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My dear friends,

This year has been blessed with a wonderful break through! After many years of passionate persistence, we have finally started a Children’s Home on a small scale. This has made my stay at Gram Seva extremely meaningful and encouraging thanks to the partnership of all our generous donors, our very dedicated Health and Education Team under the leadership of Dr. Sharmishtha Patil and valuable guidance from Drs. Ashwin and Harsha Shah. Since Children are any Country’s most valuable natural resource, we continue to concentrate on their entire spectrum from conception through adolescence.

In the year 2008 with the help of your donations our services included: * Under 5 years Old: 3165 children were checked, followed up on regular basis and treated as and when needed. Of these, 146 were migrants and their follow up is very difficult; hence the need for a shelter home. In rest of the children the severe malnutrition rate has improved, ranging from 0.5 % to 0.9 % depending on the condition of the communities concerned.

* Fulwadis (Crèche): Two units of established Fulwadis, each caring for 5 to 6 children 6 months to 2.5 years of age is functioning well. We need about 20 more such units.

* Tuition Classes: Fifteen Classes comprising of 423 students. We need to expand on the number of these units as we need at least 50 more such units.

*Adolescent Girls and Boys: Health Education and counseling of 526 girls in our established groups. Our adolescent boys program is experiencing some road blocks. However, this year school checkups for the adolescent population of 20 schools were undertaken with Complete Health Check up including Hemoglobin, Sickle cell Disease survey, Blood Groups, Immunizations and Counseling.

* Heart Disease Project: Dr. Ratna Magotra continues her valuable services. Dr. Snehal Kulkarni, Pediatric Cardiologist of Wockhardt Hospital in Mumbai comes on a regular basis to examine and conduct ECHO studies for our Heart Disease patients. To date we have diagnosed and investigated 120 Children for possible Heart Disease. Congenital Heart Disease was detected in 45 and Rheumatic Heart Disease in 25 Children. Of these, 41 were advised surgery and 7 are being followed up for future surgery. Surgery was facilitated at Cardiac Centers of Surat and Mumbai for 21 children. 10 children have refused any investigations or surgery and 1 is inoperable. We have lost 12 children to follow up and 8 have expired.

* Hospitalization and Treatments:161 children were hospitalized for medical and surgical treatments. In addition, they were provided with 60 X-Rays, 63 consults in various sub-specialties, about 191 Laboratory investigations, 6 General Surgeries at Gram Seva and 2 at Surat Hospital. Vaccines: 306 MMR vaccines and 883 Hepatitis B vaccines were administered. Other required vaccines are provided by the Government.
Tuberculosis: 41 children under 5 years received treatment. Of these 25 have completed therapy.
Thallasemia: Two children come for multiple transfusions every 1 - 2 months for their disease.
Pre-Natal Clinic: 773 women were cared for. 495 delivered and of these, 471 delivered in the hospital.
Eighty Newborns needed care in the NICU. Forty Seven out of these 80 (58.75%) were premature. Of these 47, 34 (72.34%) recovered, 11 (23.40%) expired and 2 were transferred to a tertiary city hospital. Of the full term babies, 6 expired. (3 Birth Asphyxia, 1 Congenital Anomalies and 2 delivered outside had septicemia.)

* Health Education programs: Number of Night programs in selected villages - 65; sessions in hospital wards - 294; during Eye camps - 6; for staff members - 2; during prenatal clinics - 106 in addition to the counseling at villages by RCH (Reproductive and Child Health) workers.

New Developments:* Our most successful addition is the introduction of 49 locally trained Community Health Workers (CHWs), 82 RCH workers. In addition, SNGO project in collaboration with Government of Gujarat for Safe Motherhood and Child Health is established in 9 villages with population of 27,770.

* Finally, our cherished dream to have a Children’s Home for our destitute little ones has begun to bear fruits. On July 31, 2008 we inaugurated a small Shelter Home (Bal Awas) in a rented facility for 22 children who have grown up under very difficult circumstances. These children have literally been transformed into a new way of living in Peace and Harmony. They have given us more joy than we can ever wish for with their unconditional love and eagerness to learn and grow. We are now determined to expand on this project to Nurture, Nourish, Clothe and Educate many more such children. A healthy uneducated adolescent is a danger to society whilst an educated empowered one becomes an Enlightened Human Being, a tremendous asset for the community.

We are so grateful to all our donors for helping us fulfill this cherished dream of ours.

I sincerely hope this gives you a feeling of satisfaction about your hard earned money being utilized for a noble cause. It gives me tremendous joy to be of service to these children and I feel blessed and extremely grateful for this privilege and opportunity offered to me through your generosity. We need about $3.00 per child per month for the care of our 0 to 5 year old children and $75.00 per month for Total Health - Physical, Mental, Emotional & Spiritual - of our Bal Awas Children.

With the very best wishes to you and yours for Peace, Harmony, Laughter, Love always,

Very affectionately,

Roda K. Patel
President, Gram Seva Foundation, USA; Honorary Director, Child Health, Gram Seva Trust, India.

Ps: Please rest assured that all your hard earned money goes totally toward the welfare of our Gram Seva children. Thanks!

”Every Child comes with the message that God is not yet   discouraged of man!”

   Tagore.

 2030 Post Road, Northbrook, IL 60062. * Tel: (847)564-2030. Email: rodak@aol.com

www.gramseva.org