conducting maternal and child health programmes across the country with the co-operation of government institutions, helped the Trust in making the decision. The organisation operates democratically, and its founder members and chief executives, like Dr K Pappu, are well known for the work they have done over the years. Effective communication methods like nukkad nataks (street plays), wall writing and games, help CINI address issues like family planning, prevention of HIV/AIDS, tackling gender bias, etc. The sahiyyas hold regular meetings with the project staff, discuss problems faced in the field and share best practices. Health camps for pregnancy care and child immunisation are also held in some remote areas of Hazaribagh, but the project hopes to phase these out as the community begins to assert itself and ensure that the government health system is functioning smoothly. As it continues its efforts in holistic healthcare among the underprivileged, one hopes that CINI will bring a smile to the faces of many more women like Salakho Murmu. Uploaded on June 14, 2006 http://www.tata.com/0_our_commitment/community_initiatives/tata_trusts/articles/20060614_cycle_life.htm |
|
|
|
|
Jul 10 |
|
|
| Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
| | | | | 1 | 2 | 3 | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
|
|
|
