Community Health Initiative (CHI)

In CHI, as with its other projects, the IIF is pursuing its health development goals in close partnership with the government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other civil society organisations. Its strategy focuses on securing cooperation and commitment from the local people, educational institutions, community organisations ( mahila mandals, panchayats, etc), and District and State level authorities. CHI uses a variety of communication-based approaches to meet its objective of reducing, by one-half, the incidence of disabilities and reversing, also by one-half, existing disabilities.

The key premise of the programme is that many disabilities can be prevented - among them: infant mortality, maternal mortality, the probability of dying before the age of 5, malnutrition and the stunting of children under the age of 5, immunisation levels, iodine and vitamin A deficiency, acute respiratory infection, infant dehydration, and low birth height and weight. To this end, CHI is stressing efforts for community participation in reduction of waterborne diseases, and the production of appropriate food. IIF’s activities include surgery to correct vision and hearing deficiencies and at least the partial reversal of handicaps arising from polio and cleft lips and palates.

Health education and publicity are major elements of CHI, including extensive use of media, posters, radio, television, and information technology (IT). IT will also be used to facilitate the programme’s operations. The integrated software programmes developed for another of IIF’s projects (the Lifeline Express) are being applied to this project. This software covers records of patients, doctors, treatment, control of materials, inventories, as well as human resource management, financial planning, and appraisal systems.

As part of the programme planning, field surveys were undertaken in Maharashtra. In addition, workshops were held. Visits were also made to several areas in Maharashtra to determine the areas of greatest need.

Disability, Health, Immunisation & Vaccines, Nutrition.

According to IIF, “There are over 90 million disabled in India. The incidence of death arising from these disabilities is very high even in comparison with other developing Asian countries”. In 1981, health statistics showed that 50% of all disabilities were preventable. Established 2 years later, IIF is focused on the prevention and correction of disabilities. Following a Resolution of the U.N. General Assembly, IIF is sponsored, but not financially funded, by the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and UNICEF.

A related IIF project is the Lifeline Express (LLE), a fully equipped hospital housed in 4 railway coaches. LLE has 3 operating tables on which approximately 70,000 surgeries have been performed and 400,000 persons in remote parts of rural India have been treated. This project concentrates on restoring mobility to those disabled by polio, hearing to the deaf, vision to the blind, and normal appearance to those with cleft lips or palates, all without any cost to the beneficiaries.