About Us

 

Introduction

A long time ago in China, alone in the mountains stood a little village. There was something special about this village: they carried on a system of exchange the world had long abandoned. The blacksmith would pay the carpenter with some utensils for his help, the potter would pay the priest with some pots for any spiritual favors and so on. 

Board of Trustees:

Managing Trustee
Dr Regi M. George

Trustees
Dr Lalitha Regi
Prof M. Kamalamma
Prof M. Ravindran
Dr Sara Bhattacharjee
Dr Indru Tupulur
Mr A. Arun

 

The doctor too was paid, but not for treating any illness. Villagers would pay him in kind, but only if they had NOT fallen ill that year!

 

This story sparked off a thought process in both of us – both doctors. We had to strive to make a community healthy, and not just be satisfied with treating diseases. By 1993, we had worked for more than 10 years at Gandhi Gram Hospital in Tamil Nadu and had come to a decision that we had to move out to one of the thousands of locations all over the country that lacked even the basic medical facilities.

Soon we found ourselves in Sittilingi, having checked out more than 10 location all over the county with our friends, and decided that this is the place where we want to be. We started with a single thatched shed which served as both our out patient facility and rudimentary operation theater. This has now grown into a small hospital with 24 beds and a few support facilities.

We no longer have people coming in dehydrated after a bout of gastroenteritis and the number of children coming in with pneumonia is definitely declining. What has increased is the number of women coming in for safe confinement, the number of surgeries, and also pre-term / low-birth-weight newborns brought in for neonatal care.

Our Aims :

  • Bring all woman and children through childbirth alive and well.
  • Ensure children grow up well nourished so they can survive common infections.
  • Give easy, low cost access to good health care
  • Share our knowledge of health care with tribal communities so it becomes part of their wisdom and day to day experience.

 

Its been our field health programs and our efforts to train locals as health auxiliaries, which we have focused on from the beginning that has paid off in the long run.  There is a better understanding in the community on what simple measures contribute to a healthier life and what is preventable and what needs further attention.

So hopefully the story of the Chinese village has a distant parallel in our efforts to help the people of Sittilingi.

 

What we have achieved so far:

95% of pregnant mothers  undergo checkups at least thrice during their pregnancy.

7 out of every 100 children still die during the first year (down from 15/100 earlier).

Underweight children are only 30% compared to 50% earlier.

No mothers died in childbirth last 3 years.

What we are doing to achieve our goal

  • Regular village clinics in all villages to see all pregnant mothers and children under five years.
  • Refreshing and sharing knowledge with tribal women (Health Auxiliaries) in their villages to handle all basic health care in the community itself.
  • Tribal girls working as Health Workers in the Tribal Hospital and the villages.
  • Postnatal checkups in all villages once a week so that all babies are seen within a week of their birth.
  • Health education and discussion of social problems regularly in the villages.
  • Dramas and cultural shows to spread information on health and cultural issues Outpatients & Inpatients seen at the Tribal Hospital for treatment and surgery.

I am astonished with the amount of knowledge these health workers have. Though they don’t have a formal degree in nursing, their knowledge and practical skills are much more than you can expect from any trained/graduated nurses.  I am indeed having a very good time out here sharing all the knowledge and skills that I have, at the same time learning equally or even more from them.

Dr Ravikumar, Skillshare trainer and junior Doctor

Tribal Health Initiative, Sittilingi PO, Dharmapuri Dist, Tamil Nadu, India.  Ph: +91-4346-258611