Maitri helps to curb malnutrition in Melghat

A group of city-based activists in Pune are determined to stop the alarming rate of child mortality among an Adivasi tribe due to malnutrition in the Melghat region of Vidarbha.
   
The goal of the volunteers drawn from all walks of life and working under the umbrella of "Maitri", a social organisation, is to ensure that not a single child succumbs to death during the monsoon which renders the children population of the "Korku" tribe more vulnerable to malnutriton related
diseases.
   
"According to Maharashtra government estimate, about one hundred children per thousand births fail to attain the age of five in Melghat due to malnutrition. We have decided to prevent these unfortunate deaths in the 47 villages to be covered by our volunteers during this monsoon season with a 89
-day campaign which commenced on July 20 and will continue till October 16," said Jayashree Shidore, the cooridnating activist of "Maitri" which has taken up various social causes since its formation in 1997.
    
The campaign launched by "Maitri" activists will cover about 6,000 children below age of five in the 47 villages which registered deaths of as many as 71 children during the last monsoon.

Those who can spare a thought and time for the underprivileged population of Melghat had been enrolling themselves to go to the remote place and work there in batches for a ten-day period, an exercise that would continue
till October 16, signalling the end of the rainy season.
    
"The volunteers come from all fields including medical and college students, IT sector professionals, senior citizens, and housewives who want to contribute to the cause of reducing the infant mortality by organising help for the poverty-stricken families whose joy of having children is short-lived", Shidore said.
    
Elaborating on the scourge of malnutrition from which the Korku population is suffering and which has made headlines in Maharashtra with hot debates in the state legislature, Shidore said, "there is no point in ad hoc distribution of nutritious food stuff. We are concentrating on a health awareness and
education campaign for the affected population among which ignorance is taking its toll leading to an unhealthy lifestyle".
    
It is a common sight to come across children with sunken eyes and bloated stomach in Melghat. And even if you do not see children with these typical malnutriton symptoms and feature, those who look healthy could be suffering from an equally worrisome protein deficiency which can go undetected.
    
"We start with imparting basic health education and our volunteers even give a demonstration of how to take a clean bath and ensure personal hygiene. The nursing mothers are told how to wean away breastfed children to make them start proper nutrituous food necessary for normal growth," she added.
 
"When rivers, nullahs and rivulets flood during the monsoon, making communication difficult in reaching the disease stricken children to hospitals for emergency treatment, the "Maitri" activist try to bridge the gaps by stepping forward to help the families and prevent avoidable deaths of children," Shidore said, adding that the volunteers carry their own
stocks of food and cook for themselves in a self-sufficient mission to fight the curse of malnutrition without depending on any government machinery.
    
"The Maitri activists are told to befriend the Adivasis and mingle with  them without delivering dry sermons. Every batch that returns after the stipulated ten day period of work, gives its feedback to the next batch of volunteers to
make the mission more effective in achieving its goal and offering the much needed relief to the Korku families living in abysmal conditions," Shidore, one of the pioneers of the Maitri campaign said.h