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Rural projects

Tribal welfare projects in Peth Taluka, Nashik, Maharashtra

GSK India undertakes a number of Rural Development initiatives through its trust GRAMIN AAROGYA VIKAS SANSTHA (GAVS), a Rural Health Development Organization. GAVS is a registered public charitable trust established and promoted by the heritage company Glaxo India in April 1997.

Tribal population in India is over 84 million. They constitute roughly 8 percent of India's population. Tribals are socio-economically disadvantaged and marginalized groups. Most tribes are concentrated in heavily forested areas that combine inaccessibility with limited political or economic significance. Tribals have been accorded special status in the constitution and there are several schemes designed for their upliftment. However, a number of these schemes are poorly implemented and there has not been much improvement in their status. Even today, the tribal population lags substantially behind in terms of education and health.

When we talk of social development for Tribal population, health is a major component in it. These tribal people live in remote villages in hilly, forested or desert areas. There are no formal education systems, no health care centres and no proper road and means of transportation. Malnutrition is prominent and there is no access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Thus having diseases is inevitable and women and children being the most vulnerable suffer the most.

As a part of its Rural Tribal Development mission, GAVS collected primary data from 92 villages in Peth Tehsil / Block near Nashik in the year 2005. Peth is the smallest Tehsil / Block in the district; it occupies 3.63% of the district. The tribal population in Nashik falls amongst the 10% of the total Tribal population (7.4 million) in the state of Maharashtra. The research was conducted with the objective of getting authentic, first-hand information on health and education status in the area thereby identifying the most underserved village communities, which needed Company's support. Based on the data analysis, a few clusters of villages were identified for providing basic healthcare facilities. The project began in the year 2005 in partnership with Nirmaya Health Foundation in 150 villages in Peth Tehsil / Block of Nashik District. The project runs on an objective of providing primary level curative and preventive health services in this tribal area. Project also lays emphasis on health seeking behaviour in the areas of Tobacco de-addiction, Nutrition, common illnesses with a special emphasis on different types of fevers and diseases of joints, HIV/AIDS infections, skin diseases, Tuberculosis, water-borne diseases and Respiratory Tract Infections, etc.

Mobile clinics with doctor and trained health facilitator visit 150 villages every week to provide curatives services. Multi-specialty health camps are also organized to cater to special needs like cataract operations, administering Tetnus injections, gynaecology related issues, haemoglobin check- up camps etc. Training and awareness sessions are conducted in villages to mobilize people towards health and hygiene.

The project has also created a cadre of Health facilitators within the communities and has formed a referral network for admission and treatment of patients through other secondary and tertiary level government and private Health care facilities in Nashik.

Over 1.26 lakhs villagers have benefited by this healthcare initiative directly or indirectly.

Yuva Parivartan - GSK Livelihood Training Centres: Peth Taluka, Nashik, Maharashtra

As a part of its sustainable livelihood programme, GSK through GAVS in partnership with Mumbai based not for profit organization Kherwadi Social Welfare is also running Vocational Training centers in Peth Taluka, Nashik since 2008. The project is undertaken with a long term objective of imparting specialized skills and making the unemployed youths more employable / self-reliant. Training are provided in the areas of computer literacy, tailoring, beauty, wireman/ electrician, agriculture productivity, motor training, nursing assistance, etc. Nearly 2500 youths have been trained and a number of them are currently gainfully employed. This initiative to a certain extent has helped in curtailing the seasonal migration in the region.

Shelter home for children - Behraich, Uttar Pradesh

In 2008, GSK India in collaboration with Pratham, a Non Government Organization, started a Shelter home for children under the age of 16. The program aims at preventing migration of children for work in bigger in cities and increasing access to quality primary education for children.

The Shelter home is located in the eastern part of India at Behraich, Lucknow, which is one of the highest child sending regions in the country. This project supports 50 children by way of providing them education, food and shelter in addition to psycho-social support.

