DEVELOPING INDIGENOUS RESOURCES –INDIASUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES FOR

DECEMBER 2017

THOUGHT OF THE MONTH

“You cannot always be happy but you can always be brave. And that is the beginning of everything.”

– Ariana

CONTENTS

CEO’s MESSAGE___________________________________________________________________________________________1

AN INSPIRATION- From Army__________________________________________________________________________3

IMMUNIZATION PROGRAMME_________________________________________________________________________3

INCOME GENERATION ACTIVITY______________________________________________________________________5

MY STORY_________________________________________________________________________________________________6

CHILD ACTIVIST PROGRAMME_________________________________________________________________________7

NUTRITION TRAINING__________________________________________________________________________________8

NUTRITION IMPROVEMENT PRIORITY PROGRAMME______________________________________________9

MOTHER’S HEALTH_____________________________________________________________________________________11

SCHOOL WITH A DIFFERENCE________________________________________________________________________14

GUEST REMARKS FROM BENEFICIARY______________________________________________________________15

EVENTS___________________________________________________________________________________________________16

CONTACT INFORMATION ____________________________________________________________________________196

ORGANIZATION INFORMATION_____________________________________________________________________196

CEO’s MESSAGEDR. ASHA KATOCH

December 2017 started with a Board meeting chaired by President Mr. S.M. Sharma in DIR-India office in Sector 10-A Chandigarh .As CEO the meeting was interesting and productive. I was meeting Mrs. Shashi Prabha IGP and Mr. CSR Reddy DG Police for the first time. All board members had a common goal of making DIR-India financially independent. Mr. Reddy suggested this could be achieved by introduction of our health and education program to Industries where they have funds for CSR activities. We hope to target this market very soon.

I am extremely grateful to Jim Gasperini, Linda Laskowsky, Jane Middleton and their friends who helped in raising funds for Dir India on 28Th Nov 2017, on Bill Gates donation day. The entire team of DIR-I is deeply indebted, our special thanks with folded hands to all donors.

The current Indian Government’s strict policies of eliminating corruption and making the country E-India the citizens of the country have to apply on line for any approval/sanction. My compliments to DIR-I office staff, Priyanka and Jadvinder who worked overtime to understand the procedure of FCRA application form, finally succeeded in submission of the renewal of FCRA on 29th December 2017. We are awaiting for the reply from Finance Ministry.

DIR-India has opened a rupee account in State Bank of India in sector 9 Chandigarh. I am grateful to Mr. Om Prakash Kakroo Regional Manager SBI and Mr. Rajeev Bhatia Branch Manager of SBI Sector 9 office who helped in making DIR-India’s financial transaction convenient and easy. In addition Mr. Om Prakash Kakroo Regional Manager has forwarded our request to SBI Head Office in Sector 17 Chandigarh for donating a school Van to DIR-I helping the NGO in transportation of slum children to St. Stephen’s school. The SBI Bank last donated a Van to DIR-India in 2009. In addition request has been made in SBI Bank for Bharat QR code on saving account of SBI of DIR-India in which donations can be made online without paying any transaction charges within the country.

School with the Difference celebrated Christmas on 22/12/2017. The program was sponsored by Mrs. Jyoti Jain and Neeraj Chaudhary (adviser to DIR). Woolen caps, socks along with packet of sweets, pencil and eraser was gifted to each child on this occasion. Mr. Surjit Singh Ex Pradhan of Janta Colony was the chief Guest. Mr. Surjit Singh gifted DIR-India a high powered Luminous inverter costing more than 15 thousand rupees which will make DIR-India’s functioning comfortable whenever there are power cuts especially in summers. On behalf of DIR-India, our special thanks to Mr. Surjit Singh towards his generous contribution in kind each year.

We had two interesting visitors in the month of December2017.

Col. LJS Gill, a retired army officer, a Para trooper with courageous personality. A man who fearlessly did first para jump in the battle field of IndoPak war in 1971 without any training. He has an experience in corporate sector, presently formed an NGO SANJHA HAQ with group of friends. They work for underprivileged people, helping them in getting their reserved rights in the field of education and medical treatment authorized in top private schools and Hospitals.

Abha Chaudhary, President IMPA Chandigarh visited DIR-India on 29th December 2017. She was impressed by the HP’s introduction of medical program.

Abha with her team is going to visit DIR-I every month to hold a workshop on Personality Development for young boys and girls of Janta colony including HP’s in DIR-I office Naya Gaon from 15/1/2018.

