Prerana Monthly Report 2010

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November 2010

Night Care Center (NCC):

Manpower: 25 Full time caretakers, 5 health workers and 3 social workers together managed the 3 NCCs.

During the reporting period the center wise average attendance of children at NCCs was

NCC I (Kamathipura): 108

NCC II (Falkland Rd.): 70

NCC III (Vashi Turbhe Navi Mumbai): 31

November 2010 / NCC I Kamathi
pura / NCC II Falkland Road / NCCIII Vashi Turbhe / Total
No. of new admissions / 2 / 4 / 4 / 10
No. of readmissions / 4 / 5 / 4 / 13
No. of children whose full medical checkup is pending. / 2 / 2 / 2 / 6

Reasons for pending medical check up:

1. Some children were enrolled at the NCC in the last week of the month, thus their medical check up will be conducted in the following month.

2. At times children also drop out after 2 days or a week. Hence this delays the medical check-up which then has to be conducted after the child returns.

3. Some mothers are undergoing counseling regarding the importance of a medical check up. This delays the process.

Doctors Visits:

Dates / No of visits / NCC I Kamathipura / No of visits / NCC II
Falkland road / No of visits / NCC III
Turbhe Vashi
0 / Boys / Girls / Total / 0 / Boys / Girls / Total / 4 / Boys / Girls / Total
1st November 2010 / 14 / 7 / 21
18th November 2010 / 14 / 10 / 24
23rd November 2010 / 13 / 10 / 23
29th November 2010 / 11 / 10 / 21

Treatment:

As per the admission procedure, in this month all the children who were newly enrolled in NCC II, III, & I have gone through preliminary medical check-up at Nair hospital and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation hospital. Any further follow ups are done at Sewri Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, JJ hospital and Kamathipura eye hospital. The Doctor regularly visits the Turbhe Vashi center every Wednesday.

Children who were hyper active, bed-wetting & had other behavioral concern were referred to the visiting counselor and when needed also referred to Dr. Anita Sukhwani, the psychiatrist.

November 2010 / No. Of children receiving treatment for TB / Referred to a hospital for other treatment / Ref to Child Guidance Clinic
Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total
Kamathipura / 1 / 0 / 1 / 9 / 10 / 19 / 32 / 20 / 52
Falkland Rd. / 5 / 3 / 8 / 13 / 11 / 24 / 31 / 24 / 55
Turbhe- Vashi / 1 / 0 / 1 / 2 / 1 / 3 / 0 / 1 / 1
Children from Boarding Homes / 3 / 0 / 3 / 2 / 2 / 4 / 0 / 0 / 0
Total / 10 / 3 / 13 / 26 / 24 / 50 / 63 / 45 / 107

First Aid Facilities:

First Aid / Kamathipura / Falkland Rd. / Turbhe Vashi
Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total
1st to 30th November 2010 / 23 / 20 / 43 / 19 / 23 / 42 / 6 / 5 / 11

Pulse Polio Day:

Pulse Polio / Kamathipura / Falkland Rd. / Turbhe Vashi
Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total
21st November 2010 / 46 / 42 / 86 / 35 / 40 / 75 / 10 / 9 / 19

Health and other activities conducted during this month

1. A health camp was held on 2nd November at the Turbhe Stores red light area. This was conducted by the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation Hospital. A complete health check-up was done of 89 children.

2. The Peer Group (Disha) went for an Exchange Program to Ahmednagar between the 12th to the 16th of November. There were 50 children accompanied by 10 staff members. The Peer Group performed 2 dances a drama and a magic show in various organizations like the Observation Home, Snehalaya and at the Bal Bhawan. They also met other groups and shared the work that they were doing. The dances that they performed were for the songs Fatak (which is based on HIV/AIDS in context with condom usage) and the title track of Don. Children practiced rigorously for these performances and gave and outstanding show. They also performed a short skit on HIV/AIDS after which they held a discussion with the audience. They also visited the Agriculture University a sugar factory and Shirdi. The Peer Group enjoyed this interaction and we observed that they came back charged with an energy to keep going strong with the cause that they have taken up.

