Children are Hungry

Rama Paharia, S/o Bandra Paharia & Jabri Paharia M-1, Sidler (Upar Tola)Panchayat: Bara Sindri, PO-Chandna, Sundarpahari, Godda-814153,Jharkhand (Photograph taken on 24.10.2008 with permission of parents)

--- On Fri, 24/10/08, Soumik Banerjee <soumix2002@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: Dear Haldharji, Please find photo of 1 year old Rama Paharia of Sundarpahari, Godda who is severely malnourished weight 5.5 kg in Grade 3. The family has AAY card but says they have lifted grains only 3 times in 3 years. Their card was given as mortgagefor Rs 100 to one Phaguram Paharia of the same village whohas not returned thje card since then as the family failed to pay back Rs 100. ICDS does not function in the village in spite of regular fund release.When taken to PHC no medicines were given and refered to Sadar Hospital-Godda. We provided Horlicks & Vitamin syrup. She did not havethe money to pay for the same. THere are many such examplesand there is NOTHING anybody is doing about them. We are also at a loss as what to do and where to take up such isues ? No one seems to realise or understand such issues or do anything substantial.Wherever such things are raised locally there is only discouragement. In another case a 1 month old child was given 3 tablets of Ciprofloxacin 250 mg & 3 tablets of Resule CC and was asked to buy Canesten Cream from the market on reporting a fungal infection. How can a 1 month old child take tablets that too Ciprofloxacin ?? when they along with the Sahiya went back to ask for syrup they were told there is no syrup and asked to leave. She had to take medicines worth Rs 30 from the market.
Child's Name: Chandi Paharin, S/o Maghe Paharia, F -1 month, Sahapi (Bara Tola) Sundarpahari, Godda, Jharkhand. Regards Soumik

Panchanandapur

The two CRY schools at Khatiakhana serve 300 children of the diara (Char) areas. Another school at Subhanitola Char serves 50 more in a new island which has re-emerged near Dakshin Polashgachi in Udhuwa Block of Sahebganj District (Jharkhand). Kedar Nath Mondol and the volunteers of the Ganga Action Committee have got help from benefactors like Kalyan Rudra and doctors from Kolkata to undertake some of their projects. The teachers seen here Rabi Ul Alam and Rajendra mondol also doubled as Pulse Polio volunteers this Wednesday. Subhanitola is over an hour's boat ride from Panchanandapur. The local people are all Bengali speaking, as are most people in Phudkipur, Radhanagar and the neighbouring areas. Patients go to Dr Ajit Sheet at Udhuwa for primary care, but deliveries, TB patients and even a few AFP (limb weakness) cases get admitted at Bangitola Hospital in Kaliachak II. GPAC has an ambulance to ferry the patients after they reach the Panchanandapur Ghat and maintain contact by mobile phone. They hope to expand the use of ambulance boat facilities soon. Those interested can contact them at Bangitola.

Mosaraf Weds Irene

District Extender (Uttar Dinajpur) Md Mosaraf of the West Bengal Immunization Support Cell got married to Irene at Baroduari on 20th October. District Extenders Chitta Saha, Milan Sen, Md Samaun as well as the entire NPSP family, the CMOH, Deputy I, DPHNO and many Health Department friends and Mosaraf's classmate Dr Ashok Dutta attended the reception at Mukunda Bhaban, Raiganj. Most of the pictures in the album are taken by Piali.

Khorda Babupur

The Trained Dai welcomed us here. The HA F ("ANM-R") has gone to Asansol for training to be a Supervisor. Since the neighbouring Misirpur centre is also vacant the Health Supervisor alternates between the two centres. Village Dhamua is under this centre. We know that Marium Besra, wife of a retired Customs officer, and mother of a local school teacher lives in Dhamua. Marium used to work as an ANM in St Luke's Hospital, Hiranpur. We have suggested that she be invited to tide over this difficult time.

Nichamari Diarrhoea

Upen Kormokar had a free operation to correct his lagophthalmos last year. His daughter was one of those in Damdama village near Nichamari who had diarrhoea after the Puja holidays. She was lucky. One Bhima Mardi, aged 60 years died in the outbreak and many were admitted at Karandighi Hospital. The local Choprabakhari Health Centre is vacant for many months. There has been an outbreak of deaths close by at Gopalpur in June as well as numerous Measles outbreaks and deaths. One of these was described in an earlier Blog.

Behrampore DH Hospital

Yusuf Kabir and I visited this hospital on 10th October. It is an old building with a children's ward with 25 sanctioned beds and enough staff for this number of patients. There are on an average 70 children admitted here with their mothers. This number increased to 148 on 3rd October when there was an outbreak of pneumonia following a few days of rain. Sick Newborns from the Matri Sadan (which has an average of 50 births a day) were also kept in the same ward. The acute crowding was resolved on the 5th when a new ward space was created downstairs and some children were shifted to a closed verandah above an ICU. The ADM Health , Deputy CMOH I (Dr Santra) and Swasthya Karmadhyaksha (Mrs Jyotsna Sen) requested help to permanently increase the number of children's beds in the hospital. There is also a need to prevent seepage and improve the structure in the Children's Ward. There is another hospital area (New General Hospital) which houses surgical patients and Blood Bank. Along with Md Samaun (District Extender WBSISC) and Abhijit Lahiri (District Coordinator TSC) we met the Deputy Superintendent, who was running the Out Patient services there. We later visited Nadia, where a Sick Newborn Care Unit is being set up.