Abha’s organization called Personascapes (rediscover yourself) is specialized in Image Consultant Style and Etiquette Coach

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Voice and Accent –Trainer NLP Practitioner Disc certified soft skills Trainer ICF Certified life and performance coach. We are looking forward to that workshop.

Christmas Celebration covered by Amar-Ujala Newspaper.

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An Inspiration- From Army

“With Two Masters degrees and 14 Professional qualifications which include Krass International, UK and Harvard Medical Institute, Boston, USA, COL LJS Gill served the Indian Army for 24 years. He was in the Parachute Regiment and opted out of service in 1995 for a career in the corporate world.

During his second innings in the Corporate, he served in Steel, Packaged water and Pharmaceuticals Sectors holding senior and top management positions. Working at Global level he finally retired as a Managing Director of ESPARMA in Germany. During his 12 years in pharmaceuticals, he set up a WHARF (Wockhard HMI HIV and AIDS Research Foundation); a Trust in association with Harvard Medical Institute, Boston. WHARF developed and delivered programmes for capacity building amongst Care Providers (Doctors & Para Medics) and Care Receivers (HIV & AIDS patients). These programmes included certificate courses and outreach contact exercises.

In his post retirement life he works with SANJHA HAQ; a Public Trust committed to help the delivery of the benefits of Centre and State Social Benefit Schemes to the EWS segment. Education under RTI and Health are the target area of SANJHA HAQ. “

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Immunization Programme MRS. VEENA

SENIOR HEALTH PROMOTER

All Wednesdays of the month we have immunization camps for children and antenatal check-ups for all pregnant women in the basti in collaboration with Punjab Government Health services. In addition Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital of Sector-26 Chandigarh, conducts a medical camp every Wednesday for all inhabitants of Janta Colony , Adarsh Nagar Naya Gaon in DIR-I basti office. A team of 3 doctors and para-medical staff gives consultation and free medication. We are grateful to Dr. Sandeep Puri principal Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital for his gracious contribution for the welfare of the underprivileged people.This month we have achieved 99.9% immunization in Janta colony.Vitamin-A Angels couriered us a carton of Vitamin A - 5000 Capsules (1lac. and 2lac. unit), Albendazole- 5000 Tablets Multivitamin Supplements- 34,020 tablets (189 Bottles containing 180 tablets each).Vitamin A immunization is done twice a year by Health Promoters in the month of December and June. Albendazole (De-Worming) medicine is also given to every child once in six months under direct supervision.Multivitamin Supplements are issued to all pregnant mothers every 15 days.On immunization day nutritious food is served to every child and pregnant women visiting DIR-I office.

THE FOLLOWING INOCULATIONS WERE GIVEN DURING DECEMBER 2017

Shots 1st dose 2nd dose 3rd dose

BCG - - -

DPT 5 YEARS 15 - -

DPT-B 15 - -

MEASLES 13 15 -

PENTAVALENT + IPV 28+28=56 13 20+20=40

T.T BOOSTER 4 - -

TT1 INJECTION. 13 - -

TT2 INJECTION 15 - -

TT 10 YEARS 3 - -

TT 16 YEARS 2 - -

TOTAL 136 28 40

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INCOME GENERATION ACTIVITYTHROUGH TAILORING AND STITCHING

MRS. MAYASENIOR HEALTH PROMOTER

Hello Friends!

Due to heavy demand of the basti women we have started two batches of tailoring class. The training timings are as per the convenience of basti ladies. We are hopeful that this strength will rise with the visit of professional trainers who will be conducting 5 days’ workshop in the month of January.

DIR-I got the order of 500 wine bags from Doris in Switzerland. This generated excitement and hope for many women of earning additional livelihood through DIR-I.

Shobha had a responsibility of conducting a function on the first death anniversary of her mother-in-law in the village which required financial help. She expressed her gratitude to income generation department of DIR-I for giving her the order for stitching of wine bags and mentally relieved her of stress on funds.

Our stitching department is progressing day by day due to improvement of infrastructure, resources and cooperation of senior staff.

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My StoryMS. PRIYANKA KAMBOJ

ASSISTANT ACCOUNTANT

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” Currently what I am doing is giving my best each day. Hello friends, I am Priyanka Kamboj, working in DIR-I as an assistant accountant. I am a post-graduate in Commerce from DAV College, Sector-10 Chandigarh. I got to know about DIR from one of my friends. Working in DIR has been my first and best experience as it has helped me to grow in all aspects of my life. When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grew older, I admire kind people. If you are strong one can stand up for oneself, but if you are stronger we can stand up for others and this is what DIR has taught me, that is serving and standing for underprivileged. DIR-India has opened my eyes, my outlook to life has changed, and it has made me more rationale in my thinking and less demanding in day to day life. My father is an agriculturist and mother is a housewife. My parents have taught me to be kind and self-reliant and this is what I get to see in DIR-I. I have been working for DIR-I for more than a month and each days experience takes me closer to realization. My first interview I faced was with Dr. Asha Katoch, CEO of DIR-I. I am learning a lot under the guidance of Dr. Asha and my dream is to be associated with this wonderful organization for life.

