NGO Sector

The scorching mid-day heat does not deter Vidya Devi, who hurriedly strides across the fields with the trained birth attendant to attend a delivery in the nearby village. She is an animated member of a CBD family of Subhavatpur village under the SIFPSA Project on reproductive health for creating awareness for family planning and counseling, in Gauriganj block of Sultanpur.

Vidya Devi, her husband Basant Lal Mishra and her two sons are a diligent CBD family working tirelessly towards achieving project goals. They acknowledge support and guidance from their village counselor Kamlesh. "We in our own small way have always extended help to our peer group, but the inflow of health, information and services from Sabla has facilitated fruitful interactions and acceptance of family planning methods", informs this empowered woman. Women's empowerment is the edifice on which Sabla, the organization implementing this SIFPSA Project, stands. An all-women organization it works towards helping 'Abla' (weak women) by making them self-reliant and empowered (Sabla).

The CBD family approach meets the challenge of reaching out to every section of the community with each member of the CBD family motivating his/her peers.

For family planning to become a way of life for the people, their participation and a sense of ownership in the programme is vital. Sabla has hence adopted the PRA (participatory rural appraisal) approach to promote the small family norm. They have been working towards drawing out people to make them express their reproductive health concerns.

Entry into the village was with the participation of the village folk who gave information about the need and resources in the village through social mapping. In the process of analyzing the needs of the village together, the people begin to trust the facilitators and thereby increase their scope of making an impact on the minds of the people.

The second phase of the strategy entailed an open community discussion where details of the SIFPSA project were given to the community. With the help of their village counselor people choose from amongst themselves a CBD family to work for the project.

The project emphasis is on counseling clients to take their own decisions and providing them with a variety of family planning methods. Training of TBAs & mobilization of youth are also important aspects of this project.

In order to elicit information about the availability of health facilities/ institutions near the village, Sabla uses the chapati diagram. Keeping the village as the centre, women draw circles of different sizes, their sizes representing the availability of health facilities. A large circle for the PHC outside the village shows quality services are being provided, irrespective of the distance. A smaller circle is drawn for the ANM who is in the village but is inactive.

For discussion on a private & sensitive topic like family planning, Sabla felt the need to first establish a rapport with the clients. They evolved communication games that helped break the ice and helped start a discussion. Mother-daughter meets are also organized, where information on female anatomy is given for better understanding of family planning methods.

Initiatives taken in the area of nutrition and health are discussed in the nutrition demonstration meets. Women are given information about balanced diet and the high nutritive value of seasonal vegetables and fruits. Competitions are held where a prize is given to a low cost, high nutritive value recipe evolved by the women. "Nobody wants to listen only about family planning and we find this indirect method the most effective", adds Meenu Tyagi, the Project Director.

Sabla prints a newsletter 'Nirantar' in the local dialect for communicating the result of activities undertaken and providing information on health issues. Successful strategies and dedicated implementation has resulted in achievement of objectives and the project has recently been accorded an extension for two years upto 2002.

The positive impact of these projects has resulted in extension projects being sanctioned to all four NGOs. The project strategy in each has been modified based on lessons learned and feedback from the evaluation.