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Thursday 20 August 2015

STEP to a healthier community..!

Meet Dr. Ayush Gowda, Dr. Sindhu and Dr. Vaishnavi- young medical graduates from JSS Medical College, who have come forward to help Mantra team build a healthier community.
We started with interesting, activity-based sessions on personal hygiene for children in our schools. The excitement was palpable. Students just loved the session and pledged to maintain personal hygiene.
From students, the obvious next step was to address the mothers. We invited women from the community to the school auditorium one afternoon. The topic of presentation was nutrition needs during pregnancy. Kudos to the efforts of the trio..! The presentation was well-designed and was kept simple so that women could understand it.

At the end of the session, many women put forward their queries and doubts. It was amazing to see the level of enthusiasm among the women. "I have a child of 2 years of age. But during my pregnancy, I wasn't even aware of what to eat and what not to. Due to constant vomiting tendency, I used to avoid taking food and even the iron tablets.", recollected Mrs. Zeenat Abdullah. About the session, she further told, "Today I understood why it is important to take fruits, milk etc. I know how my unborn baby will suffer if I compromise on my diet." Mrs. Rabiya Sultana, the 62 year old lady, whom the whole community lovingly calls 'Ajji' told us, "This was very good. You must also conduct session on how to take care of nutrition needs of young children." And we promised her, we would.

PreCIOUS (Preventive Care for Inhabitants of Urban Slums) is one of MANTRA's key programs. Over the coming months, we plan to conduct several such sessions for different target audience, including topics related to teenage health, women health, nutrition, ante-natal care, tobacco consumption, communicable diseases etc. These awareness sessions are aimed at encouraging the parents and children to adopt preventive and promotive healthcare practices as part of their lives.
As the saying goes, "Prevention is better than cure." :)

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