Well, it's Official...I am in Love

...No, not with an Indian man (as if I could find one over 6 feet). No, I am in love with the Shanti Ashram.
We visited the Ashram this morning and first heard a lecture from two different doctors who work and volunteer there, Dr. Kezevino Aram and Dr. S.R.Subramanian. Dr. Subramanian gave us an overview of the Ashram. The Ashram is a Ghandian organization founded in 1986 based on the vision, "Sarvodaya" which is a sanskrit word meaning "uplift men of all." Ghandi believed if women are empowered, the whole nation is empowered. The organization also believes that nothing should be free, if you don't pay for what you receive, then it has no worth to you. The Ashram bases its work around 8 categories: the Bala Shanti Programme (for rural children), Community Health, Environmental Restoration, Panchayat Raj Training & Research (a program to help rural people be self-governed), Peace & Interfaith Collaboration Programs (each day at the ashram is begun at 9:30 with an interfaith prayer), Poverty Alleviation (over 20% of Indians live below the poverty line aka less than $1 per day), Women's Development Programme (go Ghandi!), and Youth Leadership. Each category has up to 14 subprograms currently running with support from the Ashram and local organizations (like the Rotary Club of Coimbatore West and even a Rotary Club in Germany!). The Ashram itself has helped develop 109 women's groups called "self-help groups" just like the ones in Arasur only they keep all the money they earn. So far all the women have saved 1.2 million INR! Each group has 10-12 women and allows each woman to support herself without any aide from her husband. In their local government 30% of seats MUST be occupied by women! Cool huh? But, as with all governments, there are good sides and bad (though I know some who would say it’s all bad). All health practices in India are determined at the state level. Nothing can be nationally mandated and a local government cannot enact any new health laws without support from the entire state. This makes it difficult to provide healthcare specific to each community, especially since all areas of each state are so different. The bustling modern city of Coimbatore has much different needs than their neighbors not 10 km away who run farms and must fetch their own water.

Next was an extremely uplifting, inspiring talk from an obviously very passionate woman, Dr. Aram. Dr. Aram earned her doctorate degree from PSG medical college! She then went on to study in the US and now teaches at Harvard (I think). Her passion is community health with an emphasis in pediatrics...I love this woman already. She taught us about the 18 international rights of the child. Every country in the world has signed these rights (except Somalia and...wait for it...the United States?? What?? I know...my reaction too, I don't get it either). Dr. Aram described that India has determined that 1/3 of babies born suffer from low birth weight (less than 2.5 kg) but that the research in her community suggests it is closer to 47%. She said nearly 57% suffer from latent hunger and went on to describe that the only true way to help solve these issues is to do what she calls "Reimagining Preventative Pediatric Interventions." She told us that each word in that phrase was chosen very specifically for important reasons. Preventative interventions in India are generally delivered halfheartedly because so many people (especially those working in private health care like PSG) are much more focused on curative and rehabilitative health care practices; primarily because those practices make more money, and the more prevention you work on, the less patients you'll have in acute and chronic disease, which eventually means the less money people make.

Also crippling to Dr. Aram's work is the fact that rural communities in India are entirely dependent on government support for any preventative services. Even though the government has a national law that all salt must be fortified iodized salt (to help the national iodine deficiencies), only 60-70% of children are even receiving iodized salt in their food. The government used to provide funding for all child vaccinations but recently has cut the funding for half the vaccinations. Therefore, children are not receiving Typhoid or MMR vaccinations. Now I don't mean to totally rag on the Indian government because they do support a lot of good programs. Just very few are focused on preventative or promotional health care and very few are reaching the rural communities. The Shanti Ashram has made it a point to never duplicate any government programs. They understand that all Indian citizens must do everything they can to be aware of and benefit from government programs so as such, the Ashram provides resources for these programs rather than creating the same ones which might just be more easily accessible. Rather, they want people to be proactive about their care and seek out and utilize these programs on their own.

One program the Ashram has started on their own is called Asha which is the Hindi word for "hope." Asha is an immunization program which provides 4 MMR clinics per month with 100-150 vaccinations given per clinic. In order to ensure the programs success they began with a small outreach to a village and gave 250 immunizations funded entirely by the Ashram. Since that trial run went pretty smoothly and parents received the information well they did a second trial run of 500 immunizations which was funded by Rotary. This also went very well and finally Michigan State students provided the bulk of the funding to make the project really take off by donating 8,000 vaccines (at $2 per vaccine). The program begins one day where the Ashram volunteers go door to door with verbal and written descriptions of the importance of the MMR vaccine. The next day they find a local building that is often visited by members of the community and they set up the clinic in the same manner one might see in the urban public health center in the city of Coimbatore. So far they have completed 8 clinics and have reached 986 children. I was so inspired at the way she explained the program to us and how much planning and effort went into it to ensure it would truly be both beneficial and cost effective for their community. Dr. Aram described that "a big celebration will occur for the 1,000th child whose life is now saved from 3 diseases." I think it’s such a much more powerful way to describe the MMR vaccine than just saying the 1,000th shot, because truthfully, because of the Ashram, already nearly 1,000 children will not die from Measles, Mumps, or Rubella.

Ohhh there is so much more I could tell you about this wonderful place because it truly is amazing. It’s all about taking an interfaith-based organization of people for empowering women and helping children and creating a better, more self-sustainable rural India. And guess what? They take student interns and volunteers year round for whatever length of stay they wish to volunteer for! Now do you know why I'm in love?

Note-also had to attach a better picture of the crazy people here who carry their babies on motorcycles. Also- we have now officially seen 5 people on one motorcycle (can't remember if I told u this already) it was 4 children and 1 man but still...that's a bit excessive.