Balwadis (Pre-School Centres)

Environmental Education in Schools

Gram Pustakalaya (Village Libraries)

Sandhya Kendra (Evening Centres)

Computer Literacy

Kishori Shikshan (Adolescent Education)

Women’s literacy and education

Preventive Health Care and Education

Gram Shikshan Kendra (Community Learning Centres)

Preventive Health Care and Education

Local community based organisations-CBOs supported by us, create awareness of health issues through puppet shows, plays, songs, village meetings, exhibitions and workshops. The girls and women engaged in this work are trained by us.

In most cases, these activities represent the first-ever attempt to discuss health and nutrition issues, particularly reproductive health, openly in a village forum. Finding appropriate ways of doing this has been a great challenge and much is being learned in this respect by the CBOs involved and by our own workers. In the beginning of the programme, a survey of the health status of children (birth to 15 years of age) is done, and some of the factors that affect children's growth identified. This generates a lot of interest and discussion in villages.

The programme has prompted parents of underweight children, especially girls, to take recommended measures to overcome the problem. Health camps are organised where needed. Use of local herbs and home remedies is promoted in remote villages where no proper health care facility exists.

To facilitate meetings in villages, posters and folders relating health to nutrition and hygiene have been developed. Written in simple language these folders have become very popular in villages. Further, to educate communities about human anatomy, special aprons depicting the body organs are used both during training and workshops with women and adolescent girls.