Jaroka Telehealth

If you innovate, they will come..

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:07:00 +0000

The following poster snap is taken at Dallas Texas Airport. I really like the way it depicts the importance of innovation……

Are you a victim of Cyber Crime? Complain to NR3C Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:05:00 +0000

It is such a relief to know that “National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes (NR3C) “ (FIA) , Pakistan (http://www.nr3c.gov.pk/index.html) , is combating online crimes . In simple words , they are sort of cyber police whose duty is to monitor , track and catch the criminal involve in online abusive activities. In case you happen to be a victim of cyber/online crime such as identity theft, hacking, child pornography, stealing of sensitive online information, Dos attacks , mis-use of mobile phones etc you can easily file a complain with NR3C. This is just like filing at complain to law enforcement in an offline world and once the complained is filed, you will be assigned a unique tracking number. Be RESPONSIBLE citizen and act upon it. The procedure is extremely simple.

- Online Procedure

Write down your problem, with complete details… and in the end mention your name, contact numbers and addresses.

Fax: 051-9266435
Email: helpdesk@nr3c.gov.pk

-Offline Procedure

Simply write down your application (in English or in Urdu), narrate your complete problem, provide as much evidences, details as you can and send it to FIA National Response Center for Cyber Crimes(NR3C).

Address this application to,

To Director Cyber Crimes,
FIA Headquarters, Islamabad

Lets Work together to combat CYBER CRIMES in Pakistan.

Can Risks be Opportunities???

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:10:00 +0000

This Friday we had an amazing training session on Fiscal Management and one of the components we covered was the Risk Management or in other words recognizing and mitigating the risks in business and projects. There is no magic formula to avoid risks and in fact every successful venture have had list of risks and failures with the nickname “Experience”.

I must admit that unforeseen risks always make me panic but during this training I learned that the Risks can sometime be opportunities, which positively reshaped my perspective. During the execution of Jaroka Tele-Healthcare project we came across myriad risks (predicted as well as unforeseen) and the most recent one was the sudden monsoon floods in Pakistan marked as the worst natural disaster of the century. At that time, we were ready to launch the Lady Health Workers training on ICT and mobile software module. With this catastrophic situation in the country we knew the priority should be on providing emergency relief to flood victims rather than planned training. It was obvious that delay in trainings may jeopardize our credibility in front of Jaroka’s funders but our team decided to put an action plan to mitigate the risk rather than to face a failure. Free medical camps and tele-healthcare services on the go were arranged for the flood victims. Our team managed to reach and serve the victims with medical services in completely disastrous areas. This also gave us opportunity to test our software which would otherwise have taken months. Due to the consistent hard work and efficient system many international agencies contacted us and we were also able to train the Community and Lady Health workers on the software during the emergency situation.

I believe that risks are always there and what matter is the actions we take to mitigate the risk. In most situations with effective management the few risks if not all can be your best opportunity.

Starting a Non-profit ?

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:14:00 +0000

Are you thinking to start your own NGO? Trying to figure out the steps it takes to do so? If “YES” then following guidelines may help you to efficiently plan for your organization:

Step 1: The Board of Directors:

The very first step is to have board of directors for you non-profit. They vary in number (usually smaller than five and no larger than twelve) according to the rules of the country and state. It is vital that the members of boards are highly dedicated, enthusiastic and sincere to the social cause. They can come from various backgrounds but their main focus must always revolve around the mission and vision of the non-profit. They work together for making the rules/policies, fundraising, processes and decision making for continuous services by organization. Through their mutual consent an Executive director of the non-profit is selected.

Step 2: Strong Background Research:

A comprehensive background research on the issue, problem, geography, people, community, media contacts, need assessments, funds etc is required. The board of directors shall make sure to look into every possible issue and challenge.

Step 3: Service Plan

Once the background research is complete, the services that your non-profit will provide must be evaluated. It is humanly impossible to provide all the solutions for the problem, so during this step them organization must evaluated its services with respect to its resources and need assessments on the ground. Emphasize on the “Value added services”. It is highly recommended to start my small and then grow big. Keep in mind that the services of the organization may change according to the demand for services.

Organization at this point must define ways to document the data e.g if its a healthcare non-profit then the number of patients, their gender, their diseases, process of NGOs etc must the documented. This documentation shall be reviewed frequently in order to improve and evaluate.

Step 4: Staffing and Training

A proper recruiting plan to hire volunteers and staff must be in place. All the vacancies must have a well-defined job description and properly published through offline and online media. All employees must be trained (training manuals) according to it. These training should be as focused and detailed as possible.

Step 5:- Publicity of Non-profit

Now its time to publicize non-profit through the media contacts that were developed during earlier steps. The power of social media can be leased to publicize it on larger ground. This process is a re-occurring process and it is critical to update the contacts, volunteers and local community about the progress and updates.

What a social Entrepreneur should do? My point of view

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:09:00 +0000

So what are the key elements of being a successful social entrepreneur? How to make a social venture successful? What does social entrepreneurship means to you? What steps a social entrepreneur should take? I repeatedly hear these and many questions of the similar nature especially during the interaction with YOUTH…[[ I don't feel any reluctance in admitting that our youth has amazing ideas and they are not afraid of taking risks. Ahhh ! I am sure if we keep motivating and providing them with focused sense and direction, they can do wonders to make this world a better place.]]

