On Wednesday our team met with AmeriCares India, a
non-profit organization making a remarkable impact on the health of people living
in urban slums in Bombay. In 2009 they were voted the best NGO in India, and
when you’re in competition with some 3 million NGOs, that’s quite a title to
earn!
|
AmeriCares sign |
Their work focuses around three main pillars: medical commodity
assistance, disaster response and preparedness, and mobile medical units.
Perhaps what I enjoyed most about this site visit was that we were assigned a
task that would greatly benefit the AmeriCares team: a mapping exercise.
Because many of India’s slums are so densely populated in such a haphazard
fashion, it is exceedingly difficult to be able to monitor and evaluate
population coverage of various medical services. Therefore, the GW cohort broke
up into three different groups and set out with AmeriCares staff members to map
the Chandivili Pipeline area of a slum in Andheri East.
|
GW team and AmeriCares staff preparing to head out for the mapping exercise |
My team consisted of
five members: myself, Dr. Vyas (one of the two GW professors on our trip), our
teaching assistant Nitasha, Dr. Seema Peterson (one of the doctors from Americares) and one
other AmeriCares staff member. Let’s just call us the Fab 5 (Olympic
gymnastics, anyone?). We were assigned to map out the first section of the slum
by identifying lanes, bylanes, and sub-bylanes and within those lanes, counting
the number of doors. We also noted any landmarks that might be useful such as
corner stores, latrines, temples, etc… It wasn’t the most scientific operation
considering we used pencils and papers, but I think we did a pretty good job!
|
Working on the map |
While
we were walking around, we stopped into one of AmeriCares medical centers and
got to meet the staff members who were treating a line of people that formed at the
door. They use laptops to log patient information and each patient has a unique
14-digit number used for tracking (similar to a social security number). All of
the services are free. The map we produced will help them to better track their
services within the community.
|
The Fab 5 in one of the AmeriCares medical centers |
As far as slums are concerned, this was by far the nicest
one I’ve visited. The streets were mostly laid with brick or stone and the
houses had sturdy foundation. Now, don’t get me wrong, this was still a slum
with trash mounds aplenty and poor access to potable water, among many other
noticeable problems, but as I would learn later in the week, it could have been
much worse. People also seemed highly interested in what we were doing,
inquiring about the purpose of our survey. There were satellites scattered
about the streets, a sign that televisions were likely to be found in many of
the homes; everyone seemed to have a cell phone. Being the only white person on
the Fab 5 team, I stuck out a little and seemed to get some lingering stares
and waves from many residents. It’s not often that they get a freckle-faced
girl from the States parading around their neighborhood! So, I just waved back
with a smile, which seemed to excite many of the children. All three groups
wrapped up their work and returned to the AmeriCares office for some lunch and
discussion.
|
Community water pump |
Over lunch, we learned more about some of the high-tech
medical devices that they are in the process of piloting and my mind was blown!
They are testing out a machine in which a person is identified either by their
fingerprint or by face-screen recognition technology. Usually these devices
are used for security (like in those crazy Jason Borne movies). Here, they are
using it to better healthcare! Using a cloud-based computing system allows AmeriCares
to track people and communities over time to identify health trends. I mean,
wow! They also use a texting system, which reminds people on their cell phones about upcoming
appointments or when to take their medications. I’d say this pretty much
defines cutting-edge, especially given the environmental context in which they
work.
After picking our jaws up from the floor, stunned from the
technological devices, we returned back to the hotel, rested a bit and then
prepared for dinner. Unfortunately, several students fell ill with some sort of
stomach bug, so by the time dinner rolled around only five of us remained (plus
our professors and TA). We piled into two taxis and after getting lost for a
bit, arrived at the home of Fiona, a volunteer for the Society of Nutrition,
Education and Health Action (SNEHA), where our group would visit on Friday. She
had a beautiful home and graciously cooked dinner for our whole team. It was a
feast! We ate with her and her family and got a sneak peek into some of SNEHA’s
work. She talked in-depth about one of their many programs. One in
particular employs women living in urban slums by collecting leftover scraps of
fabric from local stores, training women on how to sew, and providing them with
warehouse space, thus enabling them to create handbags, quilts and rugs. These
products are then sold and the women earn up to four times their average
monthly salaries throughout the process. This project epitomizes social
entrepreneurship and the products were beautiful and exquisitely crafted! As a
part of this course, we have to write a business plan using a social entrepreneurial model, and mine will focus on
getting their products more widely marketed. I am thrilled to take on this
task! We visited the warehouse later in the week. More on that to follow…
|
Feasting at Fiona's! |