Health > Tribal Health Initiative School Health Program in Tamil Nadu
School health program provides knowledge and awareness about health and diseases to prevent illnesses
Location: Tamil Nadu
NGO: Tribal Health Initiative
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Summary:
Tribal Health Initiative has worked with tribal villages of Kalrayan Hills and Sittlingi Valley for the past seven years to provide health services and educate school children about good health and sanitation. 
Details:
  • The Kalrayan Hills area has 200 tribal villages with only three primary healthcare centers and lacks round-the-clock access to a doctor.
  • Before the Tribal Health Initiative established a healthcare clinic in Aruna, villagers were forced to travel to Sittilingi (a ~60 km commute) to treat simple illnesses.  
  • Tribal Health Initiative’s school health program uses quizzes and role-playing to evaluate student’s knowledge of health. 
  • Programs include free vision check ups, tuberculosis awareness, environmental sanitation, menstrual hygiene class for girls in eleventh and twelfth grades, and first aid and home remedies.

Impacts:
  • Each Wednesday, a team of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers see 60-70 patients at the Aruna clinic. 2,467 patients were treated from 2017 to 2018. 
  • The school health programs were conducted at six schools in the Kalrayan area and are being extended to other schools in Sitlingi valley. Around 1,000 students have been reached through the program. 

​Positive Outcomes
  • Awareness regarding Nutritious foods Increase in consumption of locally available fruits and vegetables.
  • Improvement in environmental sanitation Reduced littering and cleaner school/classroom areas. Effects starting to show up in homes and neighborhoods. Reduction in the use of plastics.
  • Better care of injuries and wounds Reduction in use of mud for treatment of diseases. Increase in use of soap and water.
  • Effective use of medicines and homemade remedies Reduction in open field defecation, proper hand washing (using soap) after defecation and appropriate medication to treat worm infestation. Few students have even convinced their parents to build toilets in their houses. But all students wash their hands with soap and water, and have use de-worming tablets regularly.

About THI
Tribal Health Initiative was started in 1992 by Dr. Regi George and Dr. Lalitha Regi. Today we have expanded into a team of over 55 highly trained people, working to improve the lives of the tribal communities living in the Sittilingi valley and surrounding hills through a variety of programmes in health care, community health, farming and craft work.

They aim to:
  • To be an educator to protect and promote health and improve basic knowledge levels.
  • To provide affordable and acceptable basic health care services to the area.
  • To be a facilitator to help people undertake collective action for their welfare.
  • To provide a support system to help people come back to sustainable methods of farming.
  • To facilitate peoples knowledge about their rights and responsibilities.
  • To help them acquire additional skills and assist them in achieving self reliance through small scale entrepreneurship.
  • To provide support for the social upliftment while retaining and building on their local cultural strengths

Past Programs Supported

Community Health Program
​THI runs a health outreach program in 33 villages in the Sittilingi valley and the Kalrayan Hills.
Program was aimed at taking healthcare to the village. Each village nominated one married woman to be trained as a Health Auxiliary (HA). She offers advice on good nutrition, hygiene, birthing practices and simple ailments, maintain records on important health events in the village and act as facilitators for all community development work. She also has basic tablets for dispensing at the village level. 

These HAs participate in periodic training activities, report back on the health of their villages, reporting births and deaths of village members, and other relevant information every month. 


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They conduct monthly mobile clinics for all pregnant women and under 5 children, coordinates with the hospital regarding when the mobile health team will next visit the village.  They also notify the village members of the health clinics and help organize them. They also deliver care for the elderly and mental health awareness.

Success with HA program
1. Brought the infant mortality rates from 147/1000 in 1993 to 20/1000 now.
2. NO mothers dying in childbirth for the past 10 years in a row.
3. Malnourishment in children down by about 70%, and
4. almost 100% completion of TB treatment in the villages we work in.
In addition also provide ambulance service for the 21 villages. Patients can be transported to the Tribal Hospital or referred to tertiary care centers in Salem and Dharmapuri as and when needed.