33,878
Households reached
(2017-2024)
Addressing the health concerns of women and children by integrating a Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (RMNCH) health care model along with preventable Communicable and Non - Communicable diseases in the vulnerable urban informal settlements.
Bhiwandi (Thane)
Intensive intervention on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH)
A survey done in 2014 by our Monitoring and Evaluation team revealed that most of the population in Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) consisted of migrants who had poor awareness in terms of availability of health services, family planning, immunisation and benefits of institutional delivery. An endline survey done in 2019 revealed that there was a high incidence of home deliveries (28%), low rate of early registration of pregnancy (67%) and only 45% of eligible couples practiced some sort of contraception.
These indicators necessitated a need for interventions through varied strategies to increase awareness, change behaviours and link the communities to the services provided by the Public Health Systems.
The projects on Non-Communicable diseases and TB are beginning in 2022.
Households reached
(2017-2024)
increase in institutional delivery, from 76% in 2022-23 to 91% in 2023-24
increase in full immunization in children aged 0- 2 years, from 76% in 2022-23 to 83% in 2023-24
Knowledge and support system go a long way in enabling a mother to face the challenges during pregnancy and after the birth of the child. Our team traverses that extra mile to ensure every woman and child in vulnerable and marginalised communities receive the care they need!
During one of the routine home visits, SNEHA’s Community Organiser (CO) met Shamim Ansari*, who shared that she was two months into her pregnancy and was having difficulty consuming food due to intense nausea. First, Shamim was registered at the Indira Gandhi Hospital for antenatal care.
The CO continued the follow-ups and closely monitored her health guiding her to eat nutritious food and take adequate rest. Shamim delivered a baby weighing 2.0 kgs at the Hospital.
During the postnatal visit, the team motivated Shamim to weigh the baby every week to monitor the weight and counseled her to breastfeed and give kangaroo mother care, to keep the baby warm. The team kept following up till the child eventually reached the weight of 2.5 kilograms. As the saying goes: ‘It takes a village to raise a child’!
*Name changed