Following are few lessons that I learned during the implementation of social projects namely Jaroka, environmental buddy , Social Entrepreneurship Club and workshops with STEPS . I hope they give our youth some clarity on the concept of being a social entrepreneur.:

Lesson 1: Permit yourself to dream BIG.

( Listen to your heart as social venture is a game of heart ..Sometimes its ok to say “NO” to mind…Is it Difficult ???? Not at all, give it a try)

Lesson 2: Think what can you do for other??

(No complains and think optimistically…What others can do for you is not the question rather you making a difference counts…… )

Lesson 3: 1,2,3 …Start… Go for your idea

(Hurdles, Nicknames, criticism , and the list goes on……… SO WHAT !! start it now or wait for the rest of your life )

Lesson 4: Always start Small.

(small is not always very small…..Gradually grow big because in reality you are thinking BIG)

Lesson 5: No Problem is small . Overcome your ignorance

( Ahhhhh !!! I only want to solve BIG issues…..”Problem” is a “Problem” so don’t worry about its SIZE )

Lesson 6: Highlight the actual Problem on the ground and NOT what you think is a problem

(Do you assume you know actual problem?? How are you so sure???? Did u get the community feedback?)

Lesson 7: Listen and Reflect

(The hardest things in life is to listen, Yet it is the most important thing you need to do…..why is it soooo hard?)

Lesson 8: Design the realistic solution model and Focus on moving forward

(HIT and TRAIL….HIT and TRAIL …HIT and TRAIL… keep innovating)

Lesson 9: Challenges and Risks will always be there

( No Problem.. There is no FUN without them so let them motivate you and opportunities will “knock”)

Lesson 10: Let people witness your work and let them own your cause

( Invite them … Let them choose to participate and they will do half of your marketing)

Lesson 11: No one is Perfect…..

(one time is no time …Make mistakes as an imperfect person and you will do wonders)

Lesson 12: Earse the word “IMPOSSIBLE” from your dictionary and NEVER give up.

( Can I do it? YES, YES, a BIG YES…Impossible is NOTHING )

Suggestions & Tips on Proposal Writting

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:10:00 +0000

I believe that everyone has unique ideas which if implemented can truly change the world in solving its suppressing problems. The fun (few says problem) begins when ideas are to be expressed in the form of project proposal.

So……… how do we write a convincing Project Proposal??? What are the ingredients of a good project proposal and how do we integrate them? These are the common questions that one is likely to come across when writing a project proposal. Below are few suggestions/tips from my experience of proposal writing.

-Problem Statement:

The problem statement depicts the problem you are trying to address. It is vital to be crystal clear about the problem and its scope, as the solution must mirror it. For example: if the problem is “unaffordable, inaccessibility and poor quality healthcare in rural areas of Pakistan ” then our solution shall be “affordable, accessible and quality healthcare to rural areas of Pakistan”. It should be precise, focused and to the point.

- Background and Introduction :

This heading usually requires the research on the background of the problem and then introduces the solution to address the problem. The background information must justify the problem statement. Remember to talk in NUMBER rather than words. Your funder is only interested in authentic statistics and not assumptions or word of mouth. For example: stating the statistics on maternal and infant mortality rate , types of healthcare problems, death occurred due to unavailability of proper health-care system etc shall support the problem statement.

In introduction describe the proposed solution in one to two paragraphs. Try avoiding saying “We will……….”, instead say “We propose……. or we plan………”, stating “We will” confirms that you will achieve it and it’s not the case all the time.

- Goals and Objectives:

The section shall state the goals and objectives that the proposed solution will fulfill. Make sure that the goals are realistic, achievable and compliment the solution. For example: stating that you plan to “completely eradicate poverty from the world” is a highly UNREALISTIC goal and will taken as a non-serious attitude by funder. Stay focused on a particular niche and DON“T PROMISE anything undo able.

- Outputs
State the expected outputs of the project in this section. For example, number of patients expected to be treated, training sessions, number of volunteers, and number of workshops to be conducted etc.

-Outcomes
“Change” is the key word for outcomes. This section shall summaries the outcomes in the form of impact/change the project will make on particular group. Impact can be long term, short term as well as socio-economic. For example: The healthcare project will bring awareness about health issues to the community.

- Methodology and Approach
In this section, you will comprehensively describe the approach and methodology that is to be followed for the proposed solution. You must walk the user through all the steps for the implementation. If needed draw flow charts or other visual information for user to fully comprehend the implementation flow.

- Monitoring and Evaluation
It is a critical section of the proposal document as it reflects the progress of the project for future. This section shall state the ways the project will be monitored, measured and evaluated throughout its life. For example, conducting surveys, using project management tools, meetings, evaluation tools etc.

Wish you Good Luck for the project proposal.

Nonprofit Leaders: Apply for a Paid, Overseas Fellowship Position with Atlas Corps

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:56:00 +0000

Atlas Corps is an international network of nonprofit leaders and organizations that promotes innovation, cooperation, and solutions to address the world’s 21st century challenges. Our mission is to address critical social issues by developing leaders, strengthening organizations and promoting innovation through an overseas fellowship of skilled nonprofit professionals.