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CAP-CHILD ACTIVIST PROGRAMMEMRS. BANITA

SENIOR HEALTH PROMOTER

This activity is provided for children between the age group of 7 years to 13 years. The schedule timings are between 3:30 pm and 4:30pm daily. The goals of the CAP Programme are: -                                                                         (1) To educate children and their families.

(2) To help children develop socially.(3) To promote sportsmanship.(4) To Increase team spirit.(5) To create leaders for sports and community outreach.

CAP is closed because of school examination, it will restart from January 2018.

Our main aim in running CAP program is to generate awareness of personnel hygiene and common diseases.

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NUTRITION TRAININGMRS. NATASHA SHARMA

NUTRITIONIST

This month a very sad case came into my attention. Khushi, 33 months is 3 kg underweight from her ideal weight and her brother Suraj, 7 months old is 3.5 kg underweight than the desired weight. This Family is in HP Dimple’s area from Bihar. The mother Meena is illiterate and she is a house wife. The mother Meena is physically unfit and is severely anemic. Her husband is rickshaw puller and drunkard. Domestic violence and financial condition of the family is bad. We discussed this case with our CEO Dr. Asha with sympathies included the mother and the children in NIPP meal plan. There is an improvement of health of mother and both the children’s. Meena is indebted to DIR-I for giving her the strength and improving the health of children by feeding nutritious food.

This month a new Health Promoter has joined our office. All the Health Promoters in turn take classes to teach the new HP Kanchan about basics of nutrition, Nutrients, balanced diet, meal planning, carbohydrate and its function. In December month nutrition exam was conducted to test their nutrition knowledge of health promoters. It was heartening to see the results as majority of HP performed extremely well.

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NIPP- NUTRITION IMPROVEMENT PRIORITY PROGRAMMEMRS. SUSHMA BISHTHEALTH PROMOTERS

This program is regularly running for more than three years. Main purpose of this program is to bring down the percentage of red zone children to barest minimum. High priority red zone kids from extremely poor family are fed high protein diet which is cooked in DIR-I and fed under direct supervision. Each child is fed a cup of milk, boiled egg, soybean cereal and one banana every day. Nutritionist plans weekly menu. Currently we have 49 kids in NIPP plan. Each health promoter has added three more malnourished children from their respective area. 26% of kids have gained weight. We have 7 kids in Yellow Zone and 35 Kids in Red Zone. All children were given De-worming medicine Albendazole 400mg this month. Our special thanks to Vitamin A Angels for supplying us the medication.

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Age of children in the NIPP

0-12 month 3 (6.12%)

13-24 month 8 (16.32%)

25-36 month 11 (22.44%)

37-48 month 5(10.2%)

49-60 month 15 (30.61%)

Above 5 Years Needy

4 (8.16%)

Needy/ Lactating Mother

3

TOTAL NUMBER OF RED ZONE CHILDREN IN THE BASTIMRS. MEENA

HEALTH PROMOTERS

STATISTICS OF TOTAL RED ZONE KIDS IN OUR PROJECT AREA

Age in Months Number of Children Percentage

0-12 44 20%

13-24 29 13.2%

25-36 56 25.4%

37-48 42 19.1%

49-60 49 22.3%

TOTAL 220 100%

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MOTHER’S HEALTH MS. SANGEETA RAWAT