3. On 18th November a health session was conducted at the Turbhe Stores centre. Puppets were used as audio visual aids. There were 12 children in the age group of 3-6 years who attended the session. The topic was health and hygiene. Children were told about the importance of maintaining cleanliness. Points such as washing of hands, bathing every day, cutting nails, combing and oiling hair etc. were touched upon. Children participated actively and some of them enthusiastically showed their cut nails. The Outreach Worker facilitated the session.

4.On 18th November 2 representatives Childreach International, UK – Ms. Cynthia Rau and Mr. NK Prasanna visited the Falkland Road centre. The visit was coordinated by Ms. Sonali Parab and Ms. Preeti Iyer. The visitors were given an orientation regarding the projects currently underway at Prerana. They were also taken on a tour around the Night Care Centre. They invited Prerana team for a launch event of their Operations and there were 9 members who attended the same on 19th November at Juhu Millennium Club in Mumbai. The staff members who attended were - Ms. Nilima Wakchaure, Ms. Vaishali Karande, Ms. Priti Patkar, Ms. Aruna Katkar, Ms. Chaya Jagtap, Ms. Preeti Iyer, Ms. Lata Kamble, Ms. Sonali Parab and Ms. Sheetal Jadhav.

5. The Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption (IAPA) contacted us and discussed with us regarding an event where in they had planned activities during the course of one week (14th November to 21st November) to promote adoption. Also 14th November 2010 was the International Adoption Day. As part of this event they wished to conduct sessions at Prerana regarding adoption. We felt that it would be worthwhile if 3 sessions were held with children, mothers and with the staff so that the knowledge trickles down to all the levels in a uniform manner. Therefore we agreed to this and 3 sessions were planned for the Peer Group members, the mothers and the staff. Accordingly the sessions commenced on 18th November for the staff of Prerana. There were 15 staff members who attended and the session consisted of a short film followed by a discussion. Resource persons from IAPA were – Ms. Savita Nagpurkar and Ms. Madhuri Tambe.

6. On 19th November a health session was conducted at the Falkland Road centre. Puppets were used as audio visual aids. There were 42 children (20 girls and 22 boys) in the age group of 3-6 years who attended this session. The topic was on nutrition. Children were told about the importance of eating good food and avoiding junk food like chips and kurkure. The social workers at Prerana facilitated this session. Children admitted that they did eat chips and kurkure. They discussed about how eating such food on a continuous basis might take its toll on their stomach. The session was interactive and children listened attentively.

7. On 20th November a session was conducted for the Peer Group. The session was in continuation with the series on adoption awareness planned with IAPA. The same resource persons viz. Ms. Savita Nagpurkar and Ms. Madhuri Tambe facilitated the session. There were 22 children who attended the session. They had several questions to ask regarding the rules and regulations. They also discussed how it was wrong to just abandon a child. The session was interactive and informative.

8. Ms. Sonali Parab and Ms. Preeti Iyer attended a 3 day workshop on capacity building of NGOs. The workshop was coordinated by Childreach International and it was held at New Delhi from 22nd to 24th November. Various topics such as project management, good governance, child rights, resource mobilization, application/proposal writing, financial management and public relations were taken up and discussed with the group. There were 15 participating NGOs from all across the country. The workshop was informative and comprehensive.

9. On 24th November a health session was conducted at the Turbhe Stores centre. Puppets were used as audio visual aids. There were 12 children in the age group of 3-6 years who attended the session. The topic was nutrition. Children were told about the hazards of eating junk food and the benefits of eating wholesome and nutritious food. Children discussed about their liking for fried foodstuff and also about how they could try and reduce the frequency of eating such types of food. The outreach worker facilitated the session.

10. On 26th November a mother’s meeting was conducted at the Falkland Road centre. There were 40 women who attended the meeting. The topic was on Adoption. We invited resource persons from The Indian Association for Promotion of Adoption (IAPA) – Ms. Savita Nagpurkar and Ms. Madhuri Tambe to facilitate the session. The resource persons screened a short film and held a discussion on the topic. Women had several questions to ask such as how does IAPA conduct the procedure of adoption and how are adoptive parents screened. They were of the opinion that rather than abandon an unwanted child it would be better to give the child to an organization so that the child is in safe hands. Women were very interactive during the session.

