| CINI NEWS 2007 edition |
|
Progress made in
securing services for severely malnourished children
 Amin, his sister Arifa and their mum soon after being admitted |
 one month later |
More than £150,000 was pledged following the launch of an appeal in aid
of CINI’s work with severely malnourished children at the House of Lords
on 30th November. This means we are now 83% of the way towards our target to
raise the funding needed to run these services for the next five years. We now
need just 52 supporters to pledge £10 a month (or 26 to pledge £20
a month) for five years to cover the outstanding balance in full!
This support will enable CINI’s Emergency Ward and Nutrition Rehabilitation
Centre to continue to give the families worst affected by malnutrition the intensive
support and care needed to get their lives back on track. Amin, his little sister
Arifa and their mother (pictured above) are one such family who, with the support
of Dr Dey and the rest of the team at CINI, were able to make massive progress
within the space of one month and were given additional support by a CINI health
worker after they were discharged.
The Emergency Ward provides children with acute malnutrition-related health
problems including hypothermia, pneumonia, severe dehydration and chronic diarrhoea,
with emergency medical care. Feeding is also a crucial component of managing
severe malnutrition. The dictum is, ‘go slow’ and avoid force feeding.
If the feeding begins too aggressively or the child is given a diet too rich
in protein or sodium there are chances of overwhelming the child’s system
which can be fatal. The Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre is used for rehabilitation
of undernourished children and supportive care and capacity building of mothers
or other carers including training on home management of diarrhoea and breastfeeding
support.
If you would like to pledge to support this work over the coming years and secure
the future of this project in the longer term, please see the services for
severely malnourished children section of our website www.ciniuk.org and
email info@ciniuk.org or call 020 7358 0309 to request a pledge form.
| Mother’s
Day campaign CINI UK’s annual Mother’s Day campaign is now in full swing. We are urgently looking for companies, groups and individuals to help raise the resources needed to extend the availability of our maternal health services to more women. If you would like to help, with either the 2007 or 2008 Mother’s Day campaigns, please call 020 7358 0309. |
Journey to motherhood in Britain and Bengal
Emma Krijnen-Kemp has travelled from Hull to Kolkata to investigate the differences and similarities experienced by young women during pregnancy. This is her report. Clearly visible on the small black and white screen is a tiny head, body and arms. For Jin, who is lying on a bed in a hospital in Hull, this is amazing; she is able to see her baby for the first time. More importantly, it provides reassurance that her pregnancy is going well. Just a few weeks later, I am introduced to Reshima expecting her first baby in the same month as Jin. Her experience of pregnancy is somewhat different, because she happens to live in Kolkata, over five thousand miles away. Kolkata has been described as a decaying city, suffering from over-population and increasingly high levels of pollution. The very thought of bringing up a child in such poverty fills me with anxiety. “The main problem is that of nutrition,” explains Dr Nimai Dey, a paediatric consultant in child health with the Child in Need Institute (CINI). I can see clear evidence of this as I look around the clinic. Underneath the swathes of their colourful saris, the young women are painfully thin. CINI knows the best way to tackle things is to provide a service that breaks the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill health. This is the same approach that has been adopted in Britain. Jin has started accessing Sure Start, a government-run programme that aims to ensure all families get the best start in life by offering pre- and post-natal care, guidance, advice and family support. In India, although Reshima will not get the reassurance of a scan, with the support of CINI she is now registered with the hospital and has received iron tablets, folic acid, and an immunisation against tetanus. CINI’s Adopt A Mother programme will ensure that she gets all the care she needs to see her and her baby through the critical time to the child’s second birthday. The results are amazing. Kashmira is one of 650 mothers who are currently being sponsored. Her son Rafika was born at home with the assistance of a trained birth attendant. He weighed a healthy six-and-a-half pounds and has continued to steadily gain weight. He has been immunised and both he and Kashmira are regularly monitored by CINI’s health care professionals. Kashmira’s grandmother has nothing but praise for CINI. She recalls that in her day things were very different: there was no help available at all and certainly no immunisations, many babies died and women often suffered. Today, the prospects for mothers and children are much brighter. |
 |
 A pregnant Jin and Reshima |
As CINI’s programme
of support grows and takes affect, my initial reaction of “thank God I’m
British” starts to fade. Jin’s situation seems reassuringly ideal.