SENIOR HEALTH PROMOTER

We had 115 pregnant women. Twenty women delivered of which one was twin pregnancy. Total number of births are 21. Out of 21 babies there were 12 male and 9 female children. Our compliments to my colleagues who are successful in generating awareness on importance of delivering in hospitals which was not there 10 years back. All the deliveries occurred in hospital (Government Hospital in sector 16 Chandigarh, PGI, sector 32 Government hospital Chandigarh). Amongst 20 women only 18 had regular Antenatal and Postnatal check-ups before and within two days of their delivery.We are grateful to have Dr. Asha Katoch back in DIR. Her presence is very valuable for the women of Basti. They feel more comfortable with her and put their queries and discuss their problems. They are visiting DIR regularly for their Antenatal check-ups and counselling. In hospitals doctors do not have much time to spend on one patient to explain or to brief every little thing. But in DIR, they are getting personal attention from Dr. Asha, and proper guidance for their betterment. She patiently listens to their problem and guides them accordingly. In month of December Dr. Asha Katoch redistributed the basti area (Project area/units) amongst HP to reduce the work load of Health Promoters. She divided old 12 units into 14 units covering new area, so that every health promoter get equal number of children under 5 years and pregnant women to improve their quality of work. 38 new children under five are added in the list and 9 new cases of pregnancy. Total count of pregnant women reduced as 32 pregnant women left our project area permanently and 6 went to their native village. At present total count of pregnant women is 110.We are glad that there is no miscarriage, still born and abortions this month but unfortunately we lost one child due to premature delivery. We all are putting our best effort to make this project more result oriented with the help and supervision of Dr. Asha Katoch. She is helping all the Health Promoters to improve the efficiency, working skills, knowledge and tactics.

Success Story:In our Health Promoter Banita’s area there was a pregnant woman named Vimla W/O Shiv Bahadur, House No. 1960 Janta Colony, aged 25 years. She had a history of two miscarriages 1st in her 9th month in 2015 and the 2nd one in her 7th month in February 2017. The reason behind these miscarriages was high blood pressure and abnormal fetal heart. When she had her second pregnancy, she kept it a secret. She was shy and rarely came out from her home. Through neighbors’ we got to know about her pregnancy. Then we went to her place, she was in her 2nd trimester and not a single medical check-up. Our Health Promoter Banita counseled her to visit hospital and motivated her to get all medical check-ups done. She listened to her and went to Sector-16 hospital, got her investigation done after consultation. But unfortunately fetal movement stopped and she had a miscarriage in 7th month. HP Banita made frequent visits to Vimla’s house to rebuild her emotional and mental state. This time when Vimla got pregnant she informed HP Banita immediately. HP Banita is constantly guiding her on medical check-ups in hospital and advised her on balanced diet. We are glad that she is having proper medical treatment from PGI and comes to DIR for her regular Blood Pressure check-ups. She is maintaining a proper dairy for her blood pressure. When we got to know that her blood pressure reading is rising then we counseled her for low salt diet and advised her to consult a doctor. The Gynecologist prescribed her medicine for Blood Pressure. Dr.

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Asha too examined Vimla and advised her accordingly. On completion of seventh month the doctor admitted her in hospital as fetal heart’s activity was slow and it was in transverse position. Doctors did a cesarean delivery and she gave birth to a baby girl, weighing 1kg. Baby is now under doctors’ special observation in PGI. Both mother and the baby are fine.

Sad Story:

There is a woman in our HP Banita’s area named Arti, W/O Mukesh, House no. 768, Janta colony Naya Gaon. She is 22 years old with 4 months pregnancy. Her ultrasound report showed that the kidney of fetus was swollen and had cyst in it. Sector-16 hospital doctors referred her case to PGI hospital. This case was brought to Dr. Asha where she counseled her for proper rest and regular check-up and advised her not to travel. But due to the pressure of her family she had to go to her village for one week and when she came back she had watery discharge and bleeding. She was immediately taken to PGI, where she had premature normal delivery on 18 December 2017, baby boy weight 1.4 KG and unfortunately next day the child died of pulmonary hemorrhage, hyaline membrane disease and trachea esophageal fistula. We felt very bad when we came to know about this incident. Our HP Banita went to her place where she counseled her about proper diet and emotionally rebuilt her to overcome this mental trauma. Banita advised her to have at least one year gap for next pregnancy so that her body can recover properly and get ready for next pregnancy.

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SWAD- SCHOOL WITH A DIFFERENCEMRS. MANJEET KAUR

SWAD TEACHER

Examination were held in the beginning of this month, in which all students performed well. Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) was conducted where the performance of children was discussed with their respective parents. As December is the birthday celebration of Jesus Christ, Christmas was celebrated by decorating the Christmas tree and the school. Children sang Christmas carols and danced to the tune of music. Some children dressed as Santa Claus distributed sweets to everyone.DIR had invited Mr. Surjit Singh (Ex. Pradhan) and Mr. Parmod Kumar (Municipal Councilor) as their chief guests. Mr. Surjit Singh distributed ladoos and he gifted DIR-India an Inverter of Luminous company costing more than Rupees 15000. Mr. Neeraj Chaudhary who is the legal advisor of DIR-I donated woolen caps and Mrs. Jyoti Jain donated socks to all the SWAD kids. Whole school was excited and thrilled with joy.

