Dr. Hema Mehta and Dr. Rajesh Mehta recently facilitated a Mahila Arogya Talim organised by Gram Swaraj Sangh. This heath awareness program is conducted every 6 to 8 months. The program aims to increase women’s awareness about health. The underlying belief is that they have the power to change the lifestyle of the entire household.
In the image to the left, Dharmendra Bhai (GSS program manager) is addressing the women. The session saw many women who had participated before and some new faces as well.
Dr. Hema Mehta is talking to the women about nutritious food like sargva (drumsticks), amla, aakra, neem and different vegetables that they can grow in their kitchen garden. This has become important as the community in this region is malnourished and deficient in several nutrition and vitamins due to lack of variety in their diet.
Dr. Rajesh Mehta is explaining how women can solve their health issues by making few changes in their lifestyle.
Community learning healthy habits with fun action and rhymes.
Changing The Diet
Dr. Hema Mehta guiding women to cook quick and easy nutritious food.
Lakhsmi preparing akrava ka peda. It is beneficial in building immunity against malaria which is widespread in Rapar because of wild acacia.
Women preparing hibiscus syrup that has cooling effect on body. This syrup can be stored for quite a long duration. To turn this into drink one can simply add a glass of water with few drops of lemon juice and spice as per taste.
Kusum ben preparing batter for making candies. The batter is made using Jaggery, milk khoa (mawa) and sugar, etc.
Women making candies. These candies would harden after a while and one can place it in their mouth for long periods of time. These candies help maintain insulin dips.
Check-ups And Tests
Dr. Rajesh Mehta conducting a non invasive vitamin A deficiency test with bright vision detector. The Bright Vision Detector is a portable device that detects vitamin A deficiency without blood samples, providing results in 5-10 minutes at Rs. 100 per test. It is safe, easy to use with minimal training, and has low setup and running costs. Unlike traditional tests, it is faster, more affordable, and requires no specialised personnel or infrastructure.
We conducted the test on the women attending the training session. Vitamin A deficiency was very common among the women in this region. This has caused many eyesight related issues among the women. Women with high vitamin A deficiency took a dose of Vitamin A.
Dr. Rajesh Mehta showing self assessment test kit for haemoglobin deficiency. To conduct this test, one can compare the colour of their tongue with the colour in the chart using a mirror. This is a great initiative to diagnose haemoglobin deficiency among girls and women, since they avoid going to doctors or to give their blood sample for test. This maybe due to fear of needle or the hesitation in visiting the doctor.
Mahila Arogya Talim concluding on the note that women will adopt the wisdom shared during the training session in their daily life.
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