But with a little help, Reshima and the other young mothers of India can also
look forward to a more promising and healthier future.
| Teacher
of the Year visits education camps Mr Dai Jones,CINI UK Trustee and recent winner of the London Teacher of the Year Award has paid a visit to CINI’s projects for getting child labourers back into full time education. “What I found were well organised educational services with a real awareness of modern views and teaching strategies.” he told CINI News. When asked about the long term impact of this kind of project he said “I felt that these centres were helping to form well rounded individuals who will potentially be able to play an important role in improving the communities in which they are growing up”. India has more child labourers than any other country in the world, with most analysts putting the figure between 75 and 90 million. Children often work long hours in hazardous sectors such as in the tanneries or litter picking. |
 Child labourer making leather wallet |
Why
support CINI UK?
|
 |
Flood relief reaches people in Murshidabad
| In October 2006,
almost 1.5 million people living in the villages of Murshidabad District,
150 km north of Kolkata, were displaced by the rising flood waters of the
Bhagirathi river and its tributaries. Villagers took shelter on high ground including railway stations and high embankments. CINI UK supporters contributed to the cost of water purifying tables, bleaching powder and anti-diarrhoea tablets to treat the outbreak of gastro-intestinal diseases in the relief camps. CINI has been working with the local government in the area since 1998, implementing programmes on health and nutrition, education and disaster preparedness, and thus was available to offer immediate support to flood stricken families. CINI UK Chairman, Lady Slynn, visited the flooded village of Santosh Nangar, to offer her encouragement to the villagers and help with distributing medicines. |
 Lady Slynn meets villagers displaced from their homes |
“It really gave
me an insight into the challenges of living in an area prone to yearly flooding”
she said. “Life certainly doesn’t wait for the floodwaters to recede.
I met the grandmother of a baby born on the platform at the nearby railway station
where the family had sheltered during the flood. The mother had to be screened
off during the birth and a birth attendant who was also camping in the station
assisted with the delivery.” Medicines were provided by CINI for the baby
who had developed an eye infection in the damp conditions.
CINI is currently constructing a flood shelter above the local school which
will also provide extra capacity for the school during the day and will be used
for health and nutrition related work during the evenings.
Two school-girls raise funds to ‘adopt a village’
 |
Two school-girls, Adilah Khalifa
and Farrah Sheikh, have raised enough money to provide mother and child
health services to the 1,800 strong population of the village of Ramnager
for a full year. The village was identified as in need of help because of
persistently high levels of child and maternal mortality. The girls spoke to fellow students at Villiers High School about CINI’s work, organised bucket collections, a raffle and a cake sale. The cake sale initiative quickly escalated into a small not-for-profit business, helping the girl’s refine their entrepreneurial skills. They have been chosen to receive a Princess Diana Memorial Award and featured on CNN and in Sugar Magazine (as young role models) in recognition of their efforts. So far the girls have raised £1,500 and they plan to keep going as they want to raise the money needed for years 2 and 3 of the project. A big thank you to both of them. |
Nasser Azam to sell artwork online in aid of CINI
In May 2007, Nasser Azam will kindly auction online one of his latest paintings
in aid of CINI’s work. Nasser exhibited two of his paintings at CINI UK’s
dinner at the House of Lords on November 30th 2006. If you are interested in
Azam’s work or would like to learn more about the artist’s history,
please see www.azam.com.
Legacy volunteers needed
Could you write a short article explaining why you are leaving a legacy to CINI
UK? The article will be published in a future edition of CINI UK News and on
our website to help inspire others to take the big step of helping to give children
born into poor communities in India a better future.
More generally, could you help with preparing short news stories, designing
posters and giving talks which would promote the importance of legacies and
how they are one of the most tax-effective ways to support charities? If so,
please call Anna on 020 7358 0309.
Thank you
Thank you to Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank for their sponsorship for our
House of Lords dinner. Thank you to Calmia, holistic well-being store, for selling
items in aid of CINI over the Christmas period and continuing to help us in
the run up to Mother’s Day. Thank you to Rabishikha and The Cinnamon Club,
British Airways, Tamarind, ICICI Bank, England and Wales Cricket Board, General
Bilimoria Wines, Destination Services International, Rain Design, M&S and
Simtel UK Ltd who all contributed towards the success of MAYA. Thank you to
Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, City Cruises and Tescos who donated prizes for a raffle
at SOAS. Thank you as well to the many other companies, groups and individual
donors and volunteers who have lent us their support over the last year.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donation
slip Yes,
I
would like to support CINI UK's work to help poor women and children in India
|
|
 
Please tick here if
you are a UK income or capital gains tax payer and would like to make your
donation worth 28% more to CINI UK at no extra cost to you through Gift
Aid |
 |
Please send to: CINI
UK, Suite 631, 456-458 Strand, London, WC2R 0DZ
Tel: 0207 358 0309 Email: info@ciniuk.org Website:
www.ciniuk.org Registered charity no. 1092674