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Annual Report 2008-2009 Gram SevaTrust Preface – A journey of 15 years Gram Seva Trust has completed fifteen years in the service of the poor in the Gandevi Taluka of Navsari district of South Gujarat. We feel extremely happy and proud to share highlights of activities of past 15 years along with annual report of 2008-09 with our esteemed donors, well wishers and friends who have been our co-travelers in this journey making substantial contributions all along. GST took birth in 1994 with an aim to serve the poor and outcasts amongst the landless tribal communities in and around Kharel. It has since completed 15 years from that infant step. First 15 years represent childhood in the life of an individual when he or she is preparing to finish the school but for an organization, fifteen years show its journey towards stability in the field and a proof of its commitment towards the stated mission and goals. It is a long time, therefore, to introspect while celebrating this milestone. It is time to take an account of our shortcomings and incomplete missions and chart the future di- rections. Some projects like quality health care delivery, nutrition project to meet the chal- lenge of severe malnutrition amongst the children and building partnerships with various schemes in public health domain of state and central government have given us immense satisfaction. We have taken great inspiration from the Gandhian thought where the village development is central to national progress and prosperity. A comprehensive approach is, therefore, necessary for alleviating poverty, promoting value based education and empow- ering the community ridden with caste prejudices. The community needs to awaken itself from the deep slumber of ignorance, illiteracy, addictions, superstitions and a fatalistic ap- proach to realize its full potential and gain self esteem and self confidence that has been a victim of years of exploitation. Women health and empowerment have remained our natural goals for we believe that women, through education and financial emancipation, can lift the entire community to a different level with improved standard of living. All through its inception we have received tremendous love and trust from many friends spread all over at home and abroad; whatever we have achieved so far is largely due to their unstinting support and generous donations. We remain grateful to all of them and seek their blessings and support as we continue the journey ahead. Their personal commitment to the betterment of health of poor has given us many excellent opportunities. Our achievements are also due to the dedication and teamwork of our doctors, paramedi- cal staff and trustees. We are aware that challenges will be tough as expectations increase; we will strive hard to honor the faith reposed in us. Dr. Ashwin Shah Place : Kharel Managing Trustee Date : Gandhi Jayanti, 2nd October, 2009 On behalf of Board of Trustees 1 Gram Seva Trust Annual Report 2008-2009 Introduction Gram Seva Trust (GST) started in 1994 at Kharel in a 30 bedded hospital run earlier by a local trust. The hospital was in a dilapidated condi- tion with several constraints. The mission was to cater to the health needs of the community in the surrounding vil- lages comprising of mainly Halpatis, who are lan- dless tribal population. At the same time, we were looking beyond health to uplift the social and eco- nomic condition of these people. Women and chil- dren have remained our special focus to promote health awareness and get a fair share of any economic activity initiated in the programmes of GST. Our New Initiatives for this mission are SNGO Project and Balawas( a Children’s Shelter Home) Service NGO Program GST was selected as service NGO under the RCH-II (Reproductive Child Health) program of the Central Government. The organization has to pro- vide RCH services to the selected under-served and/or under-utilized areas with the objectives of providing antenatal care to all pregnant women, increasing institutional deliveries to 96% and de- creasing malnutrition in children under 3 years by 10%. Nine villages of Chikhli Block of Navsari District were selected for this project. The health workers work extensively to spot pregnant women, convince them for proper antenatal care and institu- tional delivery. They also take care of the new born with positive impact on lowering maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. The organization has achieved the required objectives in this project within one year. This was recognized by The Health & Family Welfare Department of Government of Gujarat and Gram Seva Trust was felicitated with the “Best NGO award” on 07/04/2009. This award is also a reminder that the mission is not complete but it is now our duty to sustain and strengthen our work. Education Education is central to the development of all human potential. Despite being a fundamental right through legislation since 2002, quality education has eluded many a children in disadvantaged areas where government schools are the leading providers of educa- tion. Moreover, poverty and search of livelihood result in large number of school drop-outs. Quality of edu- cation in government schools leaves much to be desired. 