Awareness
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS
Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer. Today, one in every 28 women (1 in 22 women in urban Indian, 1 in 60 women in rural India) is at risk of developing breast cancer in her lifetime. In India, Breast Cancer accounts 25-31% of all cancers in women. Prevalence of taboo and lack of awareness leads to late detection resulting in complications.
Supporting World Health Organizations (WHO)’s Global Breast Cancer Initiative, we invited Mrs. Pinki Jadhav from Health and care Foundation to address women living in rural and remote regions of Hamirpur, Himachal. The past year, due to global pandemic, healthcare efforts received a big setback specially screening activities. Hence, we organized this Breast cancer sensitization program in the month of October which is the Global Breast Cancer Awareness month. As part of the annual worldwide campaign, the women were made aware about the preventive measures, signs and treatment. They learnt that identification is possible even in the absence of mammographic screening that is impractical in many locations in the rural and hilly areas.
Satisfyingly, we made the women understand the importance of early detection and treatment. All the attendees volunteered to get screened post the interaction. ‘Paryas Society’, which operates mobile medical units in Himachal and conducts breast cancer screening; organized a screening at the workshop’s location and identified 2 positive cases. Early detection has thankfully saved their lives and helped to avoid the hardships they and their families could have faced. Women are the backbone of our society and we are committed to making every effort for their health and wellbeing!
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Taking this initiative forward, we organized further breast cancer camps on a bigger scale with the support of the Police Departments of the 3 districts of Hamirpur, Una & Bilaspur. Women of the police fraternity supported our initiative by getting screened and pledged to be our ambassadors of pink health by spreading awareness in the villages and encouraging women to get screened.
INSTALLATION OF OPEN GYMS
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We also strive to build tangible assets for the communities to spread positivity and motivate people to adopt healthy lifestyles. Various studies have pointed to the fact that community support and socializing are important motivators for adhering to physical activity habits. Therefore, we adopted the concept of ‘Social Synergy’ to address the issues of sedentary lifestyles and promote community harmony in conjunction.
It was decided to create a public good which can be accessed with ease by diverse community members (old age, women, men & children) together in a safe and secure environment. Moreover, the upkeep of the asset should be through joint ownership of the community members.
Consultations from Health Expert, Sociologists and an on-ground survey suggested Open-Gyms to be the required intervention. Open-Gyms function around two themes simultaneously. Firstly, the theme of health; which includes physical health, mental health, rehabilitation, fitness and prevention. Secondly, the theme of social connectedness; which includes spirit of brotherhood, harmony, socialization and encouragement to other people.
Our idea received a wide acceptance by the community members, especially women who shared that they would be more comfortable to workout in open-gyms and it would be more acceptable to their families. Some elderlies were of the opinion that usage by them will not only help to keep fit but also encourage youngsters. We also found that open-gyms would be of great significance for the people who cannot afford to take gym/club memberships. Locations for installment of equipment were identified in three Gram Panchayats for a pilot project. The spots were prepared for installment with assistance from NREGA so that we also generate some man-days through this initiative.
As of now, we are teaching 1500+ students for free in 83 different panchayats of district Hamirpur of Himachal. At all these panchayat-level centers we provide students with:
- White Board
- Chairs
- Floor Mats
- Stationary
- Learning Charts
- Reading Books
- Toys
- Attendance Register
- Teacher’s Diary
As of now, 3 open gyms have been installed at 3 different panchayats of district Hamirpur – Darla, Lajhiyani and Kherwin. Average footfall of 100-150 people per day is witnessed at each of these open gyms. With the gym being in an open space, girls and women feel comfortable while visiting the gym. The location of these 3 gyms has also been strategically selected in the sense like they are close to or within an existing public space. This ensures that the machines are safe, people are psychologically attracted to the gyms when they see others doing it and people can easily make it a part of their daily lifestyles as they would be visiting a multi-purpose location like a temple, panchayat office etc. for accessing the gym.
These open gyms are being specially used by young boys who prepare for the armed forces. With access to the free gym in the village itself, it has also saved money and travel time of youth, who otherwise would have travelled to the district town for accessing a gym.
Another key objective of installation of these open gyms at public spots in the villages was to drive a conversation around health and fitness. It has been widely reported that the percentage of youth consuming tobacco and doing drugs is on a rise in the lower belt of Himachal. Himachal Pradesh strangely due to its land location and borders with Punjab, Ladakh and J & K has become a market for the drug supplying networks from the Golden Crescent, a space which allegedly produces massive quantities of heroin which is sent to India via Pakistan. On the other hand, due to the province being a tourist hotspot the drug supplying networks from the Golden Triangle, Israel and Africa have also become active.
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This has not only affected the health of youth but also affected the economy of the state since financial positions of families are getting degraded due to money spent in substance abuse, rehabilitation and costly treatments of drug affected person. It also reduces the number of people contributing to the household income and hence to the state. This has also been found to be a major reason of rising crimes in the state which indirectly spreads bad mouth and hurts the tourism economy of the state as well.
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We hope that these open gyms would become hotspots of community interactions, develop trust, help youngsters build interpersonal skills and nudge people to healthier lifestyles. We have also set-up a closed gym with a focus on youth so as to provide them professional gym facilities for free in their villages and panchayats. This is to nurture a culture of body building amongst the youth without constraints like availability, affordability and accessibility. The closed gym has been set-up in a Panchayat in Bilaspur.
POST COVID COUNSELLING WORKSHOP
There was a 50 per cent increase in the number of calls showing a spike in instances of child abuse. The pandemic has familiarized children of varying ages to experiences they may have never been exposed to. Heightened anxiety, emotional outbursts, bad temper and disobedience could all be attributed to trauma.
The pandemic has been even more traumatic for those students who have themselves suffered or someone in their family have suffered from serious COVID-19 illness. Many even lost their family members, neighbors and friends which exposed them to deep stress and trauma. Further, the cancellation of classes, academic backlog and uncertainty about examinations has an adverse psychological impact on children. Increased exposure to screen time and exposure to online abuse has severely affected the mental health of adolescents.
Students are stressed owing to fear about their studies and future careers. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, in its chapter on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), 32 places special importance on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL); SEL essentially enables children to pick up interpersonal skills, implement emotion management techniques and develop an empathetic outlook. It is important to reach out to students through peer-driven learning spaces, extra remedial classes and workshops. Building relationships with students outside the bounds of the textbook helps to make them comfortable enough for sharing their mental agony.
WORKSHOP ON SELF-CARE
Self-care is changing the face of healthcare. It focuses on equipping and entrusting people to take a central role in their own health. For women, this can involve an important shift to being able to make decisions about their own care, when they may not have had this autonomy before. To help women take this leap, a workshop on selfcare was organized for the women of Jangal Bairi Panchayat in Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh. Self-care includes Selfmanagement of medication, Selftesting through screening and diagnosis, Self-awareness including self-education and self-regulation. The women were guided about the knowledge and skills they need to take better care of themselves in order to make the quality of their lives better.
The session was piloted by a life coach who touched on various aspects of self-care for women like healthy dieting, menstrual hygiene, grooming, self-confidence etc. An openended conversation was held around the taboo subjects of sexual and reproductive health. There exist many social and economic barriers to self-care for women including discrimination and violence. As COVID-19 has amplified inequalities it is important to initiate public discussions around subjects of importance to women.
