A community health volunteer at
work

HEALTH

The marginalized Adivasi, Dalit and Fisherfolk communities that PREM works with in Odisha are vulnerable to a number of serious diseases such as Malaria and HIV/AIDS, and also suffer from common ailments due to lack of access to quality care, lack of awareness on treatment and prevention, and lack of capacity to improve health threats like poor water quality, sanitation and nutrition.

Reproductive Child Health (mother and child; pre-natal and post-natal);
Immunization;
Nutrition and food supplements for under-5 children;
Water and sanitation, and water-borne disease awareness;
HIV/AIDS awareness;

A village pharmacy depot

A community health worker and young mother and child at an immunization camp

Raising awareness on HIV & AIDS in the community

Universal birth registration ensures that every member of each community can access government provisions for health, education and welfare

Malaria Prevention & Control;
Eye care and oral hygiene;
Health camps and peer-education training;
First aid and training on herbal medicine and treatment;
Village medicine depots and clinic support, hospital referrals, mobile health care, etc.

PREM�s Water, Environment & Sanitation programme in partnership with Plan International targets water-vulnerable communities, especially in coastal areas and around Chilika Lake as well as in tribal hilly areas, for water conservation and management, water testing and rainwater harvesting. Also in partnership with UNICEF, PREM has implemented a programme for Eco-San Toilets in remote communities for sanitation and prevention of disease.

From 2003-2006 PREM with the support of Plan International implemented the People�s Rural Health Promotion Scheme in 500 villages targeting 100,000 people of Adivasi, Dalit and Fisherfolk communities. Each person invested a sum of INR 20 towards a comprehensive, three-tiered healthcare programme that created village pharmacies for medicine distribution, trained local people to treat common disease and ailments through accessible medicine and prevention, and facilitated village-level committees to monitor the health situation in their area and access aid where needed. The people received health insurance coverage for serious issues and benefited from workshops to raise awareness on common diseases and their prevention. Among many accolades PREM received for this programme, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) named it as one of the best, most innovative healthcare programmes in all of Asia.

From 2004-2006 PREM in partnership with Plan International implemented a programme called Malaria Prevention & Control in 8 districts of Odisha that are the most vulnerable to this disease. Odisha has the highest occurrence of malaria in India, and the Adivasi people in remote areas are most susceptible to contracting this disease, and least likely to get medical care. The programme networked 76 different partner community-based organizations to implement activities like using bed nets, spraying malathin, using neem oil, maintaining cow-shed cleanliness and proper water drainage, and establishing community medicine depots. The programme saw instances of malaria and malarial deaths reduced by up to 50%.

PREM implemented a large-scale programme on HIV/AIDS Prevention & Awareness in 1000 villages of 3 districts in Odisha, focusing on vulnerable groups including migration-prone populations. This innovative programme trained youth groups to be peer educators in their communities on HIV/AIDS awareness, condom use and distribution, risk mitigation, and de-stigmatizing the disease; the youth utilized cultural programmes such as street plays, songs, workshops and audio-visual programmeming as methods of their initiatives. Now HIV/AIDS awareness is mainstreamed across PREM�s health and development work in its operational area.

PREM played a major role in implementing a comprehensive Universal Birth Registration programme that saw 5,400,000 children from 42,500 rural villages in 22 states of Odisha registered per their rights. Now birth registration has been mainstreamed across PREM�s child-focused development work.

In 1999 PREM and Plan International, and with the participation of many community-based organizations, undertook a Say No to Tobacco programme in PREM�s operational area, targeting communities and individuals with awareness campaigns and health workshops.