Atlas Service Corps seeks nonprofit leaders from around the world to apply for a Spring 2011 Fellowship position in the U.S. Expenses are paid in this prestigious 12-month fellowship program, including a living stipend, health insurance, and training.

Eligibility Requirements:

3 or more years of relevant experience in the nonprofit/NGO/social sector
Bachelor's degree or equivalent
English Proficiency (oral, writing, reading)
35 years or younger
Applying to volunteer in a country other than where you are from
Commitment to return to your home country after the 12-18 month fellowship

Candidates from around the world are placed at outstanding host organizations in the U.S. including Ashoka, Asian American LEAD, Grameen Foundation, International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, Population Action International, and the U.S. Peace Corps. In addition to volunteering full time at their host organizations, Fellows participate in a management development training program and join a growing network of nonprofit leaders from around the world.

For more details about eligibility requirements and the application process, please visit: http://www.atlascorps.org/apply.html. Applications are due October 15th.

Questions? Email apply@atlascorps.org for more information.

Scholarships for Muslim Countries

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:53:00 +0000

The Crossing Borders Global Studies is a unique programme designed for internationally-minded and socially-committed applicants from around the world. The programme focuses on current institutional, cultural, environmental, conflict and citizenship dimensions of globalization, including the UN 2015 Millennium Development Goals. The programme includes introduction to Danish society and culture and study tours around Denmark.

The scholarship covers full tuition, food, accommodation in double room during the semester period 9 January to 11 June 2011, including 2 week study tour around Denmark.

To be considered, scholarship applicants must be
• from Muslim countries
• aged between 20 and 30 years old
• active in youth, grassroots or civil society organisations in their countries
• interested in contributing to the peaceful development of their communities
• eager to contribute with articles and/or other media production about their countries
• willing to share experience, knowledge and exchange ideas with fellow youth from different cultures.

• Fill out the online application form:
http://krogerup.dk/Application-Form-in-English
• Send by email a motivation letter of 250-300 words to
garba@krogerup.dk together with 2 recommendation letters from two
different youth, public or civil society organisations and an update
CV.

Application deadline is 15 October 2010

For more information on:
Visit: http://krogerup.dk/Crossing-Borders-Global-Studies,175 and
www.crossing-borders.org
For more information on the Foundation, visit:
http://www.davidmus.dk/en/information.

For further information, contact
Garba Diallo
garba@krogerup.dk
Krogerupvej 9, 3050 Humlebaek, Denmark

Support UM Healthcare Trust in Flood Relief Efforts

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:31:00 +0000

UM Healthcare in close collaboration with its partners and stakeholders have been at the forefront of providing relief to flood victims in Northern Pakistan.

In the month of August, UM Healthcare working with partner relief organizations especially CDRS, DRIP and DMC have treated over 6,500 patients in Charsadda and Nowshehra districts. We have also provided food rations to over 3,000 families in the area.

We are really thankful to our partners and ordinary citizens from Pakistan and abroad who have donated generously for the cause. Their efforts have enabled us to make it possible for us to help those in need.

A complete list of our partner organizations can be found on the following web link

http://umtrust.org/news/partners-in-relief/

Water is Precious, Water is Abundant

noreply@blogger.com (Atif Mumtaz) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:20:00 +0000

We take water for granted. We get to drink it whenever we want. There is plenty available everywhere and in all forms, shapes and even flavors. We are told to drink at least 8 glasses a day. We use water to make our coffee, our tea and our juices and all those energy drinks and fizzy drinks. But today, we learned a new meaning of this commodity. See this video

See it closely and notice what we are doing. As our medical van moved from Noshehra to Pabbi in NWFP for medical relief, we found literally hundreds of people stranded on the road after their homes were swept away by the floods.

Notice their clothes, which are wet up to their waist. They have recently waded through water to reach dry ground. Even after 6 days, people are struggling to get to dry land in NWFP. So we did what we had never thought we would do. We started distributing fresh water to anyone that seemed needy on the road. We did not wait to get to a relief camp, we just started distributing impromptu.

Most of these people have not had a chance to drink any fresh and clean water since last week when their lives were devastated by floods. And this short clip that we shot is testament to the devastation that is faced by Northern part of Pakistan.

Our relief efforts are meager compared to the crisis that is out there. Over 5 million stranded and one small Suzuki van with a few dozen bottle of Aquafina mineral water. We will be back tomorrow and will repeat this process till we get to our destination.

Maybe, everyone should donate one bottle of fresh water for every affectee. Maybe, we can again make this precious water a commodity for these poor and needy people.

For more information on our activities, please visit our website at

http://www.umtrust.org/relief

Assitance Required for Flood Relief Efforts in Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:37:00 +0000

The monsoon has hit Pakistan particularly hard this year and there is already much devastation because of it. Here is a description of what is going on with the flood in the NWFP, Pakistan and our relief efforts. Please do spread this email and reach out to your network for supporters.

UM Healthcare Trust is setting up a medical relief camp in out skirts of Risalpur, where the flood water reached its maximum, to treat and help victims of the flood disaster.

On July 31, 2010, our needs assessment team visited the region to get detailed information of the crisis. We quickly realized that no major relief effort has begun so far and only Abdus Sattar Edhi has showed up. The situation is dire on the ground. No relief effort has begun by the government or internal agencies like Red Cross, United Nations or anyone. So far, everyone is helping each other. All victims are helping the new ones being rescued. Yes, even after three days of floods, new survivors are found and brought in. Click survey Analysis for the report of what we found out today.

