MEDHAVI: Combining Education of Children with Health and Nutrition

Children health and nutritional status has a direct bearing on nation building. Poor health and nutritional levels during early childhood and adolescence, recurring bouts of illness, may lead to stunted growth and act as a barrier to achievement of academic excellence. Promoting healthy practices during adolescence, and taking steps to better protect young people from health risks are critical for the prevention of health problems in adulthood, is important for countries’ future health and social infrastructure.

The leading causes of illness and death among adolescents and young adults are largely preventable. Health outcomes for adolescents and young adults are grounded in their social environments and are frequently mediated by their behaviours. The behaviour of young people is influenced at the individual, peer, family, school, community, and societal levels by various factors. The financial burdens of preventable health problems are large and include long-term costs of chronic diseases which are a result of behavioural glitches which begun to show during adolescence. A comprehensive child healthcare programme assuring health education and nutrition services for children is needed to address the 4 Ds of Diseases, Deficiencies, Disability and Developmental delays. Poor nutrition affects the cognitive and emotional development of the child. It is seen that the under-nourished children find difficulty in maintaining attentiveness and this hampers their academic performance.

Visamo adapts an integrated approach towards combating malnutrition to improve health and nutrition status of the kids at the parentage home, to ensure that the kids attain optimum academic achievement in a secured and wholesome environment.

The strategies are:

1. Hot meals (three times a day)

2. Nutritional supplements

3. Health screening (annually)

4. Referral system

5. Socio-psycho counselling services

6. BMI screening and monitoring

7. Sports (outdoors and indoors)

8. Life skill training programmes

9. Self defence classes

10. Supplementary Education at Visamo

Visamo was initiated in 2002, as a response to the killer earthquake of 2001. It started with 18 kids affected or displaced/dropped out of education due to the earthquake in Gujarat.

Till date, around 35+ kids have completed their stay of 12 years at Visamo and moved out of the home after finishing Class XII studies from their respective schools.

We have groomed kids to help them take up higher studies and pursue jobs in different sectors. Ashish, son of salt pan workers, has completed engineering studies and is currently working in real estate company at Bengaluru. Chandni, daughter of a single mother, is working in e-Infochips after completing ECS. Sanjay Parmar is in his final year of college, in the premiere design institute, NID, Ahmedabad. He was a child rag picker. Gayatri Chavda serves at Domino's as the Customer Delight Manager, after completing hotel management from IHM, Ahmedabad. Her mother is a housekeeping staff in an office.

Our students are foraying into the world of social work. Kajal Sonawane, a graduate in Psychology is currently pursuing maters in Social Work at the premiere institute, TISS, Mumbai. Her mother is a housemaid in Surat.

Arpit Gamit, a tribal kid, has cleared CLAT and got admission in Raipur National Law University. His parents are farmers.

We have groomed national level basket/volley ball players.

Visamo is building lives of kids who in turn are making a difference by giving back to the society.