GSK and Pratham are also actively involved in community level intervention and advocacy initiatives on the issue of Child labour in about 226 villages of Behraich. For advocacy, Pratham had identified two most vulnerable blocks in the district Huzupura & Vishweshwarganj. "School Chalo Abhiyan" was organized to enroll these out of school children and around 470 were enrolled into the formal educational system. Besides this activity, child rights sessions were conducted in the schools. A District Child Welfare Committee has also been established. With active participation of Government officials, Childline 1098 and Child helpline 1077 were also initiated to protect child exploitation in any form.

Healthcare project, Institute for Indian Mother and Child, Kolkata:

In 2009, GSK India extended its support to The Institute for Indian Mother & Child (IIMC) a non-governmental voluntary organization, committed to promote child & maternal health and literacy. IIMC runs Outdoor, Indoor & Maternity centers in remote and most backward areas of West Bengal where people do not have access to basic healthcare and medical facilities.

This project was started with an objective of providing primary health care services to the villagers and to support prenatal, neonatal and postnatal care for mother and child of the rural areas as they are most vulnerable to reproductive and child health care problems. Deformities, Premature babies, malnutrition like Kwashiorkor and Marrusmas were the common phenomena prior to the project. The project helps to provide supplementary nutrition mixed diet to all pregnant, lactating and weaning mothers along with their newborns. Create awareness amongst mothers through education and programs. It also tries to reduce maternal mortality rate by training Traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) for safe child birth.

Through this project IIMC has been able to cover 950 villages while catering to 300 mothers and 26000 malnourished children.

Community College Program: Haryana

The Company backed one more long-term unique project to set up a community college at Naya Gaon, Gurgaon to empower rural youths. This project was initiated in 2010 in partnership with Navjyoti India Foundation (NIF) founded by Dr. Kiran Bedi. The objective of this community college is to provide transformative, personal and skill based education to the marginalized and disadvantaged thereby enhancing employability and self reliance.

Through this Community College the beneficiaries are registered to various need based as well as skill based academic programmes of IGNOU.

GSK India supports the Community College project by providing education to 1000 rural youths to acquire specific knowledge or skills to make them self reliant.

Residential shelter home for boys in Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Following the success of the residential shelter home in Behraich, the Company decided to support another programme on similar lines in association with its NGO partner, Pratham in Jodhpur in the year 2010.

Jodhpur is home to a large number of street children trying to earn a living on railway stations or by begging at tourist places. These children live in dire conditions and are often addicted to solvents. Most of them are from Jodhpur or come from nearby states lured by the tourist city's promise.

Pratham has been working with children in the slums of Jodhpur since 2006. The program began with 10 contact centers in Jodhpur, which reached out to the working and out-of-school children. In a year's, time all the children were mainstreamed in formal schools and that led to the establishment of credibility among the various Government departments. The idea of setting up of a residential shelter for boys in Jodhpur is one part of an intervention in the undeserved community.

This shelter home supported by GSK India renders residential support to nearly 50 vulnerable children belonging to this region with the following specific objectives:

• Non formal education to help the children achieve basic competencies
• Mainstreaming the boys under 12 years of age into formal schools
• Providing the boys over 12 years of age with at least one pre-vocational skill
• Teaching basic computer literacy
• Ensuring good mental and physical health
• Conducting extracurricular activities: for attitudinal and behavioural changes

Project for early detection of Cancer with Bhakti Vedanta Hospital: Mira Road, Mumbai

As part of its effort to reach out to the needy communities, GSK supported a new project embarked by Sri Chaitnaya Welfare Trust's Bhaktivedanta Hospital in 2010. This project envisages supporting patients at the grass root level in the area of early detection and prevention of cancer. The area of focus is primarily those where services of cancer surgeons / oncology specialists are not available. Primary prevention, identification / treatment and education are seen as the most cost effective program, since it aims to reduce the incidence of cancer by risk factor modification (like anti-tobacco campaign, etc).

Through this project camps are held in remote areas of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Around 80-100 patients are screened in a day at a particular camp. Overall, the trust has screened screen around 10000 patients through this initiative and the patients who need further investigation are provided treatment at the hospital itself or are referred to other hospitals.

Under this programme, by December 2011, 190 camps were conducted where around 10000 patients have been screened, 1849 were suspected with cancer. Out of these 1849 patients, the hospital has operated upon 248 patients thereby helping them to cure their cancer.

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