Survey Analysis

A Photostream of Flood Devastation can be seen here

Our (UM-Healthcare) Plan of Action

After completing our survey, here is what we plan to do:

We are setting up a field medical clinic in a closed up Children’s play school immediately.
A medical team from UM Healthcare will start treating patients immediately and will man the clinic untill the crisis is over.
We estimate to be there for at least a month since the local facilities will not become operational anytime soon (even when the flood waters recede).
Todd Shea and CDRS have pledged to join us and we will work together to help the flood victims get better care. We are encouraging other organizations to join us in this time of need.

What We Need Urgently

A list of all the items that we need is listed here.

http://tinyurl.com/umrelief

How To Donate

The instructions of how to donate are listed here. Please download this document to get details of various methods for making a donation.

UM-Healthcare Background Information

Please spread the word as we need your help and assistance at this time.

Jaroka Tele-healthcare Wins mBillionth Award

noreply@blogger.com (Atif Mumtaz) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:05:00 +0000

Jaroka Tele-healthcare, won another accolade last weekend, when it was declared winner in the mBillionth Award’s mHealth category.

The event was organized in New Delhi by Digital Empowerment Foundation, who after careful deliberations and review of over 200 nominations chose Jaroka as the winner in mHealth category.

This is a further reconfirmation of the success of our project and the great work that the team has done on the ground in rural Pakistan.

The mBillionth Award is dedicated to exploring the potential of the mobile sector and promoting game changing applications all across South Asia. The mBillionth secretariat at Digital Empowerment Foundation (http://defindia.net), New Delhi reached out to the entire South Asia region to solicit nominations across various categories including mHealth, eGovernment, eInclusion among others.

The Jaroka project was honored for its interactive interfaces, innovative design, aesthetic value, accessibility and most of all it’s relevance of content and utility value.

Jaroka Tele-health is a joint collaboration between UM Healthcare, NUST and APPNA which aims to provide better access to healthcare for rural and destitute communities across the globe. The project has received significant funding from Higher Education Commission (HEC), USAID and ISIF Foundation.

Jaroka Participates at Women Deliver Conference 2010, Washington DC

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:16:00 +0000

Jaroka was presented and praised at "Young Women Deliver" Panel session at Women Deliver Conference held in Washington Convention Center from 4-9 June 2010. This session was moderated by Hollywood Actress Ashley Judd. Don't forget to check the following link to
learn about the fantastic work Young generation is doing to bring social change.

Watch live streaming video from womendeliver at livestream.com

Perceptions and Beliefs of Mothers regarding Use of Foods during Diarrhoea in a Pediatric ward of Social Security Hospital, Rawalpindi

noreply@blogger.com (Tafazzul Zaidi) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:20:00 +0000