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Pregnant mothersLast Month

# of Delivery Births Total Birth Mothers who Moved Still Born

Mis-carriage

Newly Pregnant Total PregnantThis MonthM F Temporarily Permanently Arrived Conceived

115 20 12 9 21 (One Twin) 6 32 0 0 38 9 110

Remarks One fetal death due to multiple anomalies. (Died after 10 hours of delivery)

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GUEST REMARKS FROM BENEFICIARY

Hello! I am Kavita residing in #1490/6-E Adarsh Nagar. Home visits are paid by the DIR-I members for medical

check-ups. The health programs under medical care run by DIR-India are check-ups of Blood Pressure, and weight, Vitamin A immunization, Albendazole (De-Worming) tablets for children and committee meetings. The staff members are polite and helpful. They give useful advices regarding diet and nutrition. We are grateful to DIR for their door to door services.

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EVENTSMR. SANJEEV

FIELD COORDINATOR

Sanjeev

DETAILED INFORMATION OF PROJECT AREA BY FIELD COORDINATORTotal Number of Population Male Female

17,937 9,396 8,541

No. of Committee Meeting (4 in each HP’s area)

52

Total no. of People Attended Meeting 451

Total No. of Children Red Zone Yellow Zone Green Zone

1609 220 461 928

Number of Pregnant mothers Total No. Of Deliveries

Female Male Total No. of Birth

110 20 09 12 21 (one twin )

Death Details HP Name Age Gender Cause

Total deaths - Five Meenakshi 35 Years Male Accident

Meenakshi 49 Years Male Accident

Lata 35 Years Male Alcoholism

Meena 80 Years Male Old Age

Banita New born (10 hrs life)

Male One fetal Death due to multiple anomalies.

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VISITORS19-12-2017:- COL.LJS Gill, who retired from Indian Army and a friend of Dr. Asha and Brigadier D C Katoch visited DIR-I in the month of December. He found the work of DIR-I very impressive. He is a member of Ngo named “Sanjha Haq” which works for the rights of underprivileged.

27-12-2017:- Mrs. Abha Chaudhary, wife of Ex-trustee Guneet Chaudhary visited DIR-I. She runs a programme named “Personascapes.” It is a personality development programme where a person can rediscover himself or herself and know more about oneself. She has a team of six members who are going to visit DIR-I once a month and run workshops to build up the personality of a woman and generate confidence.

EVENTSCHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS IN HYATT REGENCY

DIR-I was invited to Hyatt Regency hotel for Christmas celebration on 22nd of December 2017. Hyatt had sent their vehicles to pick up the staff and children from the Naya Gaon office of DIR-I .We were given a very warm welcome at the main entrance of the hotel. The hotel was looking extremely notable and admirable. We were seated beside the round table and served drinks and snacks. The celebration started with the carol singing, all basti children sang in a rythm. After the singing session a game was arranged by the hotel for the enjoyment of children .the name of the game was” picking the cotton balls.” This was a partner-based game. In this, one of the partners has to carry as much cotton balls in their nose from the bowl and the other one to pick the same from their nose and gather them in a bowl. The team with the highest number of cotton balls won. The winning team was awarded with a gift. On departure every member of DIR-I received a bag of chocolates as a parting gift from the Hyatt Regency hotel.

DEPARTURE

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Captain Bikram who worked in DIR-I for over two years on the post of an administrator left DIR-I on 29-12-2017. He is a

loyal employee who worked hard in DIR-I and contributed funds in NIPP program by feeding Bananas to all children every day.

We wish him luck for his future venture.

NEW FACEMs. Priyanka Kamboj joined DIR-I on 05-12-2017. She has done masters in commerce from DAV College sector 10, Chandigarh. She is on the post of assistant accountant in DIR-I. She is a talented girl and we welcome her in DIR-I.

Mrs. Kanchan joined DIR-I as health promoter on 05-12-2017. She has her separate area of Adarsh Nagar to work for the betterment of under –privileged.

Ms. Gursharan joined DIR-I, a homeopathic doctor as a part time consultant from Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital, sector26, Chandigarh. On completion of internship she will be full time employee of DIR-I and work for the enhancement of underprivileged on medical issues.

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Contact Information

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DR. ASHA KATOCHCEO

MRS. NATASHA SHARMANUTRITIONIST

Tel 9478866412

Email: drashakatoch6412b@gmail.com

Tel 9988454140

Email: nishi21@yahoo.com

ORGANIZATION INFORMATION

DIR is a non-profit NGO which is funded entirely by voluntary donations. In the US and in India donations to DIR are made deductible, for income tax purposes, by both governments.

In India, donations in Rupees, may be addressed to:

SBI Account No. 37375923235.

SWIFT Code: SBININBB141

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