Save the child : Health & Nutrition

We’re in the business of ensuring that children grow up healthy and enjoy a happy childhood.

Even today, almost 5 lakh children in India die before their first birthday. Every 20 seconds, a child under five years of age dies. And most of these deaths occur due to preventable and treatable causes such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.

It’s this utterly sad situation which firms our resolve to provide robust health and nutrition benefits to children and save lives. Almost 50% of our work for children is done in the area of Health & Nutrition. In different states of India, we’re passionately working to improve the health and nutrition status of newborns, mothers, and expecting women with special focus on those coming from the most disadvantaged communities.

Following are the areas we work in:

Child Survival

Newborn Health

Maternal Health

Nutrition

Health and Nutrition of Children Affected by Emergencies and Natural Disaster

WASH – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Healthcare Which Save Lives

We go by the mantra that No Child is Born to Die. That is why we have projects in several states of India which are aimed at increasing the chances of survival of children between the ages of 0-5 years, reducing levels of malnutrition among them and improving newborn and maternal health. For example, through Project Karuna, we’ve been helping malnourished children in rural Varanasi leave behind a life of malnutrition and become healthy. In the urban slums of Delhi, we run Mobile Health Units which take healthcare to the doorsteps of the urban poor.

Our newly launched, ‘Stop Diarrhoea Initiative’ will tackle diarrhoea (the second biggest killer of children under 5) and related issues among the most vulnerable children in the urban slums of Delhi and rural areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

In 2014, 4.29 lakh children benefitted through our healthcare programmes

In all of this, we work engage heavily with the local community. We also work with state and district level government authorities, schools and Aanganwadi Centres. The Community Health Workers (CHWs) we train and work with form the backbone of our healthcare initiatives. To improve the hygiene and nutrition behaviour of the communities we work with and to inculcate the habits of healthy living, are among the ultimate aims of all our Health & Nutrition programmes.