3 Tuition class- es were started in 2006-07 to fill the gap in quality where children come before or after their regular school hours. This proved popular with chil- dren and parents alike and now there are 14 such classes catering to 355 2 Annual Report 2008-2009 Gram SevaTrust children. Constant efforts are made to innovate on methods of teaching by holding teacher’s training programs with aim to reduce the gap between learning and education by rote. Bal-Awas One new initiative in providing education is Bal- Awas, a shelter home for deprived children. It was started on 31st July 2008 in a rented house to provide residential and educational facilities to children who are either orphans or whose parents are migrant workers and some who are brutally abused at home by alcoholic parents/relatives. At present there are 22 children, 9 boys and 13 girls. They all go to the regular school. The children have had poor learning skills so far with no great interest in stud- ies. There is a residential care-taker with one helper to tend to daily needs of these children. The wholesome balanced meals are sent from GST kitchen. There were some teething problems as children came from diverse backgrounds and some were deeply affected by the environment at home. It is heartening to see the wonderful change in these children where they look forward to everyday with hope and opti- mism. 10 day Diwali Vacation Camp was organized for these children. Dr. Kantibhai Desai and Rashmiben Desai , edu- cationists in Gandhian model , stayed with the children in Balawas and conducted various activities for the children like yoga, lifestyle education, action songs, story telling, dra- mas, drawing, paper craft, needlework, games, exhibitions, excursions, visiting local craftsman, science experiments, puppet show etc. Children thoroughly enjoyed this unique experience. A look at our ongoing programmes – Hospital Services General medicine along with Obstetrics and Gynecology were the initial departments that started working in the hospital. Over the years several new services were added along with basic facilities of the laboratory, X-Ray, Sonography, op- eration theatres labour room and physiotherapy. There are general and specialty out patient clin- ics besides 50 bedded indoor patient facility with 4 general wards, Special and Deluxe Rooms, Inten- sive Care Unit and Neonatal ICU. Laboratory and operation theatres have been up- graded with sophisticated equipment. Thus the hospital provides basic primary and sec- ondary medical facilities to all the poor villagers in the surrounding area. Emergencies like accident patients and snake bite patients are also attended to. Patients of snake bite are given free anti snake 3 Gram Seva Trust Annual Report 2008-2009 Sanjay and Meeta (Names changed) were children of an alcoholic father. Their mother had committed suicide in front of them. Nobody looked after these two children except for a handicapped paternal aunt. They were admitted in the Balawas. They were the most unruly children of Balawas. Everyday they had fights with one or the other children. They gave lots of bad words. They always wanted to do something different than others. When all the other children are saying their prayers with closed eyes these two will be the ones who are fidgeting, playing pranks on the others. If anybody scolded them, even in school, for not doing their homework they would try to run home. Thus this pair of brother and sister troubled all. It always made us think why these two behaved thus. Did they behave like this because they did not get any love and attention at home? Slowly as they settled in the congenial atmosphere of balawas, where, they received love, affection and caring and monitoring, with children of similar age and background, they mellowed down. There is a remarkable change in their behaviourThis makes us hopeful that by giv- ing the right environment we can try to make their lives happy and look towards a better future. venom injections, with support from government. They are Relief Information (2008-2009) given critical care. The organization also provides educa- tion regarding prevention and treatment of snakebite to pa- Particulars No. of Amount tient and relatives, through books, charts and exhibition of Patients snakes. More and more snakebite patients are thus coming OPD & Indoor GST 4577 960966 to the hospital for treatment. Free Obstetric & Gynecology services are most important Children Free 1986 279830 in impacting the health of mother and child. The antenatal clinics run four times a week where poor expectant mothers Free Deliveries 1039 1924414 are seen free of charge.