Telangana

Primary Healthcare

Kothegudum Project

Rural Hope Foundation Hospital:

In partnership with Rural Hope Foundation, AID India, Nutcracker, Karuna Trust is working in remote tribal inhabitations of Bhadradri, Kothegum district in Telangana. The project focusses on 4 main components

Management of Gattumalla Health Clinic:

Primary health care includes Preventive, Promotive and Curative care at Gattumalla village for 51 tribal habitations as well as 39,184 populations in the Lakshmidevi Pally mandal. Aiming to deliver good services including diagnosis and management of communicable and noncommunicable diseases at health clinic in Gattumalla village, Laxmidevi pally mandal. A medical officer is needed to run this health clinic.

Mobile Medical Bikes & Community Health Worker:

Considering the poor health seeking behaviour among the tribes and the inaccessibility of the tribal habitations, Mobile Medical Bikes are the most appropriate to take health care closer to the population.

Two community health workers (CHW) are trained and deployed to cover the 24 tribal habitations. Each community health worker would cover a cluster of habitations. These will be stationed at a central location within the cluster and cover all the habitations on a regular basis. The CHW would offer comprehensive primary health care, antenatal profile check-up as part of MCH program on the field and refer patients to the higher centre for further management as required.

Nutrition Powder supplement and Growth Monitoring:

Malnutrition & Anaemia are major challenges faced by the children, pregnant women and lactating women in these tribal habitations. To help them overcome this, nutrition powder supplement was introduced which has mixture of 5 ingredients i.e. Roasted Groundnuts, Bengal gram flour, Wheat flour, Jowar flour & Jaggery powder. First four ingredients are roasted to make it more palatable & easily digestible. This Nutrition powder is prepared at a preparation unit in regalla village, Laxmidevipallymandal.

In 11 habitations, there is a need for nutritional powder supplements for 350 members, including 288 children, 30 pregnant women, and 32 lactating women. Spot feeding of nutritional powder will be carried out by Community Health Workers (CHWs) or community resource persons in these 11 habitations daily, ensuring that the members consume 70 grams of nutritional supplement powder each day (2100 grams per month per person)

Anaemia study and growth monitoring of children will be done by our team once in 6 months. Growth monitoring will include height, weight & MUAC (Mid Upper Arm Circumference)

Education:

Bridge schools/Anganwadi:

In the interior habitations as there are no anganwadi centres or schools, to fill this gap we have initiated bridge schools (Anganwadi) where children get basic education & mid-day meal. Mid-day meal will be prepared by chef/aaya. There is a need for 2 bridge schools in Ontigudesa and Gaddigutta tribal habitations. After identifying potential students we motivate them to join into mainstream schools.

Mobile Medical Unit

The MMU initiative extends its services to 28 remote tribal habitations in Bhadradri Kothagudem district, Telangana state. These habitations lack basic amenities such as safe drinking water, electricity, roads, and schools. The tribal communities resort to traditional practices and superstitions for health issues, resulting in elevated infant and maternal mortality rates. Limited connectivity and a lack of healthcare providers further impede access to essential health services.

The MMU Team aims to address these challenges through the following interventions:

1. Providing comprehensive primary healthcare on-site and facilitating referrals to PHCs/higher centers when necessary.
2. Conducting antenatal checkups for pregnant women in these habitations.
3. Implementing Home-Based Newborn Care (HBNC) initiatives.
4. Offering doorstep investigations, including tests for hemoglobin, GRBS, pregnancy confirmation, urine analysis for sugar/protein, HIV, HBsAg, and VDRL.

The overarching motto of the MMU initiative is to deliver healthcare at the doorstep, ensuring the safety of maternal and child health. The primary objectives include reducing mortality rates, identifying high-risk cases early, and enhancing health awareness through outreach programs in the covered mandals: Laxmidevipally, Palvancha, Chunchupally, Chandrugonda, Mulkapalli, Burgampad, and Sarapaka.