25th ANNUAL REPORT 2018-19 About the organization This logo symbolizes the objectives of the organization. Ÿ The words in the outer circle are from the great Indian epic "Mahabharat", saying that "nothing is above a Human". This is also the motto of the organization. Ÿ The triangle in the inner circle symbolizes the hands of three people and stands for community development through participation. Ÿ The light from the lamp in the small but in the centre symbolizes the development of the weakest and poorest person of the community. Founder trustees of the organization were inspired by Gandhian thinking and work of great men like Albert Schweitzer. They felt deeply the agony and hopelessness of poor villagers. They saw the plight of villagers and felt a need of medical services in these villages. Hence they brought like minded friends together and founded Gram Seva Trust, an organization dedicated to rural health and development. In 1994 the trust started a 30 bedded hospital with 5 staff members in an old dilapidated building, given by another trust. As the need arose the hospital was expanded to accommodate more patients and better services. Today the hospital can accommodate 80 patients and has all basic facilities required in a rural hospital providing health services at affordable rates and sometimes free of charge to the needy from nearly 300 surrounding villages of Naysari and Dang districts. The organization also wanted to improve health of the surrounding villages hence as and when need was identified different community projects were started in the surrounding villages with main focus on health and development of women and children. Immense efforts are put in to decrease malnutrition. Gram Seva Trust also reaches out to the tribals in deep interior villages of Vansda and Dang through satellite centers and general medical mega camps arranged every year. The organization has also started different projects for development of villages like Self Help Group project (a micro saving and micro lending project for women), trainings for income generation activities, adolescent girl project, tutorial classes to strengthen primary education and a Child Education and Development Centre to improve standard of education in children of landless labourers. Vision Ÿ Healthy, Happy, Self sufficient and Self-Empowered Rural communities. Mission Ÿ Cater to the Health need of every individual in the society irrespective of caste, creed or economic status. Ÿ Render special care to women and children of our society. Ÿ Promote curative and preventive measures in order to improve the general well being of the society. Ÿ Uplift social and economical status as well as rural development with scientific and rational approach. Ÿ Create awareness for healthy qualitative life and development. Tribute The sad demise of Dr. Anilbhai Desai, Founder of Sewa Rural Jhagadia, our Advisor, Guide and strong support is a great loss to the organization. Anilbhai followed the principles of Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekanand and Mahatma Gandhi throughout his life by working to provide medical services and bring health awareness in rural, tribal interior areas of Gujarat. He left U.S.A. and returned to India in 1980 to start Sewa Rural in interior, forest and tribal area of Jhagadia. His work has been a major contribution towards the health and development of tribal people in that region. He was compassionate towards the poor and empathized with their situation and always worked towards their development. Anilbhai has been the Founder Trustee of Gram Seva and has been our support and guide throughout these years. Gram Seva Dr. Anilbhai Naik family pays homage to Dr. Anilbhai Desai, whose knowledge, wisdom, Death: 16-04-2019 experience and self-confidence has been an inspiration to many like us. Annual Report-2018-19 Dear Friends, We are very happy to inform you that Gram Seva has completed 25 years towards health and rural development with your support and well wishes. Though our newsletter ‘Samvedan’ brings to you information of ongoing activities of the organization, with this report we present the Annual activities and accounts of the year 2018-19. The year had started very enthusiastically with input of new machines and instruments for the hospital. This was followed by Women’s health project in Navsari District to screen more than 2000 rural women for diseases like cancer, hypertension and diabetes. With the help of donors and well wishers like you and Rotary club, we conducted general medical and surgical mega camps in Vansda and Dang to provide free medical services to the poor tribal villagers. Gram Seva has been selected as ‘District Early Intervention Centre’ to screen and manage children from birth to 18 years for deficiencies, defects, disabilities and diseases. Facilities for these services will be made available soon. Low cost infertility clinics are also in the pipeline. Women’s health Project shall be expanded to