Day 3: Women’s healthcare project Volunteering at Surya Bharti: An Enlightening Experience

Day 3: Women’s healthcare project

On the third day, we were given the opportunity to experience something altogether different. We visited a village near one of the Surya Bharti alumnus’s homes, where gathered around the porch of a building were a crowd of women, young children, and babies. This was our first glimpse of the women’s healthcare project that Yuki-san leads in a few different rural villages. Maternal education lacks in these villages and mothers are often unaware of whether their babies are growing healthily.

This project seeks to both educate and provide resources for these mothers; it involves measuring babies’ weight and length over a series of months and keeping a close eye on whether they are losing weight. A loss of weight from one month to the next signals a deeper issue in the baby’s health, as it often results from a lack of proper nutrition, dysentery, or other causes.

Getting to take part in this critical process was both touching and eye-opening. It was clear the village community found it valuable; many locals even joined to help. Two older women from the village lifted each baby onto the scale –for the newly born, holding them carefully while the women themselves stepped onto the scale – and called out their weight, which was diligently recorded by the head nurse (a staff member at Surya Bharti). The babies were tranquil during this step of the process, either completely asleep or watching with interest. The women then hoisted the babies onto a wooden platform used to measure their length, holding the babies’ legs straight to get an accurate measurement. The babies didn’t like this less-than-comfortable step and often began to cry, but as a reward for all their hard work and undoubtedly very confusing moments, candy awaited them. Their cries subsided quickly.

A most poignant memory from this experience was seeing the young village children watch with curiosity the process taking place, a once-a-month spectacle that gave them something to look forward to. Many of them used to be in the place of today’s babies – crying after being placed on the wooden platform – but are now healthy and smiling young children. Dusty and bare-footed, but healthy and smiling.

Bihar forms 14000-km long human chain against dowry, child marriage

Bihar forms 14000-km long human chain against dowry, child marriage

On 21st January Sunday, 6th grade to 10th grade students from our Surya Bharti School participated in an big event to make human chain which was held all over Bihar state.

It was a campaign to support the law against Child marriage and dowry system. 

The new law was settled by Bihar state government.

Although Child marriage and Dowry system were already banned by law long time ago all over India, there weren't many people following the law.

We, Surya Bharti School have been educating about preventing Child marriage from more than a decade.

Child marriage is very common in rural villages around Bodhgaya.

Usually, parents decide their daughter's marriage and her husband to be when their daughters are around 8 years old.

It is called first marriage, and the boy and the girl usually stay at their parents houses separately.

It is like an engagement.

But, in some cases, there are very young girls around 7 or 8 years old who are sent to her husband's house as a labor to help farming or households.

When a girl start having menstrual system, she would be sent to her husband's house permanently after having their second marriage ceremony.

They are about 13 to 15 years old.

In the beginning of our school since 2001, there were many girl students (around 13 years old) who suddenly quit school because of forced marriage by their parents.

I was shocked that a girl who was a brilliant student were forced to marry when she was in 6th grade.

After that, I asked our teachers to help give education about legal age of marriage to our students.

In India, the legal age of marriage for a girl is 18 years old and for a boy it is 21 years old.

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If children get education and jobs, become rich, their parents could live easily in the future.

I Recommend marriage after getting job.

(there are many cases that children got married when they were students or at a very young age. It is difficult for them to continue their education, so they give up education and become seasonal worker.)

It is very important that girls get education because they will take care of their children's homework at home after becoming mother. The more better education a girl gets, the more their children's ability to study becomes better.

If women gets education about how to care or nurse when their family member especially small child gets sick or gets injured, they can help them very much. 

If a mother has knowledge about hygienic life or infectious diseases, she can save her children and family members from diseases. 

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I have been telling these above things to the parents in various occasions.

And, of course, we participated in this human chain.

I'm afraid that this law can not make all the people to follow it.

The tradition can not be changed easily, without very strong actions by police.

Dowry system is also a very big issue.

It is a custom continued from ancient time, that bride family give dowry(money) to bridegroom's family at the time of marriage.

The dowry amount is cheaper when a girl is younger.

That is one of the main reasons that there are so many child marriage in rural area.

If parents want to get a daughter's husband to be rich then they have to pay much more dowry.

Parents who have many daughters have to pay dowry for each of their daughter's marriage which leads to serious economical problems.

In India, ultra sound test for foetus gender determination is banned strictly, because there are so many cases that people get abortion when they find their foetus gender are female.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar settled a law to ban Child marriage and Dowry system strictly in Bihar State in order to get rid of the bad custom.

I agree with him indeed.

I would like to spread this activity to more people with the help of teachers and the students of our school to co-operate with Bihar state government.

Restarting of life in India! Research on health of infants in villages

(I wrote this article in Japanese in January 2015)

In the end of December 2014, I came back to India with my second daughter who became 6 months at that time.

After coming back to here, I became very busy with a lot of works remained while I had been in Japan, and I have many events here everyday...!

I visited 2 villages to research about health conditions of children and infants. One of them is 10 Km from Bodhgaya, and other village is 8 Km from Bodhgaya today.(Jan.2015)

The village where I visited first was called Harijan colony which is a village where a kind of lowest caste people live.

Reikha madam also came with me. She helps our Mothers & Infants health project.

When I started to walk after getting off from my car at the entrance of the village, maybe I looked like an foreigner who is very rare to see for them though, many villagers came to see me.