Despite considerable advances in the understanding and management of diarrheal disorders in childhood, globally these still account for a large proportion (20%) of childhood deaths, with an estimated 2.2 million deaths.In a global estimate of the burden of diarrheal disorders in 1980 the World Health Organization calculated that there were over 700 million episodes of diarrhea annually in children under 5 years of age in developing countries (excluding China), with approximately 4.6 million deaths. More recent reviews of studies published in the last 10 years indicate that although global mortality may have been reduced, the overall incidence remains unchanged at about 3.2 episodes per child year . Diarrheal diseases is the leading cause of infant and child mortality in Pakistan, where it accounts for an estimated 300,000 deaths per year.Appropriately, it is currently the focus of massive nationwide Oral Rehydration Therapy(ORT) campaign. The gravity of childhood diarrhea in urban slums was documented in 1984-85 by the Department of Community Health Sciences at Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan. Health surveys conducted by the department indicated that more then 1 child in 5 fails to survive to the age of 5 in Karachi Shantytowns, and that 30% to 40% of these deaths are due to diarrhea. The infant (first year) mortality rate in one typical Shantytown, Orangi was found to be 110/1000 live births . In order to learn about knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers and families of new born babies suffering from diarrhoea, I and my team from Health Services Academy, Islamabad visited Social Security Hospital in District Rawalpindi and interviewed the mothers, mother-in – laws and sister -in -laws.
nderstanding, perceptions of diarrhea It is watery stool (Putla Dast) that is continuous and takes place more than 7-8 times a day. Normal Dast? Is called Qabz. It’s normal two times a day. Moreover, yeh dastoon ki bemaari hai.
It is due to teething and diarrhea is usually present during teething. Teething causes Garmi ( Heat) in the mouth. Garmi say gost galta hai or pechish lagti hai.(Heat causes decay of flesh of mouth cavity that leads to diarrhea.teething causes kharish(itching) in the gums which get swollen and the garmi (heat effects) then goes to the stomach. “sadi apni ghaltain nayy jii” (by our own mistakes). Our child due to mistake sometimes eats things which are not clean enough. Sometimes children play with pica so due to that they get diarrhea. Sometimes due to mosquito bites our children get diarrhea. And sometimes by playing or moving out of house in evening children get “SAYAA” I think it occurs mainly due to teeth eruption. In teeth eruption usually fleshes of gums gets bad and due to that disease occur “goshat gall janda aay”. Sometimes “SAYAA” plays main role in diarrhea. Mothers and children are careless and eat dirty things and sometimes diarrhea occurs due to“NAZARR” I mean that when woman comes to our house and says that your child is very beautiful then my child usually get ill. No I think my child usually get diarrhea due to “JARASEEM” (micro-organisms). But sometimes it may occur due to “NAZZAR”
Effects of diarrhea It is dangerous; water from the body is lost. It can cause death. The child becomes week and it is not dangerous when it lasts only for one day. Rather it is beneficial for child’s health because. iss se aantain saaf ho jaati hain aur zehreela maada bahir nikal jaata hai”.(it cleans intestines and all poisonous matter released)
Health Seeking Behavior
We use Gharailoo Totka (Home remedy). We give sauf ka pani,Anday ki Sufaidi( egg white) and Cheeni ( sugar) mixed in boiled water. We were told to do this by Amman ji of our pind ( an elderly woman in our village who is an expert in giving advise to mothers whose children are suffering from diarrhea. My father performs Dum for Nazar (Evil eye) Qurani Ayyat parh ke pani per phoonka jata hai( Quranic Verses are recited on a glass of water) then water is given to the ailing child. I use to give boil water, onion water “PIAZ DAA PANNI” (we use to press onion and then get its water one to two table spoon), “CHAWAL DI PITCH” rice water Sometimes I use to give “SAUNF AUR AJWAIN DAA PANI” and also use to give “nimkol”, sometimes only boiled water. I give “KEHWA” (green tea), “KITCHRII” boiled rice and “UBLA HUA PANII” boiled water. I give nimkol and immediately took my child to hospital Initially we try the local medicine "Daisi totka” and almost always kids get totally relieved and if they doesn’t then we plan to go to doctor/ hospital First we try our Daisi totka but if it does not work. We go to see a doctor/ hospital We wait for 01 day and give treatment at home but if the kid does not gets well we take him to hospital. We don’t wait .We take the child to hospital immediately For this child I waited for 15 days but she didn’t get well so I had to take her to hospital I waited for 1 week then I took my son to hospital We don’t wait more than 2 days. We took the child to hospital after couple of days of diarrhea We don’t wait; we took the child straight away to hospital/ doctor. Yes, A doctor in Gujjar Khan who treated the child. The child did not improve so he referred us to this hospital. They seek medical advice as “kia pata kis kay hathoon shiffa mill jay”
Analysis of Causes of Diarrhea
In “SAYAA/NAZAR” children usually cry more and cry at evening and use to stick to mother and they do not sleep at night. First they get fever followed by diarrhea when it does not appear like that then we think this is a disease I think child tends to keep quite more and cry less. Due to “NAZAR” child become very less reactive and don’t take any food. Then one can also differentiate by rays coming out the ears of child (Sufaid Roshni). In “SAYAA” children use to cry more with shivering and also it use to occur at “MAGHRIB” when sun is near to set. In “SAYAA” children use to get blue while crying and diarrhea use to occur after that cry but to simple disease straight away diarrheal episodes occurs.
Treatment according to perceptions
Nazar, Sayya or any other cause other then disease
My father performs Dum for Nazar (Evil eye). Qurani Ayyat parh ke pani per phoonka jata hai( Quranic Verses are recited on a glass of water) then water is given to the ailing child. We burn out the peppers “MIRCHAIN JALATAIN HAIN” and if there is no smell then it confirms the presence of “SAYYA or NAZAR”…………… “SANU YAQEEN HU JANDA AYY KEH AYY SAYYA AYE YAH NAZAR AYE” and if there is smell then it is not “SAYYA” it is the disease. If there is no smell we keep on doing this for seven days and by this “NAZAR” removes. But if smell doesn’t comes even after 7 days then we go to “BABA JEE” for “DAMM” and “TAWEEZ” She is right we do some of these things but on majority of occasions we put sugar in fire to remove “NAZAR-E-BUD” (bad eye) and hope that it will remove “NAZAR”. We also show the face of diseased child to early rising sun and put drops of water in form of shower on face of child as “Daisi totka” but even then if child does not get well we took child to shrine near our village Taxilla where “PIR SAHIB” advised me to offer 10 “rakat Namaz Nafal” (prayer). In addition to all above ways we boil egg and put it in the “MATKA” (clay pot) and keep it in that for 24 hours and then give it to child for next 24 hours while all other foods are stopped. But if this method fails then we use to consult a lady in our neighbor for “SALAH MASHWARA”. She is very intelligent “POONHCHI HUE AYA”. She guide us what to do depending on situation. But many times she tells us to recite different SURH from The Holy Quran and by this my child use to get better. Though I do not believe in this but when my kids don’t get healthy after long treatment (15 days) even in hospital then I go to shrine “BARRI IMAM SAHIB” and get “TAWEEZ”. In addition they use to promise mannat of Jhanda (flag) on the holy shrine in suburbs of Rawalpindi ( jhanday wali ziarat). They also perform Sadqa which diverts forth coming dangers.
Food during Diarrhea
It is necessary to give food. We were told to do so by the doctor. The doctor has a hospital in Gujar khan and many patients come to see him. Boiled rice, Banana, Cow milk and Yoghurt. More food should be given because child needs Taaqat (Strength). Mostly solid foods should be given because they don’t cause diarrhea. It is the liquid foods which result in watery stools and cause diarrhea. It is better to give solids during diarrhea as it doesn’t cause diarrhea, where as liquids cause more diarrhea.
The above mentioned perceptions were of the people who are not Health Care Providers. Their continuous practised therapy can put the baby's life in danger.
The role of LHWs is very important in educating mothers and trying to change their belief with respect to superstition. Instead, the mothers should be educated to look for danger signs of Diarrhoea like sunken eyes and irritable behavior. ORS Therapy should be initiated and immedediate treatment should be sought from a Registered Medical Practitioner.

