On March 8th, 2019, RDI joined in worldwide celebration of International Women’s Day. This day is celebrated globally with varied emotions. Marked as a day to spread messages for social reform earlier, the trends now are towards celebrating the spirit of womanhood. A lot goes into ensuring the happiness and wellbeing of a woman and her family. She has a crucial role to play in ensuring the overall quality of life of her family unit that would ultimately lead to a healthy and educated society. RDI has directly impacted the life of 40,000 women through its various projects; especially of healthcare and water sanitation.
It is in recognition of this need for quality of life, good health and role of women that RDI invited over 100 frontline health-workers, the ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) across Dehradun and Haridwar. These health workers are available at every village level catering to a fixed size population and are part of various committees within including Village Health Sanitation Nutrition Committee (VHSNC). So the celebrations revolved around issues of health in general and women’s health in particular. The guest speakers’ profile included Dr. Uma Bhardwaj Dean-Research, SRHU, Dr. Saroj Naithani, Additional Director, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Uttarakhand and Ms. Ashna Sookha, Chairperson, Pooja Kajal Foundation Netherlands. These guests spoke on recognition of women and their role in society, gender equality and lauded the enormous work being done by these health workers in their villages. The collective impacts of the efforts of ASHAs have begun to show in the improvement of health indicators, increase in knowledge level and safe health and sanitation practices.
Addressing the issues on maternal health, non-communicable diseases subject experts were invited from Swami Rama Himalayan University (SRHU). Technical sessions included information on prolapse of uterus, a significant yet often untreated health challenge among women, palliative care and neglected tropical diseases. During the program a pocket-friendly size IEC kit was also launched by the dignitaries. The kit comprises of two booklets regarding general information on maternal health issues and cancer and its care, along with a bead game to understand menstruation.
