* The block level training is being conducted in several stages. The first   round of block level training for 20 village health activists was completed in May 12-13 in Kangarakottai pachayat village. Subsequently, there was a district level training on Sept 20-22nd in Srivilliputtur block in Virudhunagar district for 8 blocks in which Kalpana, Shanti, Kavita and others participated. This was for block full timers and block co-coordinators.

1. Update from Vembakottai block on September 27, 2002 : Gayathri Anand

  Minutes of the phone conversation with Ms. Angamaal

* The block level training is being conducted in several stages. The first   round of block level training for 20 village health activists was completed in May 12-13 in Kangarakottai pachayat village. Subsequently, there was a district level training on Sept 20-22nd in Srivilliputtur block in Virudhunagar district for 8 blocks in which Kalpana, Shanti, Kavita and others participated. This was for block full timers and block co-coordinators. During the training, Kalpana and others interacted with  several block full timers and talked to some expectant mothers. By such interactions, the full timers especially feel re-vitalized because they feel their work is important and that there are people interested in what they do. (Chapter co-ord's note :  "So calling our block co-coordinator regularly not only keeps us (AID volunteers) updated on what's happening in our blocks but also infuses enthusiasm in them.)"

* Training was going to be conducted for 38 village health activists and 4 block full timers on Oct 12th in Alangkulam panchayat. Angamaal said though initially they had identified only 30 village health activists (since there are 30 villages being considered for HBP), some of the Tuligal (Women's savings group in Vembakottai) were very much interested in being a part of this programme and were added on.

* Of the 30 villages, in 8 villages, the village health committee has been formed. In 3 out of the remaining 22 villages, the village health committee is being formed. The village committee includes the ward   member, the panchayat president, VHN (Village Health Nurse), the doctor in  the PHC (Primary Health Care center) etc.

* One possible way we could help from the US non-monetarily is to make  posters on several issues.  The issues could be on vaccination, care for the pregnant women, supplementary food for the child and pregnant women etc. She also suggested making some descriptive booklets on various health issues, particularly with lots of colorful pictures.

* Currently, the survey is being done. The grama sevai padivedu (village health register) which contains details about the doctors, nutrition workers, VHN, PHC etc is being filled up. This will be completed by October. The survey padivedu which contains details about the pregnant mothers, when a child was born, if there were any death (either of the mother or the infant) etc is planned to be completed by Novemeber. The weighing of children would most likely start only in December.

* For the Makkal Palli Iyakkam program (People's school movement), 5 blocks have been chosen in TamilNadu. Vembakottai is one of the blocks. On Oct 5th and 6th, a Makkal Palli Iyakkam training camp was conducted.  The training programme was a resident camp for about 48 volunteers.  There was also a grand opening ceremony in the villages in which this  pilot programme was being done. For this, the ward member, the panchayat  president and other important members of the villages were invited. Ms. Aruna Ratnam and a few other luminaries also participated in this camp.

* Some of the volunteers involved in this programme are highly qualified.  Some of them had just completed BBA, BCom etc. Unlike HBP or the women's savings programme in this block, this is the  first programme that had men volunteering. She was very happy about  this.

* The volunteers were now meeting teachers and getting a better understanding of the school facilities available in the village. The teachers were being very co-operative particularly because they were quite impressed with the success of Arivoli.
 

2. Minutes of the Conference calls:
The minutes of calls held on 21st August 2002 and 11th September 2002 are now accessible in the files section of aid_aipsn

3. AID-Mke made a poster board for the HBP using existing Indian population stats. It can be accessed at:
   http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/~govindra/aid_india/presentations/HBPPoster.pdf.
   It is also available through
   http://aidindia.org/milwaukee/projects/projects.htm#hundred_block_plan.

   Another short one on the history of the AIPSN is also available at the same site.

4. Website Update:

The website has been updated recently.

   Updates:
   1) Index/main page
   2) News and updates - layout changes
   3) Blocks and corresponding Chapters
   4) Districts and corresponding Blocks and Chapters

   New:
   1) HBP News (Sept 2002)
   2) Blocks and Sites current status/updates

5. Update from Begusarai Block:

* Mr. Azad from Begusarai block was contacted. They all know Alka, so the intro part was easy. I  could not get hold of Usha Kumari as she went to Delhi  for some work, Chandanji, another volunteer at BGVS office, suggested me to talk to Mr. Azad. So I did,  following is the summary.

* 60 (40 women/20 men) village level volunteers attended  the training. These volunteers are back in the  villages and are conducting surveys in Mother/Child  health and Drinking water/Immunization related issues.  These 60 vols are divided in 6 clusters (of 10  villages each), and each zone is managed by one  cluster incharge. So there are 6 more volunteers who are managing 10 village level volunteers. All these villages are in Dandeli block and Mr. Vinod Sahi is the block level co-ordinator. Usha Kumari and Ram Kumar are district head. All cluster incharge meet every week.

* Mr. Azad was very enthusiastic in giving the information and I got the feeling that the program is going well. He is recently elected as the BGVS Bihar secretary or President, so I extended congratulations to him from all of us.

* In the village there is one trained volunteer. This voluteer has a responsibility to get 10 more volunteers from the village. The local Panchayat leaders, etc. are also involved in this program. The goal these folks are working towards, is to make the village self sufficiant in health care. The volunteers are doing the surveys in the areas I mentioned above and their work is almost done. These folks are planning to chalk out the future plan based on the information these volunteers have collected. He said the plan until December end is already ready. That plan includes the formation of village level committees, getting all survey data, etc. The plan of   action after December is not ready yet.

