Mother and Child Healthcare - Help a mother save a baby
Partner
Committed Communities Development Trust
www.ccdtrust.org
Goal
Provide quality healthcare services to high-risk women in marginalised communities, primarily the slums of Mumbai.
Mission
To enrol high-risk pregnant women into the HAMSAB programme and ensure that they have a safe pregnancy, delivery and postnatal period and ensure their child is healthy.
Vision
Women have access to quality prenatal, delivery, postnatal and child healthcare services.
Duration
2005 to date
Overview
HAMSAB targets ‘high-risk’ pregnant mothers to ensure that they receive good quality antenatal care, financial assistance during their maternity leave, additional nutritional meals, safe delivery services and good quality postnatal care, until their child is two years old.
The patriarchal social systems in India leave women with a lower quality of life than men, particularly those women from disadvantaged backgrounds. These women have to struggle through life with housework, manual labour and looking after their children. With financial constraints they always put other family members first and neglect themselves in pregnancy which can lead to anaemia, exhaustion and fatigue putting the mother’s and baby’s life at risk.
This simple yet effective project sponsors a woman for Rs. 10,000 (£145) to provide antenatal and postnatal services to ensure that both woman and child are safe and healthy.
Savitri Support
Between 2005 and 2007 the Trust has supported 21 women from Dahisar West slum in Mumbai.
From 2007, the Trust has enrolled 32 women on the programme and will extend to a further 5 women from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai, after which time the Trust is reviewing new areas in Mumbai to start this project.
Case Study
Like all of the women in the HAMSAB programme Seema (name has been changed) was identified as a high-risk pregnant woman. She is high-risk because she is a young mother at 22 and with this her second pregnancy is severely anaemic. She is the only wage earning member of the household and is unable to afford three meals a day for the family. In addition to this, her husband and father-in-law are alcoholics.
Seema was one of the first to join the HAMSAB group; shy, timid and reclusive she would never speak at the weekly meetings. The project suspected domestic violence but Seema would never speak out about it. As the months went by, she increasingly found confidence and strength. “I am so grateful to this project; we did not know each other before this started, now we share stories and experiences and look out for each other. I cook healthy meals for my children and know how to keep my house clean and hygienic.”
She delivered a healthy 3kg baby girl at home (she was unable to leave the park for the hospital as the park is closed to public transport during the night). Two years on, Seema could not bear to live with her alcoholic abusive husband and in-laws anymore. She had been saving part of her earnings since she joined HAMSAB and now had enough money and strength to move out and build her own house in the park. She is now happily living on her own with her two children and her new support network to talk to.
