Parvatiben’s path to health, hygiene, and empowerment
- Parvatiben, an adolescent girl from Gujarat, faced health issues due to poor menstrual hygiene and undernutrition.
- CRY America project GSS conducted workshops and introduced a Menstruation Comic Book to educate girls on menstruation, hygiene, and physical changes.
- Community girls, including Parvatiben, learned to make clean cotton pads at home with the support of project members.
- To combat undernutrition, the team educated them on diverse dietary options, including drumsticks, to help cure anemia.
- Now, Parvatiben confidently manages her health and has joined an adolescent collective, advocating for menstrual hygiene.
*Name changed and image used for representation purpose only.
The Problem
CRY America Project Gram Swaraj Sangh, works to strengthen the education system in Rapar block, Kutch district. However, low immunization rates, limited healthcare access, and prevalent superstitions negatively impact maternal and child health. There is limited awareness of essential healthcare services, with issues like low birth weight, high infant mortality, and child marriage exacerbating the situation. Gender inequality further undermines the education and well-being of girls.
The Solution
The project works to provide health and nutritional support to children, pregnant, and lactating mothers in the 23 hamlets of Rapar block. The key activities include counseling pregnant women on institutional deliveries, providing postnatal nutritional awareness, and linking them to government programs. The project also focuses on forming women collectives, adolescent collectives, and girl child collectives to address issues such as infant mortality, low birth weight, child marriage, and girl education.
Impact Of The Project
508
children availed of free government health services
69
meetings conducted with mother groups on nutritional awareness
402
adolescent girls oriented on child marriage and higher education
60
institutional deliveries ensured
340
adolescent girls received IFA (Iron Folic Acid) tablets at health-check up camp
142
children aged 0-1 year received 100% immunization
26
undernourished children’s health status improved
46
sessions conducted to promote hygiene practices for safe drinking water
2025 Plans
- Sensitization of 24 adolescent girls’ collectives through videos on child marriage & anaemia
- 1 Street play in each of the 23 villages on health implications and legal consequences of child marriage.
- Sensitization sessions on sexual and reproductive health and anaemia for all 402 adolescents
- Conduct 2 block-level consultations and 1 district-level consultation with relevant stakeholders on child marriage and anaemia.
- Ensure regular immunization for eligible 140 children and link them to government health services
- Organize food demonstration every 6 months in 23 villages to prevent anaemia
- Haemoglobin testing of 278 adolescent girls to track anaemia levels & provided health education sessions.
- Ensuring 256 children aged 6-36 months are enrolled in Anganwadis
- Tracking improvement of 8 severely underweight children and preventing regression of their nutrition status.
2025 Total Budget
