Project Social Welfare Agency & Training Institute (SWATI)

Campaign Story

About the project

The Kandhamal District, in the state of Orissa, is primarily pre-dominated by the Kondh community. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is alarmingly high and children under 5 years of age are severely underweight. The main sources of income for the people of the Kondh community are agriculture, physical labor and sale of minor forest products. The low yield therefore causes poverty and starvation.

Making a difference

CRY America’s Project SWATI team has been constantly working towards providing access to basic healthcare services for pregnant and lactating mothers. The project also works towards reduction of malnutrition among the children of 6 months to 5 years and anemia reduction among the pregnant and adolescent girls. The key activities under the project are growth monitoring of children at ICDS center and counseling of parents for home management practices for reduction of malnutrition.

The Way Forward

● Organizing health and nutrition sessions for 75 mother groups
● Providing IFA tablets to 7083 adolescents
● Organizing 120 village level sensitization meeting with mothers for enhancement of institutional safe delivery
● Capacity building of 92 ASHA, ANM and ICDS workers on maternal nutrition, ante-natal care and postnatal care
● Enhance skills and capacity of Front Line Workers to deliver critical services
● Awareness campaigns on nutrition, anemia and dietary diversity in targeted villages
● Strengthening of community groups
● Conducting sessions for on health and nutrition for mother groups

Project Impact

99% of women delivered babies at an institution

94%

Of children 9-12 months old completely immunized

Reduction of severe underweight children from 1.38% to 1.15%

96%

Identified SAM children recovered

100% pregnant and lactating mothers linked to one or more existing health schemes

212

Parents participated in the breastfeeding campaign

100% pregnant and lactating mothers linked to one or more existing health schemes

75

Villages sensitized for the institutional birth delivery

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Last Year’s Grant Disbursed: $26,493

Current Year’s Approved Grant

Health$23,576

Administration$5,566

Total Budget$29,142

Chumki: Growing a Better Future for Her Family and Community

Chumki, a 16-year-old girl, lives in a small village with her parents. She’s a diligent student in the tenth standard and a member of the adolescent girls’ group promoted by SWATI.

SWATI works towards encouraging adolescent girls to attend weekly meetings at the village Anganwadi center to learn about adolescent health care, reproductive and child health. To provide the right information, the project promotes girls’ groups and regularly provides them with orientation on various aspects of health.

Chumki attends these weekly sessions and is learning about menstrual hygiene, maintaining hemoglobin levels, proper diet during adolescence, and different sexual diseases. She also knows that poor families in villages often can’t afford nutritious food, leading to mental and physical growth issues. The project encourages group members to cultivate vegetable gardens in their backyards to promote nutrition.

Chumki took a keen interest in this activity. She took different vegetable seeds from SWATI to start her own vegetable garden. Her parents support her efforts, and they cultivate the land behind their house with organic manure, planting different seasonal vegetables like cauliflower, tomato, brinjal, onion, beans, and spinach. She took excellent care of the garden and ensured a steady supply of vegetables all year round.

Now, Chumki’s family gets 2 to 3 kgs of different vegetables daily, which is sufficient for their needs and provides food and nutrition security. Previously, they had to purchase vegetables from the weekly market and collect leaves and tubers from the forest.

Her efforts didn’t go unnoticed, and other girls in the village started following her lead and cultivating their own backyard kitchen gardens. Chumki’s work inspires her community to take control of their health and well-being, and her small garden symbolises hope and resilience.

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