* I asked if there are some problems they are facing in executing the program, and he mentioned couple of issues:
  1. Need for Additional training: All the volunteers who attended the training program could not capture everything in one go. Some people dont understand some
     issues, some people just forget, so its very important to train them more frequently.
  2. Upon asking them if they have enough resources, expertise to train the volunteers again, he said that  they have all resources. They work with the local      doctors from IIMA etc. hence that would not be a problem. I forgot to ask when are they planning such a training again.

  3. Difficulty in getting the reports back from the village level volunteers: So the new volunteers do not send the reports on time. According to Mr. Azad, these folks are just not accustomed to that, so slowly they will realize the importance and will do that regularly.

* Apart from this we talked about the overall progress of health program in Bihar. He said in many blocks including Gaya and Navada the programs are going well, but in some blocks there were issues in starting the programs because of floods, etc.

* He also told me about a Health Conference they arranged a village close to Begusari, named Dharoli. In this conference they brought together people, the  panchayat representatives, volunteers from village and a team of doctors and they discuss various health issues. This is a day long program and the doctors give as much information to people as possible on varous issues. The program was very successful and he said that they are planning to arrange more of such Health Conferences.

* Conclusion: Looks like the program is going well in Begusarai block, the printed material is there, and there are resources to implement the project. Though this is a start I think we need to talk to cluster incharge and ask them more about the tasks the village level volunteers are doing so that we can get more information on the ground work, and issues associated with it.

* I dont have the information about the cluster level folks yet, but I am planning to call the office tonight and get the info from Chandanji.

 "Its a great experience in talking to the folks, Bihari is such a sweet language that I sometime concentrated more on the language and the style than the contents
 :))"

* Vinod Kumar from Navada block is in Patna, hence could not talk to him. Will keep calling him and will update you all.

6. Sedapatti Block, Madurai Dt., India

  Conference call with Mr. Selvaraj [04552 - 53407], block coordinator for Sedappatti block on November 3, 2002:

* The Govt. through their S&T Development scheme targeted opening 200 micro-enterprises. 265 of them were actually opened. These involved the following areas:

  1. Consumer products - toilet soap, washing powder, liquid blue, mats, candles

  2. Agriculture - spinach growing (only for men) - Help from Saligram Institute, Dindugal.

  3. Trades & services - groceries, xerox, telephone, barber shops

  4. Animal husbandry - training in disease control.

  5. Floriculture - Help from Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

  6. Vermiculture -

  7. Solar heating - Used to produce candles - Tech. support from S & T Institute.

  8. Pottery - Tech. from S & T Institute. Used to make water filters in clay and refrigerators in clay. These are made by hand. There is an effort to mechanize them.

  9. Tailoring - for women.

  Marketing of their products is poor. They are working on this. Health and Education are also primary areas of concentration.

* There are two block coordinators:

  1. For T.Kalluppatti, which comprises of 7 villages and 5 volunteers- Mr. Kamesh.

  2. For Sedappatti, which comprises of 10 villages and 6 volunteers- Mr. Sivakumar5 mins.

  Kamesh (Helps processing bank loans) and Sivakumar (Monitors the enterprises) are both funded by the government.

* In T. Kalluppatti, there are 32 groups. In Sedappatti, there are 36 groups. Each volunteer handles 5 groups and is paid Rs.30 per group per month. Any other expenses are also covered. There are 24 volunteers throughout Madurai dt.

* About 162 people are trained in a training center being run in the Sedappatti block. Of these 40 people are from other NGO's. Training is given on making soaps and detergents. The fee for training is Rs.50. Each person is given a training kit. Each Deepam group buys Rs.300 worth of goods produced in the center every month. Some people buy the kit and prepare goods locally.

* They've helped about -

  9 people to get assistance through a self-employment scheme under PMRI.

  3 people to get assistance from KVIC (Khadi & village Industry council).

  Some loans have also been obtained from banks and help is taken from the savings groups.

* Apart from these groups, there are 4 groups comprised mainly of men involved in pottery, spinach growing and vermiculture.

* Deepam savings group started in 1999, also serves as a channel for selling the products. They are contacting other science forum branches also for marketing these products. Apart from this, they are planning for a training session to train some sales people. (An eg: the soaps manufactured are categorized as sandal, lime, green and red soaps and are sold at Rs.7.50-Rs.9.00 compared to Rs.15 of the popular soap Hamam). The profits from the sale is split into two halves. One half goes to the center for their expenses and the other half goes to the group. The district committee for the savings group consists of 9 women and they meet every 2nd and 4th Sunday to resolve the differences among the group members. Their adviser is Dr. Rajamanickam [0452 - 611404]. Once in two months they make sure all the groups are doing fine. Eight small shops have been set up to sell Deepam products.

* So far, they have conducted 5 task force meetings, out of which 3 were attended by the district Collector Mr. Sethuramachandran, who seems to be very helpful.
 
* The coordinators conduct a meeting on 15th of every month to discuss any kind of problems and to delegate responsibilities.

* Previously, in a place called Thirumanickam, they had experimented with a 3-acre land, purchase for Rs. 4000 (such a cheap land, especially, well irrigated land ! can get water at 35 ft deep bore wells). They had installed hand pump and tried some hybrid plantations and some regular crops. They expanded this to other unused lands and helped landless farmers, but later on the land-owners took the land back and started cultivating themselves. So, now they have only the original 3-acre land.

* They have a newsletter called "Makkal Thozhil". It has 4 pages and comes out once in three months. Four issues have been released so far in the past year. 1000 copies of the last issue were distributed.

* They are also trying to involve school students and some home-science college students in their activities.

They have a new proposal which they plan to send next month to us.