Assessment of Road Safety Campaign by Islamabad Traffic Police, using key performance indicators

noreply@blogger.com (Tafazzul Zaidi) — Mon, 31 May 2010 18:50:00 +0000

World Health Organization's (W.H.O) World report on Road Traffic Injury prevention defines “A road traffic injury as fatal or non-fatal injuries incurred as a result of a road traffic crash. A road traffic crash is defined as a collision or incident that may or may not lead to injury, occurring on a public road and involving at least one moving vehicle” Of the four main modes of travel – road, rail, air and marine – travel by road puts people at the greatest risk of injury. Among males of the economically active age group, motor vehicle injuries are the third most important cause of death in developing countries. Compared with a person in a car, a person on a motorized two-wheeler is 20 times more likely to be killed for each kilometer traveled; a person on foot 9 times more likely; and a person on a bicycle 8 times more likely to be killed. A person in a car is 10 times more likely to be killed than a passenger in a bus or coach and 20 times more likely to be killed than a passenger in a train. It is projected that road traffic Injury (RTI) will be the second most common cause of disability-adjusted life years(DALYs) in developing countries in the year 2020 estimated economic cost of road accidents is 1 % of GNP in low-income countries, accounting for US$ 65 billion, more than they receive in development assistance. Despite this, there is little recognition of the health and economic burden of this problem at both the international and national levels. W.H.O. in its international conference on RTI noted the importance of adequate data on traffic injuries. Yet, accurate epidemiological data from many of the developing countries are difficult to find in the literature. Pakistan have large road network of 259, 758km. Thousands of people die on the roads in Pakistan every year with most of the victims being pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclists and passenger of public transport riders and with more than half of them between ages of 15 to 44 years. In Pakistan 10,125 crashes were reported to police including 4193 fatal cases in 2006 The estimated economic cost of road crashes and injuries is to be over 100 billion rupees for Pakistan According to W.H.O. for Pakistan Age-standardized mortality rate for injuries (per 100 000 population) is99.0 years (2002) and Years of life lost to injuries (%) 8.0 years (2002). The annual growth rate of vehicles is 17.18%in Islamabad. With this high influx of car on the roads of Islamabad every day, road traffic injuries and offenses has become a major problem. With added poor road engineering, inadequate road furniture, ineffective and out dated traffic signals the problem has intensified. Evidence from some highly motorized countries has shown that integrated approach involving "three E's": Engineering, Education, and Enforcement produce a marked decline in road deaths and serious injuries. Transport systems developed in high-income countries may not fit well with the safety needs of low income and middle-income countries for a variety of reasons, including the differences in traffic mix. transfer, therefore, needs to be appropriate for the mix of different vehicle types and the patterns of road use. The priority in developing countries therefore should be the import and adaptation of proven and promising methods from developed nations, and a pooling of information as to their effectiveness among other low-income countries.
Most of the work done in Pakistan has focused on the magnitude and impact of injuries from motor vehicle crashes in Pakistan. Multiple factors involve in the causation of road traffic accident include road, road user and vehicles. Because of the complexity of road accident causes, there is temptation to embark on policies and countermeasures that are visible but superficial and with little ultimate effect on the level of road safety.
Educational or training interventions have a potential for preventing traffic crashes. Traffic Awareness Campaign was launch by Islamabad traffic police (ITP) to address the current traffic problems and to enhance road safety among public. The effectiveness of Traffic Awareness Campaign on road traffic injuries and how Islamabad Traffic police (ITP) achieved the set targets so it can be replicated nationwide to make road travel safe in Pakistan.

Jaroka at Women Deliver Conference 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Shamila keyani) — Fri, 21 May 2010 03:14:00 +0000

We are extremely excited and eagerly looking forward to attend global Women Deliver 2010 ( www.womendeliver.org ) conference and Women Deliver youth pre-conference session. On behalf of our project “Jaroka -Mobile based Tele-Healthcare for rural Pakistan” , Ms. Shamila is provided with an opportunity to attend Young Women Speak and Young Women Deliver (8:30 – 10:30am June 9th) plenary as a panelist. There she will be sharing strategies, practices, success and failures etc faced by our team during the implementation of Jaroka in a resource deprived village (Zahidabad) of Pakistan. We are looking forward to replicate this affordable and effective model in other developing countries. Learn about Jaroka at (www.tele-healthcare.org)

During the Youth pre-conference session We will take part in discussing different technologies to use for advocacy purpose with Youth social entrepreneurs. We will definitely learn a lot from the wonderful youth doing amazing work all around the world. Do join , learn more about Jaroka and share your words of wisdom at Women Deliver 2010.

PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF PREVALENCE OF MALARIA IN SCHOOL CHILDREN

noreply@blogger.com (Tafazzul Zaidi) — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:50:00 +0000

“ Malaria is defined as an infectious disease characterized by cycles of chills, fever, and sweating, caused by a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium in red blood cells, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito. “

Malaria is the most important of the parasitic diseases of humans, with 107 countries and territories having areas at risk of transmission containing close to 50 percent of the world’s population .

2.Magnitude of the problem.

a) Global:

More than 3 billion people live in malarious areas. and the disease causes between

Malaria accounts for one in five of all childhood deaths in Africa.

1 million and 3 million deaths each year. Recent estimates of the global falciparum malaria morbidity burden have increased the number to 515 million cases, with Africa suffering the vast majority of this toll. In addition, almost 5 billion clinical episodes resembling malaria occur in endemic areas annually, with more than 90 percent of this burden occurring in Africa .The disease has resurged in many parts of the tropics, and nonmalarious countries face continual danger from importation. Accoeding to CDC Contributing to this resurgence are the increasing problems of Plasmodium falciparum resistance to drugs and of the .Anopheles vectors’ resistance to insecticides... Over 40% of the world’s children live in malaria-endemic countries. Each year, approximately 300 to 500 million malaria infections lead to over one million deaths, of which over 75% occur in African children

b) Pakistan

According to the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan has been classified as a country with moderate malaria prevalence and relatively well-established control programme. Despite this, the disease is estimated to cause at least 50,000 deaths out of an estimated 500,000 reported malaria cases every year.

Malaria continues to be a major public health problem in Pakistan. A. Culicificies and A. Stefensi are main Mosquitoes prevalent in Pakistan. Plasmodium Falciparum and Plasmodium Vivax are main parasites prevalent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Provinces of Pakistan.

3) Key determinants:

a) Biologic:

Agent:

The Primary determinant or the causative agent of Malaria is the Malarial Parasite.

Vector:

The vector or the secondary determinant of Malaria is Anopheles Mosquito.

The various types include

Anopheles culicifacies
Anopheles stephensi
Anopheles Fluvitalis

Host
There areTwo different types of hosts of Malarial Parasite

Definitive Host ; Anopheles Mosquito
Intermediate Host ; Man

b)Environmental:

Malaria is prevalent in tropical and warmer countries. Warm and moist climate encourages breeding of mosquitoes.
Pools of unclean stagnant water harbor mosquitoes laying eggs and larvae.
With global warming and gradual increase in temperature those regions which do not have this disease problem are likely to become vulnerable specially the children.

c) Socio- Cultural and behavioral Factors:

Many people do not know what causes malaria or how it is spread, so they are not able to protect themselves from the disease.

Some parents do not bring their children for treatment until they are very ill because:
- they do not realize they might have malaria (people often think they have a cold, influenza or other common infection);
- they do not realize that malaria is very dangerous; or
- they live far away from health care facilities.
People living far from health services will often go to local medicine vendors (sellers) for advice, which is not always appropriate, or to buy medicines, which are not always effective and would rather treat it in children according to home remedies.

4. ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES

Organizations involved in eradication of malaria in children are :

World Health Organization
Global Fund
Unicef
National Malaria Control Program
UNDP
World Bank

. Organizational and administrative capabilities

1950- Malaria Control Activity
1961 –Malaria Eradication Programme
1973- National Malaria Control Program
1978 -MCP integrated with health services.
1999 with WHO strategy of Roll Back Malaria(RBM) Govt of Pak developed a plan to reduced malaria burden of 50% by 2010.

National policy for malaria control:

To develop guidelines for malaria control in children.
Monitoring and evaluation of Provincial malaria control programs by developing standard procedures and protocols.
Strengthening of a set-up of Federal reference laboratory for control of malaria in children.
To develop the training modules on diagnosis , case management, vector control activities and epidemic preparedness.
Conduct annual national level epidemiological surveys to : Monitor disease trends, evaluate impact of malaria control activities/interventions, promote and implement insecticides Treated Bed Nets (ITNs) , identify private partners and establish mechanisms for the promotion correct treatment and ITN use in the country.
Malaria cases will be reduced by 50%.by carrying out above mentioned interventions.

Successes:

Pakistan has sufficiently developed drug manufacturing industry that can help in fighting malaria.
Health sector still enjoys interventions like Roll Back Malaria.

Failures:

Low epidemic preparedness at Federal and Provincial level.

Low levels of Monitoring and Evaluation of malaria control activities due

to financial and human resources strains.

Weakness in human recourses capacities and logistics especially at district and provincial; levels for qualified and experienced malaria staff

Plan:

Goal:

To prevent the prevalence of Malaria in School Children

Objectives:

To create awareness amongst schoolteachers and parents to protect schoolchildren from Malaria.
To educate children to protect themselves from Malaria.
To promote the use of Insecticide Treated Nets.

5) Interventions/Prevention strategies:

Strategies Matrix:

Area Prioritized

Strategies

Assigned to

Primary Health Outcomes

Secondary and Non Medical Outcomes

Why

.Creating awareness among parents and schoolteachers

2 Creating awareness in schoolchildren

3.Promoting the use of ITNs

Health Education of parents and schoolteachers through seminars, media.

