Mittur High School Camp
REPORT: MITTUR
CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Health
Hb testing
Medical Screening
Points to be noted
3. Education
Spoken English
Science Park
INTRODUCTION
Mr. R. S. Kalawar, a retired engineer with the Indian Railways, recently developed a concept of providing lighting (LED lamps) to rural homes to incentivize parents to send their children to school on a day to day basis.
On July 10, 2010, one set of 15 LED lamps with associated Solar PV based peripherals were given away to 15 BPL Merit Oriented students of standard X, out of 72 in the class. The school is located at village Mittur, Taluk Mulbagal.
Mulbagal is a town and Taluk headquarters of Mulbagal Taluk in the Kolar district in the state of Karnataka, India. It lies just off the National Highway 4. Mulbagilu has been taken from the word Mudalabagilu which means the eastern-door in the native Kannada language. Mulbagal is the birth place of famous literature D.V.Gundappa, well known by his Manku Timmana Kagga. Retired Lokaayukta Chief Mr.Venkatachalaiah was born in this Taluk.
Dr Jagadish, a Bangalore based Biotechnology expert belongs to this village. He built the school that is managed by the Govt of Karnataka.
Mr. Kalawar approached Youth for Seva and asked for their help in carrying out various projects for the benefit of the school children and the village alike.
YFS responded positively, and on 2-10-2010, a group of volunteers visited the school. The purpose of the visit was to conduct Hb testing & Medical checkup of the students and to do a need analysis of the requirements in that particular school in the areas of Health, Education and Environment.
Given below is a report on the activities conducted during our visit, a study of the present needs at that school, and ideas on how Youth for Seva can help this project.
HEALTH:
123 children in the age group of 13-15 years have been tested for their Hb level and a general medical screening was also done.
Overall, it can be said that the health of the children was quite satisfactory, especially in comparison with the children at Government schools in Bangalore.
Given below is a report on the parameters tested during the Hb testing & Medical screening.
Volunteers Present – Dr.Pallavi Kamat, Mrs. Vyjayanti, Mrs Rama, Ms. Ranjini, Ms. Sinu
Number of Students screened – 123
HB TESTING:
| GIRLS:
Total number of girls tested for Anemia = 78 girls Age = 13 to 15 years (8th to 10th std)
Normal                      = 1 (12 – 14 gm %) Mild Anemia             = 50 (10 – 12 gm %) Moderate Anemia     = 27 (8 – 10 gm %) Severe Anemia          = 0 (<8 gm %) |
BOYS:
Total number of boys tested for Anemia = 45 boys Age = 13 to 15 years (8th to 10th std) Normal                      = 39 (12 – 14 gm %) Mild Anemia             = 6 (10 – 12 gm %) Moderate Anemia     = 0 (8 – 10 gm %) Severe Anemia          = 0 (<8 gm %) |
MEDICAL SCREENING:
| GIRLS:
Total number of girls screened = 78 Age = 13 to 15 years (8th to 10th std) Lice                            =         15 Malnourished            =         6 Eye problems            =         18 Skin Problems            =         12 ENT Problems =         10 Dental                                    =         32 Frequent Stomach Ache =     13 Leg pain                     =         2 Tiredness                    =         24 Dizziness / Fainting    =         4 Serious Breathlessness =        1 Repeated Hospitalization =   2 Frequent Headaches  =         22 Attained Puberty       =         43 |
BOYS:
Total number of boys screened = 49 Age = 13 to 15 years (8th to 10th std) Eye problems            =         5 Skin Problems            =         10 ENT Problems =         7 Dental                                    =         10 Frequent Stomach Ache =     4 Leg pain                     =         6 Tiredness                    =         8 Dizziness / Fainting    =         3 Hospitalization           =         2 Frequent Headaches  =         5 Persistant Fever          =         1 Chest pain                  =         2 |
MEDICINES GIVEN FOR:
- Headache = 18 children
- Cold & Cough = 3 children
- Stomach Pain = 1 child
- Ear Pain = 4 children
- Dysmennorhea = 1 child
POINTS TO BE NOTED:
Hb Testing:
None of the children tested showed results of severe anemia. However, the children with mild & moderate anemia & even the children who seemed normal could be given iron tablets. The dosage could be as follows:
Hb 8-10 g% –3 tablets(20g) twice a week, maybe on every Monday & Thursday
Hb 10-12 gm % –3 tablets once a week may be every Monday
Hb > 12 gm % – No tablets required
We have already handed over the de-worming tablets to the school authorities and instructions have been given to make the children consume 1 Albendezol immediately, and the 2nd Albendezol a week later, after which the iron tablets could be distributed, and their consumption monitored.
