Reproductive and Child Health

Spreading awareness about cervical cancer : The programme aims to increase awareness, and minimize the risk of Human Papislloma Virus (HPV) and HPV-related diseases that spread cervical cancer amongst women. Dais, nurses, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, women Panchayat representatives and village leaders from 20 villages across the 4 blocks underwent a two day training camp on cervical and breast cancer. In 2011-2012, the health cell organized 35 diagnostic camps in 27 villages across 4 blocks in Kutch. 2,436 women were screened in these camps, 387 positive cases were diagnosed, biopsies of 268 were performed and 7 cases were operated upon. The initial test itself shows prevalence of cervical cancer is around 2% in all the women who were screened. This is an alarming trend and hence strategies are being devised to scale the programme to cover entire district.
Adolescent training :
The training of adolescents, especially kishoris or girls, has been adopted as a core strategy to improve health in the villages. Girls aged 14—20 were trained on issues of puberty, reproductive health, hygiene and nutrition with the hope that they would eventually volunteer as para-health workers in their respective villages.
23 trainings have covered 40 adolescents in the past one year. and KMVS aims to go beyond the basic training on reproductive child health. Advanced training modules are being prepared to incorporate social perceptions on gender and the rights of women so as to make them more informed and instil, in them, a sense of perspective at a young age.
Capacity building of Village Health and Sanitation Committees :
The VHSCS are trained with an objective of improving overall health structure of the village, making committee members more accountable and increasing their participation in utilization of the untied funds at Gram Panchayat level. To this effect, the cell organized 23 meetings in 4 blocks to devise an action plan for members of the VHSCs. 97 meetings were organized as a basis to train members about their functions, government schemes available for health and sanitation. utilization of grants, health issues, and improving health structure of the village.