The Tribe

Today I went with the mobile van to the village of Nagapura, which sprang into existence when the Indian government incentivized a forest tribe into a different way of life (i.e. asked them to leave the forest) about eight years ago.  Aside from the incredible shift in environment the tribe has had to deal with discrimination and a significant change in health care systems.  The government provides a stipend of food, land, money and social workers to help integrate these new comers into society.  Prenana and PHRII try to begin the transition into hospital based antenatal and general health care, but the cultural divide and discrimination faced in certain communities present a significant barrier.  Today I observed ten women getting group and individual counseling about their pregnancies and blood, urine, and self administered vagina swab tests to test for diabetes, kidney disease, and various infections.  I hope to be able to do more than observe soon.  I also heard troubling stories of two month old infants dying in their second month since they have moved to the village, maybe because of yellow foul smelling breast milk, but no one really knows why.  Overall though I think Prenana is doing a good job of bringing health resources to a community that has difficulty understanding and accessing them on its own.

Here's the group counseling session.

This is the testing station (I'm in the orange leggings)

 Later that night we went to a good restaurant to say farewell to Dwijavanthi, who is leaving for Bangalore tomorrow.  We had a lot of fun.

Left to Right:  Me, Dwijavanthi, Vania, Julien