ACTIVITIES OF THE TRUST
Contact Email:
bhansalitrust@hotmail.com
640-646, Panchratna, Mama Parmanand Marg, Mumbai -4.
Tel. No. 2363 2235 / 2361 1921 Fax. No. 2363 4293
640-646, Panchratna, Mama Parmanand Marg, Mumbai -4.
Tel. No. 2363 2235 / 2361 1921 Fax. No. 2363 4293
Bhansali
Trust is a Public Charitable Trust registered at Bombay in the year 1969 and
has since been carrying out various activities in Medical, Educational, Income
generation, De-addiction and other Socio-Economic fields, we have also carried
out various relief projects during natural calamities. Most of the Trust
projects are carried out with family funds, while natural calamity relief
projects are carried out with funds from Diamond trade and friendsThe Trust has 610 full time and 1724 part time staff. Here is a list of our various ongoing projects in different fields:
A.
HEALTH INSTITUTIONS
1. Gandhi Lincoln
Hospital, Deesa:
Trust runs multidisciplinary 220 bedded hospital in Deesa (District -
Banaskantha) since 1982. Hospital has special departments of pediatrics,
gynecology, orthopedics, Pathology, Radiology, ENT, Psychiatry and ophthalmic
in addition to medical and surgical departments. The hospital has its own
Blood bank and fully equipped laboratory. Sonography and X-ray facilities are
also available. 2. Woman, Child & General hospital, Radhanpur : - 55 bedded Hospital for Woman, child and general services at Radhanpur started in 1983. Hospital has 2 Gynecologists (M.D), 2 Pediatricians (M.D) and 3 Medical Officers (M.B.B.S). This hospital covers 200 surrounding villages and patients are treated with minimum fees. More than 2400 deliveries and 150 operations are carried out at the hospital, every year. X-ray, Sonography, Medical Stores, Ambulance and Food services for indoor patients are some of the facilities available at the hospital. One blood-bank is also functioning at the hospital.
3. Diagnostic Center at Ahmedabad: This Center was established in the year 1965. Around 12 to 15 doctor were providing their service here. Since last 5 years activities at this center has been reduced to outdoor consulting only.
4. Sahyog Dispensary and diagnostic center - Surat: This center was started in 1975. Presently 12 doctors are providing their services at this center.
5. Jivanshaili Clinic - Surat: Jivanshaili Clinic was started in 1997 at Surat for prevention and treatment of lifestyle disorders (like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure) with the help of diet, exercise, yoga, de-addiction and rational use of drugs. 7 books and 15 booklets in Gujarati; and 3 books in Hindi have been published by the clinic. In addition to full-time physician, full-time ophthalmologist and a dentist are also appointed at this clinic. Moreover honorary doctors of all major specialty provide their service once or twice a week.
B.
OPERATIVE CAMPS
1. Free Eye Camp at
Bodhgaya, Bihar:
Since 1984 every year Bhansali Trust organizes a big eye camp at Bodhgaya town
of Bihar State with the help of 40 Ophthalmologists, 100 nursing staff and 300
volunteers. The preparation for this camp starts in August, with team of
doctors and workers who visit 2000 villages and check around 55000 patients. Of
these 55000 patients, those require surgery are called to attend the eye camp
in November. So far 239967 cataract operations have been carried out in 20 such
camps. Lodging and boarding facilities for this camp, along with expenses for
surgeries and medicines are free to the patients. In the last camp held
in November 2004 & March 2005, total 23057 cataracts and other Eye
Surgeries were carried out. Bhansali Trust carries out this project in
partnership with two other friends in diamond trade.2.
