Community Monitoring of RSBY . . . Opportunity

This is the third post related to recent opportunities which have emerged for like-minded people to become a part of our team at NJH. The opportunity available here is for a post which is for a duration of only 6 months. Therefore, we would like to invite social workers who would like to have a taste of work in a remote region of the country under really trying circumstances. 

Below is a short write up of the opportunity available - 

The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana has been quite a phenomenal programme aimed at rescuing the poor from the cluthes of expensive health care. NJH as part of the wider family of Emmanuel Hospital Association has been actively involved in popularising the programme and trying to improve enrollment in Palamu district.

Now, we are part of project to look into the aspects of Community Education and Community Monitoring of the RSBY Programme in Palamu District  over the next 6 months.

STAFF REQUIREMENT –

Project Officers (1 vacancy): Will be in charge of the project in 3 blocks of Palamu district, Chattarpur, Panki and Chainpur. She/He will be responsible for day to day functioning of the project with the help of 3 NGOs who have their own co-ordinators.  He/She will accountable through the Director – Community Health, Nav Jivan Hospital to the unit, regional and central management structures. He/She would need to develop monitoring frame work as per the LFA indicators and ensure that the reporting system is done smoothly.. In consultation with the Project Manager, they would need to develop monitoring frame work as per the LFA indicators and ensure that the reporting system is done smoothly. 

Well, for those who have seen only this advertisement, please refer to couple of more opportunities which are available at NJH. 

I would be much obliged if you could refer this to people who may be interested. 

Those who are interested may kindly contact me at jeevan@eha-health.org. You can also apply through the forms downloaded from the EHA website, www.eha-health.org. 

Working with the differently abled . . . Opportunities

This is in continuation of my previous post on new avenues being available to be a part of us at NJH.

NJH has taken up the challenge of reaching out to People with Disabilities (PWD), whom we’ll call ‘People with Special Abilities’ or 'Differently abled' in the district of Palamu. Below is a small narrative of the project and the opportunities we could offer to young and dynamic social work professionals desiring to work among such a group of people.

GOAL: To improve the quality of life of People with Special Abilities in the district of Palamu, Jharkhand State, India through the realisation of their rights within the next 3 years.

PURPOSES –

1.       To improve access for People with Special Abilities to their rights to health, employment and community living.

2.       To facilitate inclusion of People with Special Abilities in Village Health and Sanitation Committees (VHSC) and build the capacity of VHSC to undertake community monitoring process on regular basis and make health seeking behaviour systems in communities.

3.       To empower People with Special Abilities through the formation of Self Help Groups to work towards equal opportunities in the community

TARGET AREA: 9 blocks of Palamu district with a total population of approximately 25000 Persons with Special Abilities.

STAFF NEEDED –

1. Project Officers (3 vacancies): Will be in charge of the project in three blocks each. She/He will be responsible for day to day functioning of the project.  They will accountable to the Project Manager who will be the leader of the team who would be responsible for the implementation of the project. In consultation with the Project Manager, they would need to develop monitoring frame work as per the LFA indicators and ensure that the reporting system is done smoothly.
2. Occupational Therapists/Physiotherapists (2 vacancies): They will assist the project team in facilitating the access to the Persons with Special Abilities and plan for measures designed towards mainstreaming them to the social milieau of the region. 

Opportunities for social work consultants . . .

We've had approval of Community Health projects for the next 3 years. We are looking at the prospects of dynamic young specialists who would fulfil our organisational requirements for recruitment with a background in social work joining us for the smooth implementation of the projects. 

A narration about the first one, which would be working towards Community Based Adaptation to mitigate Climate Change in Satbarwa block. . . Below is a small write up and the requirements . . .

Climate change is something that has become a reality to almost the whole world. It is a serious risk to poverty reduction and can undo decades of development effort. While climate change is global, its negative impact is most severely felt by the poorest and marginalized in the society. The impact of climate change is determined not only the degree and the rate of change in climate variation, but also by the vulnerability of the region.

Satbarwa block, which is on the east end of Palamu district, which is a rain shadow area has borne the brunt of climate change. From an annual rainfall of 1250 mm rains, over the past seven years this has reduced to 350 to 450 mm a year. Rains have become erratic which affects seasonal cropping patterns. Crops produced from small land holdings are not enough to sustain families for a year.

There are communities living in the block who depend on non-timber forest products and rain fed agriculture for their livelihood. Shelac cultivation which used to be a major source of income has been affected due to changing climate patterns.

The overall objectives of the proposed project is to support efforts towards empowerment of communities for the poverty alleviation through a process of social mobilization and people centred development and mitigation.

The major components of the project would be

a.   Support social mobilization efforts for building and strengthening peoples organization.

b. Empower families with specific focus on the woman to receive training in leadership, management of thrift and credit schemes. They will be supported to access government welfare schemes.

c.    Assist in training and capacity building of organization of the poor, especially marginalized groups and women.

d.    Strengthening of existing/Formation of Village Forest Committees to ensure high level of local ownership and continuity of benefits. The VFCs would be trained on water conservation, harvesting method, fodder/drought crop cultivation, kitchen gardening and plantation for social forestry.

e. Improve natural resource base by promoting and demonstrating practices through integrating traditional systems with modern appropriate technologies.

f.  Strengthen the capacities of community based organisations in relation to technical, institutional apsects for enhancing their abilities to take up Natural Resource Management related and other livelihood interventions in their areas.

g. To focus on Disaster Preparedness Planning, Vulnerability analysis, hazard mapping, hazard reduction and formation of disaster mitigation team imparting requisite training to them.