Dang district in the coming year. At the same time efforts are being made to upscale the women’s income generation projects. Over the years the need and demand for health and rural development has been changing. We have been trying to meet these changes and do our best with your wholehearted support for the last 25 years. We look forward to share with you our bittersweet experiences, our joys, our failures and our gratitude, through the 25 years report publication and Celebration Meet at Kharel in December 2019. We look forward to your ideas and suggestions for new directions for Gram Seva for future. Gandhi Jayanti Dr. Ashwin Shah, 2nd October, 2019 (Managing Trustee) Kharel Gram Seva Family 1 Annual Report-2018-19 New Projects Women’s Health Project Breast cancer and Cervical cancer are respectively the number one and number two causes of cancer in women. They can be diagnosed early and treated but many women neglect the symptoms of initial stages and come to the hospital at a late stage when management is difficult. To help increase awareness in women regarding these diseases and to screen them for early diagnosis we decided to conduct a free screening project for Women’s Health. This year we conducted the Women’s Health Project in 28 villages of Gandevi and Chikhli blocks of Navsari District. About 2352 women were screened for Cervical cancer, Breast cancer, Hypertension, Diabetes and other Gynaecological problems. Four women suffered from cervical cancer and two women out 104 who had mammography done were diagnosed with breast cancer. A significant number of women screened also suffered from hypertension, diabetes, other breast diseases and reproductive tract infections. The project helped create awareness amongst the women regarding these diseases and more and more women are coming to the hospital for early diagnosis and management of their illness. This year we plan to extend the project to the villages in Dang District. Desai Foundation (U.S.A.) and Unified Healthcare for Rural Underserved (UHRU) (U.S.A.) have supported us in this project and are continuing their support for screening in Dang district. Hospital Services Modern medical services in cities are expensive and bed indoor facility and outside patient department unaffordable for the poor villagers. There was need in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, for affordable medical services in the vicinity of the paediatrics, orthopedics, dentistry, ophthalmology, villages and our hospital at Kharel tries to satisfy this skin, ENT, plastic surgery etc. The hospital services need of the villagers. The hospital comprises of 100 have been updated regularly with advancement in technology thus providing quality, rational and Table-1: Hospital Statistics affordable treatment to patients. More than 300 S.N. Department 2017-2018 2018-19 villages of Navsari, Dang and Surat Districts avail 1. OPD Patients (New) 22726 23234 the hospital services. With the help of philanthropic (Old) 47220 50926 donors we have been able to give free medicines to Total Patients 69946 74160 all OPD patients for the last two years. 2. Indoor Patient. 6906 6860 3. Consult by Sp.Doctors 69800 72278 Antenatal Care 4. Surgery 1914 2103 Medical experience says that any obstetric delivery 5. Delivery 1494 1408 can become complicated and hence last two hours 6. T.B. Patient 64 74 of delivery are very important. At Gram Seva our 7. Laboratory Invesg./ No. of 151506 / 178800 / Patients 25251 29800 objective is to give modern, quality obstetric services 8. X-Ray 3761 4480 to women of all strata. Even a poor, tribal woman 9. Sonography 1445 1023 should receive best services that are available. Our 10. Physiotherapy 2936 3031 obstetrics services are available 24 x 7. We also 11. Total Dialysis 1059 1113 give free antenatal services thrice a week. Checkup 12. Snake Bite Patients 140 100 by obstetrician, laboratory investigations and Treated medicines are given free of cost during nine months 13. Free Food Dishes 70620 74085 of a women’s pregnancy. This year 1408 pregnant 2 Annual Report-2018-19 Mangiben was a resident of Gandeva village and suffering from abnormal loss of blood during menstruation. On examination by our gynaecologist she had bulky uterus and was advised ultra sound test for further diagnosis. But Mangiben was scared to do any further tests or treatment. She refused to go for an ultra sound. Frequent visits and counseling by our field workers could not persuade her. In the end they asked a woman in the same village who had suffered from the same problem and had successfully got treated to help them. They called all women from the village including Mangiben and the other woman for a meeting. Where the woman explained how she had suffered, how she had undergone various tests and how she was now well after her treatment. Mangiben was now ready to do further tests when she realized that a woman like her from her village had also done these tests and completed her treatment.