Eye camps and clinics at other places:
In addition to the big eye camp at Bihar, Trust regularly runs eye clinics at
Tharad, Danta, and Khedbrahma where ophthalmologist visits once a week. We have
a fully equipped unit with all equipments needed for operation, tents, and
indoor facilities. 8 months in a year cataract operation camps in Gujarat,
Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh are arranged. So far 62,556 cataract surgeries
have been carried out in these small camps. Special Camps for squint corrections
have also been arranged at Deesa hospital.3. Other Operative Camps: (1) At Gandhi Lincoln Hospital and other institutes, Trust periodically arranges operative camps for the benefit of disabled. Polio corrective surgery camps are arranged with the help of Polio Foundation. (2) Operative camp for cleft lip and cleft palate have also been arranged 3 times with the help of world famous team of Operation Smile (USA). So far 565 patients have been operated successfully.
C.
COMMUNITY Health Programs
2. Supplementary nutrition: Reduction in Malnourished children from 10% to 4% could be achieved in last ten years through supplementary nutrition to preschool children, pregnant and lactating women in aanganwadis run by Bhansali Trust under ICDS.
3. Vitamin A & prevention of Blindness: - Our project area being a drought prone area, most of the population suffers from Vitamin A deficiency. This causes night blindness in many cases, also some of them go blind. Every year the Trust distributes 300,000 capsules of Vitamin A (200,000 I.U.). With continued efforts for last 10 years there are no new cases of childhood blindness in 400 villages.
4. Safe motherhood program: In the remote villages a cadre of Rural Health Workers has been created by the Trust to provide antenatal services and to vaccinate pregnant mothers and children. Health education is imparted and important issues of emergency obstetric care are also discussed by the workers during their field visits. One worker serves 10 villages. Every year approx. 20,000 pregnant mothers are covered under this project. Maternal mortality has been reduced significantly after continued efforts.
5. Dais (Traditional birth attendants) Training Programme: 975 Traditional birth attendants from 588 villages have been trained so far. This has helped to reduce the maternal mortality rate. We have a plan to train another 700 such birth attendants.
6. Spacing & Family Planning: The rural population in our area is socially backward and hence it was very difficult to convince various orthodox communities to go for spacing and family planning. Working in this area for more than 20 years, we have been able to bring a positive change in the society. In last one year through Bhansali Trust’s efforts, 2922 women were operated with laparoscopic surgery method by Dr. P. V. Mehta from Bombay. So far totally 8066 women were operated in last 4 years.
7. Primary health care by paramedical workers: In the remote villages where neither any doctor nor any over-the-counter medicine are available even for minor illness, the Trust has started paramedical services so that people can get primary medical care and non-prescription (over the counter) drugs by trained worker in their villages only. 452 part time and 11 full time workers cover 514 villages for treatment of common ailments. Over 450000 patients are treated every year.
8. T.B. (Tuberculosis) control programme: This programme was started in 1984 and covers 1200 villages. Special field-staff of more than 20 for follow up and completion of treatment is a unique part of this program in which over 52544 T.B patients were treated so far with treatment defaulter rate of around 16%. All patients on treatment are followed up at their villages and motivated to complete the course of treatment.
Since January 2005, one treatment unit of RNTCP has been handed over to the Trust, at Radhanpur to provide directly observed treatment to all TB patients of the area covering total population of 436000.
9. Opium De-addiction program: 1100 villages from Gujarat and Rajasthan are covered under this program. 10 workers regularly motivate people to leave opium and not to restart opium once left. So far over 21396 opium addicts have been cured with defaulter (Relapse) rate of 40%.
10. CHAPT (Community Health Awareness, Prevention and Treatment): This program was started in 2004 with aim of preventing chronic and mainly non-communicable illnesses in the villages. Diseases like High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Heart Diseases, Asthma and Cancer are covered under the project. Initial baseline survey revealed approximately 10% combined prevalence of these diseases. Presently, 5 health workers covering 60 villages are working. They check BP and Sugar at field level, give advice regarding healthy lifestyle and refer needy patients to apex hospital. Irregular patients on follow up at hospital are also traced at village level and motivated for regular follow up and treatment. We have a plan to expand this project to another 50 villages by the end of 2005.