I found a grandmother who was holding a little baby that I thought the baby might be about a month old. And I asked her how old is the baby, then I was so surprised because she said the baby is 6 months old.

My second daughter became just 7 months at that time.  I compared her and the baby.  The body size of my daughter is 1.5 times bigger than the little baby. I thought that my daughter was bigger than the baby when she was born.

I asked how old are the other babies in the village, and I was surprised to find their body sizes are so smaller than they had to be in their age.

I know that most adults who live in these poor villages tend to be smaller and thinner because of malnutrition.  It look like a kind of normal because most people are small, but the health condition of the babies were so bad.

The children around 2 to 6 years old are also malnutrition showed that they were having green running nose, too thinner hands and legs.

I thought they should be supported to improve their condition.

But, there is a big problem. The village is too far from Bodhgaya, and it is in the another local administration office.

We always cooperate with the local administration office in Bodhgaya for our health project. We don't have connection with the local administration office of this area.

State government of Bihar provides various supports for the poor, especially the people who are in lowest caste had been gotten discrimination through several generations since ancient time.

One of them is a work of anganwadi who are female staffs take care of mothers and infants, give  them nutritious foods, help them to take vaccination.

Although the roles are not functioning in some areas. We are helping villagers with anganwadi to get knowledge of what kind of supports are provided by governments and how the supports can reach each poor people.

And, we visited another village where is 8 km away from Bodhgaya.  We found that there are so many children but few infants after went around the village.

We decided to go back after sunset.

We will visit other villages near the village next time.

Mobile clinic, visiting a village

Continuing from the previous blog.

The staffs of mobile clinic go around the entire village to persuade patients who should be checked up by the doctor to visit the clinic and let villagers noticed the mobile clinic has come.

We went around the village with them.

I found the village was cleaner than other villages, almost of all the houses were made of mud but maintained.  Although there were many mosquito larvae in ditches filled with black water. I understood why the NGO staff had explained about the infectious diseases by mosquito to the patients lately.  There was no cemented ditch but natural one in the village.  Some big ditches looked like ponds with less black water and many mosquito larvae were there.  I saw some ladies were washing dishes beside hand pumps where were surrounded by moss grown by dirty stagnant water.

I talked with the NGO staff about lots of matters while we were walking through the village.   He told me that they have meetings with the committee members of the village frequently, to know the situation of villagers' diseases and what kind of problems they have.  He said that they can't understand the real situation of villagers by visiting the village sometimes.  He said "Well communication with villagers is necessary to understand their real situation.  We always try to listen to their voices.  Though it is impossible to improve something about village, if all the villagers co-operate together to improve it, it will be possible.  Our aim is not only giving medicines but also enhancing villager's awareness on health."  I thought that's the way they explained about the solution of mosquito related problems.

I've been given lots of knowledge this time too.  I appreciate to the NGO staffs for telling me many things gained through their experiences. We will go forward for Mothers & Infants health care project with what we have learned form them.

A training of social workers in a village (visiting mobile clinic)

8th March 2013, we visited a village with a mobile clinic team for a training of the social workers(a lady and a gents) from a village of the Mothers & Infants Health Care Project by NGO Children Aid.

(Mobile Clinic means that doctors and medical staffs go to check up patients in villages where there is no medical facility there. Long experienced NGO Root Institute (Saxena clinic) co-operated us to visit the mobile clinic)

The village we visited this time is in a area of Bankebazar, it took an hour to get there from Bodhgaya by car.  The village is very near to the border of Bihar - Jharkhand States.  This area is very famous of Maoist Guerrilla  activity.  We asked the medical team whether it is safety or not for foreigners to visit there, and the team told us that the village is adjacent to main road and safer, then we decided to visit. 

The building been used for the clinic is a government school in the village.  A staff said to me "we are using this building since last month.  Before then, we used a building as a clinic opposite the main road.  Suddenly, the building was destroyed by explosion and then we had shifted here." 

In these few years, Bihar state has been very peaceful.  I thought the situation became very stable, I have noticed that there are still dangerous areas by hearing what the staff was saying.

Bihar state government fought very hard against the guerrillas and it became very peaceful here.  But, it is easy to hide in jungle, and easy to move between another state for guerrillas, so they are hiding in the areas where it is near the border of both states. 

After many patients gathered in the building, the NGO staff started to explain about the common diseases and sanitary matters to them.  Our project is focusing on health of mothers and infants.  We also have health education class about diseases and sanitary matters. Our aim of bringing our social workers who were selected by village leaders last time is let them learn how to organize and how to explain by seeing the activity by themselves.

The theme was "About prevention against being infected by mosquito bite" this time.  The staff explained the symptoms of malaria and told that person should bring the patients to a government hospital when he have found the patients have been in the symptom immediately. He asked some questions about the prevention, how people can prevent from mosquito bite.  And he explained that using mosquito net is very effective, and adding kerosene oil into puddle around house makes it possible to prevent from breeding of mosquito, and burning neem leaves that has an effect of insecticide is effective for making mosquito death.  

I'm always admiring when the staff explains about the prevention of diseases by using usual and common things for villagers for it, because villagers don't have much money and electricity too.  

The two of social workers were listening to the explanation by the staff seriously.  After that, I asked them what they felt and found, the lady social worker told me that she knows about the Kerosene oil effective and she actually uses it for cleaning her house. I thought she can learn more things in future.