Sometimes, you plan something with a certain vision in mind.. putting bits and pieces of ideas heard here and there into a bigger design for more impact.. you think its a bit idealistic, but you tell yourself, what the hell, at least the planning should aim big.. but be mentally prepared that in this set up and given the scale and the number of moving parts to this, its likely to achieve about 50-60% of what you planned. But hey! 60% is so much more than 0! So go give it a shot! So, after this little pep talk to self, you go ahead and give it a try.
And oh my god, it works out better than even you imagined! Do you know what that feels like?? Its un-damn-believable! Filled with a huge sense of gratitude and sheer happiness, I want to write about the menstrual hygiene and adolescent health programme we have been running.
The base idea was of an officer who had done a similar thing elsewhere. The model was different, but content was 50% same. Then I remember reading about identifying anaemic girls early, specially in hostel students. Then a bunch of enthusiastic kids of an ngo came to meet me, as a courtesy and it stuck in my head somewhere that this was their field of interest. Putting all these three together, we chalked up a programme in which girls and their mothers will be spoken to about menstrual hygiene in their school, by a bunch of med school students and health team will also go and test their hb. Knowing the taboos and shame attached with this topic, I really didnt expect great turn out of moms or frank discussions post lecture. I also expected that the trainings will go as trainings usually do - one way talk, monologue-ish and wrap up.
I was so wrong! These kids, despite being young, were docs, in their lab coats and steths. It made everyone, students, teachers , moms all take them seriously. And these wonderful kids, came up with so many little little ideas to break the ice with the girls like singing, telling jokes, etc. Some even went ahead and involved the boys, did check ups and counselling for moms who had gynae issues! The way they went about it is a great example of the difference between doing something from the heart and doing something in a routine way. It may not sound like much and most certainly cant be explained in a training. But you have to be there to see this to get how well it is being conducted.
The idea of getting their hb checked.. I am so glad we added that because it turns out that almost 1% of the girls are severely anaemic. About 12 of them were less than 5 hb and were taken for blood transfusion immediately. The kind of data coming out is also informative. For instance, 58% of the severely anaemic girls are from the same region! Majority of the anaemic kids are around the age when they hit puberty - 12 to 13 years and many cases of amenorrhea. We also managed to get over a 100 moms to share other health issues for which they have never gone to a hospital. Listing their details and following them up, they have gotten treatment for the first time ever.
What makes me happiest is that a third party like UNICEF does a random visit and decides to document it as a best practice and award this ngo of docs for their work. This whole thing is not just a case of good civil-society govt convergence or inter departmental coordination. It has turned out to be so much more than just the sum of its parts. And I love all of them for making this really work a 110%.
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