11. On 25th November there were 4 staff members – Ms. Priti Patkar, Ms. Aparna Dhopeshwarkar, Ms. Sonali Parab and Ms. Preeti Iyer - who attended a meeting with Ms. Debasmita Pani, the CSR Manager at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. This meeting was regarding a course in Hospitality and Catering that Taj Lands End wanted to conduct for the target population that Prerana works with. Ms. Pani mentioned to us that we could send interested youths from Prerana for the course which was to span 3 months at the end of which the youths will get a course completion certificate from Taj. Ms Pani also mentioned that Taj would try to also facilitate placement of these youth as much as possible. She also mentioned that the course could commence from January 2011. We invited her to visit our centre and also froze upon several tasks that we would do as follow-up from our end such as – identifying youths who could be included in the course, identifying a coordinator/contact person (from Prerana staff) for this course and finalizing tentative dates for commencement of the course.

12. On 29th November a mother’s meeting was conducted at the Turbhe Stores centre. There were 10 mothers who attended the meeting. The meeting was called to discuss the Dosti Anand Mela event. This half-day event is held every year in December to commemorate the World AIDS Day. Women living in the red light areas are invited to spend a few hours of fun filled moments. They were also given information about HIV/AIDS. The outreach worker conducted the meeting.

13. Ms. Rachel Rustad a Student of Conflict Resolution from Portland University commenced her internship at Prerana from the 11th of November. She is attached to India Study Abroad Centre. She plans to give us 4 weeks and will be taking up tasks like documentation, creating a virtual profile for the organization and helping the staff members in basic English speaking.

14. On 11th November Ms. Preeti Iyer had a meeting with Mr. Madhukar Kumar the Regional Head and Ms. Neha Shrivastava the Relationship Manager of iVolunteer NGO. This is an organization which provides volunteer support to NGOs as and when a requirement is put to them. Prerana partnered with them in January 2009 and we observed that the volunteer supply was not what we had expected. Hence this meeting was conducted to provide feedback to the iVolunteer representatives and also discuss future volunteer requirements with them.

15. Many youths who had not passed 10th standard owing to reasons like dropping out and not passing the 9th standard or due to a general disinterest in studies were identified and counselled on the option of National Institute of Open Schools (NIOS). Nineteen students were enrolled for giving the 10th standard examination through the NIOS. Out of these there were 3 who cleared all the subjects during April 2010. The remaining youths were registered for a re-exam in October 2010. A positive sign is that these youths have now got into the groove of studying and wanting to clear their examinations. From the 3 who passed 2 are appearing for the 12th standard exams through NIOS. For the April 2011 exams there are 10 youths who have been registered. They are receiving extra coaching during the evening hours at the Falkland Road night care centre.

August 2010

Prerana Kamthipura,Vashi and Falk land Road report –August 2010

Night Care Center (NCC):

Manpower: 25 Full time caretakers, 5 health workers and 3 social workers together managed the 3 NCCs.

During the reporting period the center wise average attendance of children at NCCs was:

NCC I (Kamathipura): 125
NCC II (Falkland Rd.): 82
NCC III (Vashi Turbhe Navi Mumbai): 35
May 2010 / NCC I Kamathi
pura / NCC II Falkland Road / NCCIII Vashi Turbhe / Total
No. of new admissions in the month of August 2010 / 8 / 4 / 3 / 15
No. of readmissions in the month of August 2010 / 5 / 4 / 1 / 10
No. of children whose full medical checkup is pending. / 1 / 1 / - / 2

Reasons for pending medical check up:

  1. Some children were enrolled at the NCC in the last week of the month, thus their medical check up will be conducted in the following month.
  2. At times children also drop out after 2 days or a week. Hence this delays the medical check-up which then has to be conducted after the child returns.
  3. Some mothers are undergoing counseling regarding the importance of a medical check up. This delays the process.

Doctors Visits:

Dates / NCC III
Turbhe Vashi
Boys / Girls / Total
3rd August 2010 / 11 / 13 / 24
9th August 2010 / 11 / 10 / 21
16th August 2010 / 11 / 11 / 22
25th August 2010 / 11 / 10 / 21
29th June 09 / 12

Treatment:

As per the admission procedure, in this month all the children who were newly enrolled in NCC II, III, & I have gone through preliminary medical check-up at Nair hospital and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation hospital. Any further follow ups are done at Sewri Hospital, Kasturba Hospital, JJ hospital and Kamathipura eye hospital. The Doctor regularly visits the Turbhe Vashi center every Wednesday.

