Jeevan Daan "Gift of Life" Child Survival Program

This project closed on September 30, 2009. To read more about the project's successes, click on the Feature Stories to the right, or read "Jeevan Daan Program Wraps Up in India." We also invite you to read about our current projects in India.

Counterpart International (Counterpart) has been working with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)/Ministry of Health and local organizations, such as Sachetna and Saath, to provide culturally sensitive health messages, education, social networks and support groups since 2000.

The Jeevan Daan program, which means the 'gift of life,' is aptly named – it helps keep children in India's urban slums alive through their most vulnerable early years, not an easy task with risks such as tuberculosis, malnutrition and respiratory disease killing more than 7 percent of children under the age of five in the region (UNICEF, 2007).
 

The program has two goals:

1. to reduce maternal, new born and infant mortality and morbidity; and 
2. to strengthen the capacity of partnering agencies to implement maternal and child survival activities.

The objectives of the program are to:

• Improve household knowledge and practice related to improved maternal and child health, 
• Enhance the capacity of the community to form organizations to sustain health initiatives, 
• Improve quality and accessibility of AMC services and 
• Strengthen the capacity of partner organizations to plan, implement, and evaluate MCS programs.

With theater and songs, Jeevan Daan community health workers bring the message of sound nutrition and healthy childrearing to families in 10 urban slum areas of Ahmedabad in Gujarat State, India. 

The major causes of child mortality in India are poor neonatal care, premature births, diarrhea and preventable diseases such as pneumonia, tetanus and measles. Additional factors include low birth weight, malnutrition,

repeated infections and poor access to health care.

Technical Interventions:

• Immunizations
• Controlling Diarrhea 
• Pneumonia Case Management 
• Nutrition and Breastfeeding
• Maternal and Newborn Care

Key Strategies:

• Establishing Community Health Teams to improve individual and family health behavior and caretaking practices 
• Mobilizing community women to become volunteer Community Health Team members
• Using behavior change communications that include drama, puppetry and songs
• Providing an effective and locally appropriate venue for disseminating health messages
• Running Positive Deviance Hearths to sustainably rehabilitate malnourished children under the age of 2

Jeevan Daan staff and volunteers visit homes, conduct educational workshops and use puppetry, rallies, animation and posters to deliver health messages to around 230,000 people in slum pockets across India. Messages educate on simple health promotion behaviors as well as encouraging care-seeking practices during pregnancy, after childbirth, and when serious illness arises. Jeevan Daan serves as the link between community members and government and private service providers, increasing utilization as well as demand for better-quality and adequate services in the community.

To learn more about Counterpart's Jeevan Daan Child Survival Program, please read the following feature stories:
Counterpart Earns "Best NGO Gold Medal" Award

Living Longer, India Poor Seek More Credit

A Mother's Hope: Success in Ahmedabad

Or visit Counterpart's Jeevan Daan home page.

Photos: © Counterpart International.