Target Area: We are planning to concentrate our efforts in 30 villages in Satbarwa block totalling a population of approximately 35,000 (2011 census) of which 75% of them will be from either the scheduled castes or scheduled tribes. The project would be for a total duration of 3 years.

Staff needed:

1. Project Manager (1): Will be the leader of the team who would be responsible for the implementation of the project. The PM would be accountable to the unit, regional and central management structures. He would need to develop monitoring frame work as per the LFA indicators and ensure that the reporting system is done smoothly. Preferably he should be a Masters in Social Work or a graduate with previous experience in similar projects. 
2. Project Officer (1): Will assist the Project Manager in the monitoring of day to day activities through the help of 3 Community Co-ordinators who will from any of the 30 villages.  Preferably he should be a Masters in Social Work or a graduate with previous experience in similar projects. 

Well, there are couple of more projects for which we have opportunities about which I would put up in the next few days. 

Those who are interested may please contact me at jeevan@eha-health.org. You could also download the EHA applications from www.eha-health.org. 

Between the devil and the deep blue sea . . .

Of late, we've had been having quite a number of events signifying social unrest in the region. Couple of days before I reached NJH after the RGB and the visit to Kerala, we had a high voltage chase of a truck by a group of gun toting ruffians. 

Sometime earlier, I had done a post on how social unrest causes so much of problems in healthcare. 

And yesterday was one of those days. . . 

I was woken up at around midnight yesterday by our engineer, Dinesh. We've had couple of visitors who were being left back to the Railway Station sometime late in the night. They had encountered a road block put up by possible armed robbers on the way to Daltonganj. Couple of vehicles were already robbed. By God's grace, our guys had a narrow escape. I asked Dinesh to cancel the return trip and come back to hospital. . . 

I went off to sleep. The next call was from Dr. Titus, the doctor on duty. It was about 1 AM. 

There was a lady who was in her second pregnancy. Her previous delivery had occurred by Cesarian section and the family had taken her to the local Primary Health Centre. And they were attempting to deliver her normally since early morning. 

SDD was severely pale. There was no Fetal Heart Sound. On per vaginal examination, she was fully dilated - but the head was high. The liqueur was clear. Ultrasound confirmed that the baby was dead. 

Doing a craniotomy was out of question as the head was not fixed. The problem was with the blood. There were 4 male relatives, but none of their blood groups matched with that of the patient. 

We told them that it would be good to take the patient to Ranchi. 

That was when the discussion turned to the attempted armed robbery on the way from Daltonganj to NJH. The driver was not at all willing to take his vehicle anywhere . . . We tried all the staff we knew for donating blood. All of them had donated blood within the last 2 weeks. . . 

There was only one option. . . to do the surgery under a very high risk. Almost a foolish decision, but the only decision we could take. As we were discussing on other possible options, there was one more patient in emergency. . . 

Another lady with a previous Cesarian in labour since late afternoon . . . RDD also looked pale. However, the baby was alive. . . She took priority over the previous patient. There was no blood for this patient too. . . They were not willing to take the patient further as the word about armed robbers lurking on the highway had spread quite fast and no driver was ready to take any risks. . . 

Titus started off the Cesarian on RDD . . . In no time, he realised that he would need expert help. There were adhesions all around the place. . . Dr Nandamani was fast to come for help. As the surgery got over, Nandamani decided to give one more try to somehow do a craniotomy on SDD . . . However, the relatives denied consent for the craniotomy . . . There was no option, but to go ahead with the Cesarian section . . . 

And oh boy . . .weren't we glad that we did the Cesarian. . . It turned out to be a Rupture Uterus. . .the baby was in the peritoneal cavity. It was quite a surprise. . . However, we had put it as one of the possibilities when we got the risk form signed up. . . 

Of course, there was mismanagement at the place where SDD was initially managed. However, she would have got better and safer management at a higher centre where blood was available. . .

Again, both SDD and RDD could have ended up as Maternal Deaths if we did not do the surgeries under the limited facilities we have . . . 

The spectre of violence looms large in the place. With a very poor monsoon, the possibilities of the law and order becoming more worse is a high . . . Please pray that such events signifying social unrest comes down . . .

Rains . . . We need more . . .

After my last enthusiastic post on rains at NJH, it has been a disappointing time . . . More disappointing because, I'm just back from Kerala where it has been raining quite a lot. . . 

There have been reports that the monsoons have been quite bad this year in quite a number of places. . . Delhi experienced its' first showers only couple of days back. However, the North East has been very badly hit due to floods.

I was quite happy as we drove from Ranchi to NJH on the way from Kerala. There was some really heavy showers . . . 

Unfortunately, the overcast sky has not done justice to us over the last week. There has been some feeble showers. . . But, we need more. . . 

Already, there is a discussion about the possibility of a drought this year. . . 

It could make life difficult. . . 

However, the scattered showers has given some amount of greenery to the campus. Last year, we estimated that we had to spend quite a lot on keeping the campus cleared of shrubs and overgrown vegetation. . . 

Our engineer came up with the idea of getting a handheld machine for clearing overgrown vegetation. A very commonly used machine in the south of the country, we could not get the same here. So, we ended up buying it from Dindigul and I carried it as I returned from Kerala. 

Our maintenance guys are delighted with the machine. 2 reasons - The first one being that it helps to get the work done really fast. The second being that it helps them keep off snakes . . . Last year, one of the workers had a close shave with a viper while cutting the grass with a machete . . . 

Please do pray that we have more rains . . .