Sanitation:
Problem: Although the high school has 78 girls & 45 boys, there was no bathroom/toilet present. Most girls would be either absent or return home at noon, especially during their menstrual period due to the absence of toilets. This is a serious problem which comes in the way of their education, not to mention hygiene aspects as well when we consider the fact that boys & girls probably use open spaces to relieve themselves during school hours.
Possible Options: The health team at YFS could take this up as one of its fundraising initiatives and look into the possibility of constucting a seperate toilet for boys & girls at this school.
We could begin by sending a team which could study the availability of water, etc and give us a quote on the cost involved to build toilets at the school. Once that is done, we could approach corporates or individual donors and raise funds for the construction of toilets.
For the girl’s toilet, we could consider a model similar to what was done in Chennai, but more environment friendly (At a school in Chennai, a group of people constructed a women friendly toilet at a high school with facilities for disposal of sanitary pads using incinerators)
Dental:
Problem: Majority of the children screened had yellow, stubborn stains on their teeth which was quite unappealing, cosmetically speaking.
Reason: On speaking with a dentist from the YFS health team, the reason for this was said to be the presence of a high amount of flouride in the water. This is apparantly a known cause of stained teeth among the people at Kolar, which has a lot of rock salts. The dentist also explained that this is only a cosmetic problem, and has no impact on the Oral health of the children.
Solution: The stains in the teeth can be removed by the process of bleaching or veneering (this is done free of cost by the dental colleges in Bangalore who have partnered with the YFS health team). However, a long term solution would be to reduce / remove the flouride content in the water that is being used for drinking purpose at Mittur. The dentists suggested that we approach the government which does de-flouridification of water for places like Kolar.
Other Health Aspects:
We should study the possibility of bringing to Bangalore those children who require a specialist’s treatment – eye, skin, ENT & dental.
Alternately, we could speak with the local doctor and find ways to bring the specialists to Mittur & provide necessary treatment at the village or nearby town.
For the children with Lice (15 girls), Perlice lotion could be bought & instructions given on usage for the child & family members.
While interacting with the girls who have started menstruation, we found that majority of the girls do use sanitary pads despite the cost factor. However, the children & their mothers need to be educated about correct disposal practises. Though we did individually educate the girls, we should consider having an awareness talk along with their mothers as well. Focus must be on environmental friendly disposal methods.
EDUCATION:
Spoken English
Even before visitng the school, we had suggested the idea of training the teachers on how to teach Spoken English. The response was very positive and we were told to go ahead with it. However, due to time constraints, we were unable to make it happen.
Possible Options:
Option 1: Train the teachers to teach Spoken English during the next visit.
Option 2: Engage YFS’s weekend volunteers in this project.
Majority of volunteers at YFS prefer to teach during weekends (Saturday & Sunday), and often we are unable to connect them to weekend projects in Bangalore. As a result, they loose interest and become inactive volunteers.
The school at Mittur will soon initiate evening classes, and it might be a good idea to send a bunch of YFS volunteers to teach over the weekend. Given that it is only a 2.5 hour journey, and the fact that some volunteers have already expressed a desire to teach in rural areas, we should consider this as an option.
Volunteers could leave early on a Saturday morning, and return on the evening of the same day. If we could find an option of a night’s stay, teaching could happen on Sundays as well.
There is a possibility that we have volunteers working/studying in Bangalore who are from Kolar. If there are such volunteers who go to their hometown during the weekends, this is a good opportunity for them to be involved as well.
The school in question is a high school with 153 children. There is a government primary school across the street which had 140 children from 1st to 7th standard. There is a need to develop the learning curve of these students so that they are competent enough by the time they enter high school. YFS can look to get involved here as well.
Science Park:
Amongst Mr. Kalawar’s friends, was a Dr. Srinivasan, an ex-nuclear scientist with DRDO. He is very interested in setting up a science park in front of the school for the children to learn and have fun! He is also keen on setting up an indoor science lab with fun experiments to make them understand things easily. Volunteers can be involved in this process as well. They can demonstrate the experiments and make them understand ‘how stuff works’.
We did exactly this during our visit. We explained to the children the working of a solar cooker (for roasting peanuts), a pedal generator (for charging batteries), a home-made galvanometer and a motor.