Children who were hyper active, bed-wetting & had other behavioral concern were referred to the visiting counselor and when needed also referred to Dr. Anita Sukhwani, the psychiatrist.

May 2010 / No. Of children receiving treatment for TB / Referred to a hospital for other treatment / Ref to Child Guidance Clinic
Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total
Kamathipura / 12 / 6 / 18 / 20 / 58 / 78 / 38 / 20 / 58
Falkland Rd. / 8 / 2 / 10 / 25 / 19 / 44 / 34 / 21 / 55
Turbhe- Vashi / 1 / 1 / 9 / 3 / 12 / 6 / 2 / 8
Children from Boarding Homes / 1 / - / 1 / - / - / - / - / - / -
Total / 15 / 6 / 30 / 54 / 80 / 134 / 78 / 43 / 121

First Aid Facilities:

First Aid / Kamathipura / Falkland Rd. / Turbhe Vashi
Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total
1st to 31st August 2010 / 28 / 59 / 87 / 29 / 26 / 55 / 8 / 4 / 12
P. Polio / Kamathipura / Falkland Rd. / Turbhe Vashi
22 August 2010 / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total / Boys / Girls / Total
44 / 42 / 86 / 35 / 34 / 69 / 6 / 7 / 13

Health and other activities conducted during this month

J K Singhaniya (Blue Star foundation) has collaborated with us and has mobilized sponsors who have contributed towards 200 children’s health insurance policy. We hope to continue with this partnership

By end of August we had facilitated the enfoldment of 8 youth for National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

The Falkland Road team had an outreach goal of following up with the women regarding their nutrition and whether they were continuing with healthy eating habits. This was done because there had been several mothers’ meetings that touched upon the importance of nutrition as well as demonstration of nutrient rich recipes. The team found out that mothers were trying to prepare food that were nutritious but at times owing to lack of time they would end up making whatever was easy and convenient.

On 2nd August a building located in the Falkland Road red light area collapsed. There were no deaths but a few people were injured. After the occurrence of this mishap a meeting was conducted with the children and information such as safety, first aid, caution, and other aiding information such as numbers and importance of police, fire brigade etc... was shared with the children. There were 25 children who attended the meeting.

A mothers meeting was conducted at Prerana’s Kamathipura centre on 26th August wherein 36 mothers attended. It was noticed by the PSW that mothers hesitated sending their children for a medical check-up because blood tests were done and children were not responding well to them. Hence the meeting was organized to stress upon the importance of medical check-ups. The intention was also to remove the fear and ambiguity from the mothers’ minds regarding the tests. We observed that mothers were listening attentively and they asked questions regarding why certain tests were done and whether it was safe to be extracting “so” much blood from their children. The Resource Persons were Mr. Patil and Ms. Samant from Balaram Hospital.

A mothers’ meeting was conducted on 26th August at Prerana’s Falkland Road centre where resource person from Balaram Hospital explained the significance of AKT and the effects of discontinued treatment. There were 30 mothers who attended the meeting. The Resource Persons explained that significance of regular medical check ups. Mr. Patil told mothers that, a blood test helps in accurate detection and diagnosis of problems. Thus, if the doctor suggested blood test one should always follow her/his instructions. The Resource Persons also touched upon and discussed diseases like Malaria and Tuberculosis. This session was very informative for mothers’ and they also told PSW that they would like to learn more from the same resource person about different health and nutritional issues.

On 13th August chefs from Taj Group of Hotels visited Kamathipura centre and taught different food items to the staff who belong to the Nutrition Committee. Staff learned kitchen administration and hygiene rules. Tomato soup, paneer vegetable, egg and vegetable rolls, salad, daliya, pav-bhaji were cooked with by the chef in coordination with the staff. The workshop was very innovative and informative and staff showed keen interest in learning new things. The feel of five star hotel food making was highly appreciated. After preparing mentioned dishes a small presentation was given by the staff about their learning. The masala and other ingredients were brought by the Taj staff and Prerana staff learned about various ways of being creative with food. A special recipe book was written by the staff and now onwards Prerana kitchen staff will experiment with this style of making nutritious food. This session helped staff to look at the kitchen cooking work from a different view. Ms Saumya Bahuguna and Ms Chaya coordinated this training session.