11 Salt Workers Integrated development Project: This is a project for the upliftment of Salt workers residing in and around the Little Rann of Katchh. We work mainly for health, education and social field.
D.
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
1. Preschool Education
through Aanganwadi (ICDS
– Integrated Child Development Services):- At present, in North
Gujarat 862 Aanganwadis under the ICDS scheme of Central Government are managed
by Bhansali Trust in Wav, Tharad, Radhanpur, Santalpur, Sami and Harij blocks.
Preschool Education, supplementary nutrition, Immunization and timely referral
of ill child are the major child-related activities of ICDS. Number of school
going children has increased and dropouts reduced due to aanganwadis. In
addition to these Aanganwadis, Government has entrusted us additional 382
Aanganwadis in two tribal blocks namely - Dharampur and Kaprada of Valsad
District in the year 2005.3. Adolescent Girls Awareness Programme:- This is a non-formal education programme in 325 villages. The age group is 10-15 years and the subjects of training are Health, Hygiene, Immunization, Importance of safe drinking water, Family planning, Anemia, Importance of Education, Information about diseases like T.B - Malaria, child development, risk of different vices etc. So far we have trained over 16000 girls under this programme. We have also started Adolescent boys programme in Santalpur block. Recently out-of-school adolescent awareness project and “Ujas Yuva Counseling Centre” has been started at Tharad with help of IPD. 30 animators and two counselors are presently working in 30 villages.
4. Blind students’ education programme: Since 1992, blind and other physically challenged students from over 400 villages are given education with Braille training and sent to normal schools. This is an innovative project for the blind students who live in remote villages and are not able to join blind schools.
5. Aanganwadi Workers' Training Centre: A training centre for Aanganwadi workers (K.G. School Teachers) and helpers has been functional at Radhanpur since 1991.
6. SUVAS Project: To increase (1) Level of education, (2) Acceptance of Family Planning services and (3) De-addiction - especially for tobacco chewing habit. This new program has been started in the year 2000 with one worker per 15 villages. In addition, this project conducts Tuition classes to give some additional educational inputs and some extracurricular activities in different villages. We have a plan to cover 600 villages under this project.
E.
INCOME GENERATING ACTIVITIES
1. Kapas Lodhia: This is a small, hand operated
machine costing approximately Rs. 500 ($10) and is used to separate seeds from
cotton. 350 families have been given this machine to earn some extra money to
support their families.2. Deepening of Wells: In the hilly area, stone wells are deepened with blastings to get more water, this helps them to irrigate their land. So far, 2280 wells in Banaskantha & Sabarkantha and over 5000 wells in Panchmahal district are deepened.
3. Papad: 68 women are employed in this programme.
4. Woolen Carpets: This cottage industry gives employment to 134 women.
5. Sewing Machine: We distribute sewing machines at a subsidized rate to poor and needy women in small villages. This helps them to earn supplementary income. Over 400 sewing machines have been distributed so far.
6. Loans: Poor Families from small villages are given loans so that they can start their own small business. 414 families are covered under this programme.
F.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT & OTHER ACTIVITIES
1. Humanitarian aid to
the needy: Very
poor, needy and hapless families are identified and helped every month without
discrimination of Caste, Creed and Religion. Over 2976 such families are sent
money orders every month under this programme2. Swa-shakti project (Self-help group): 188 self help groups have been formed in 123 villages. These are groups of socially and economically backward women. Each group starts with small savings from all the members every month, then getting some loan from the bank and adding it to the saved amount, they start giving loans (micro-credit) to the members who want to start a small business. The other aspect of this project is to bring awareness among the group members about health, hygiene, education, immunization, de-addiction etc. The Trust has a plan to start another 150 such groups this year.
Similar project named “Shakti Samanvay Yojana” has been launched in 42 villages of Tharad forming 150 self help groups.