Educating children to protect themselves from mosquito bites and to stay away from stagnant water ponds

Promoting the use of insecticide treated nets and spraying

Doctors, School Health Service, LHWs.

Teachers

DHMT, Taluka Municipality

Increase in the level of awareness amongst parents and school teachers regarding knowledge of Malaria

Safety from mosquito bites

Protection of children from Malaria

Not having to suffer from spending heavily on treatment

Healthy life

Simple measure that protects against the disease

Parents and teachers do not realize the dangers of Malaria in Children

Schoolchildren will learn to protect themselves from mosquito bites

It is not costly and prevents from mosquiti bites

Monitoring:

Monitoring of the sessions conducted by Health Officials, School health Service Doctors in Schools.

Monitoring the establishment of the laboratories making sure that optimum quality standards are followed.
Following strict merit criteria in hiring the staff.

Evaluation :

No. of cases detected
No. of cases referred
No. of training sessions conducted at schools
No. of complicated cases treated at Tertiary Care Hospitals

The Three Delays:Dangers faced by women during child birth in rural areas of Pakistan

noreply@blogger.com (Tafazzul Zaidi) — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:08:00 +0000

The Rural Health Care System of Pakistan is highly under developed. According to a Report by World Health Organization in 2009, Pakistan comes under the category of Low Income Group Country. Pakistan’s GDP on Health Sector is merely 0.6%. The Utilization of Basic Health Units by rural population is 90% but government spends merely a fraction of its total health budget on Basic Heath Units compared to its allocation of funds on Tertiary Care Hospitals.

The gender bias is another major issue faced by female population seeking Health Care.In a Rural set up, where a woman is requiring Anti-Natal Care is usually denied access to avail it. Then there are issues of Affordability, Accessibility, and Availability of Health Care.

The head of the family, in our patriarchal set up, is usually a man. He is also the wage earner for the family. It is he who decides where to allocate resources. For him, to buy a new buffalo may be of more importance than to spend on fees on Medical Consultation. When condition for the woman becomes critical, the family wastes time in taking timely decision. This is also referred to as First Delay.

The issue of The Second Delay arises when there is delay in arranging for the transportation to the nearest possible Health Facility. The family may not be able to arrange for an ambulance or even a private vehicle. There have been cases where the patient had to be transported on Donkey Cart or Bull Cart.

The Third Delay is problem which is faced by the patient, even when she makes it to the Health Facility, is the absence of the Doctor and Paramedical Staff at the facility.

The Three Delays Problem, which put in danger life of not only the patient, but also her to be born child.

The role of LHWs can play an important role in visiting the homes on regular basis and assessing the state of pregnancy, to look for danger signs and to educate and counsel the parents in seeking Medical Care on priority basis.

The improvement in transportation mode will help in addressing the Second Delay. The person owning a Private Motorized Four Wheeler Vehicle in the village can provide the transportation facility. The Village Elders can play an important role in implementing these interventions in their regular Jirgas or Panchayats.

The improvement of the quality of the Health Facility can be carried out with Public- Private Partnership. This would not only ensure availability of diligent and committed Doctors and Paramedical staff and State Of The Art Equipment. This will also help in dealing with the issue of
The Third Delay

Improving the quality and scope of care available at existing medical facilities—will have the greatest impact in reducing needless maternal deaths.

Child Care in Rural Area

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:05:00 +0000

Women face a lot of problems in child care. Some of them are listed below.

In rural areas both the men and women work to fulfill their needs. Rate of working women iss higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Due to this, they have to leave their children alone at home which results in neglecting their care.
Lack of child care providers in rural communities can often be as much or more of a problem than accessing health care providers.
For the minor illness, parents avoid to take their children to doctors due to the fear of high fees. Instead they try to treat at home or anyones advice which sometimes results in a great problem.

Rural Women Health Care

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:01:00 +0000

Accessing health care for women in rural area

In rural areas, women have the following problems in accessing health care.

There is higher rate of poverty in rural areas than in urban areas.
Unavailability of lady doctors in rural areas.
Higher rate of under insured populations than in urban areas
Lack of public transportation.
Lack of income to pay for their needs.
Unavailability of Specialists in the rural areas.

Challenges faced by rural women while childbirth

Studies have shown that infant mortality rate is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. This is because of the following reasons.

Rural women receives delayed or no prenatal care or less adequate care when it is available. This is a major concern in rural areas as risk factors for infant death include delayed or no prenatal care. It contributes to a higher rate of infant mortality in rural areas.
Low education of mother, which is correlated with poverty. Rural poverty rates have consistently been higher than urban poverty rates.
Its shocking to know that maternal smoking during pregnancy, is higher in rural areas.
Teen pregnancy rates are often higher in rural areas.

Jaroka Health Map System provides Disease Outbreak through Geographical Representation in Rural Areas

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:20:00 +0000

Jaroka health map module enables our system to look up and study the patients in rural areas of Mardan. We have incorporated Google map’s detailed and highly visual information representation into our application to characterize the patients in a better way for analysis. This helps the doctors to explore the patients based on their disease categories along with the refinement option based on patient’s gender.

It is a great achievement for our team as it is first of its kind in Pakistan regarding health.

The live access in only available to the team members of our project and not made public yet. This module is integrated with our Jaroka Tele-Healthcare system. Basically we have used the Google Map APi to embed the Google maps to our own application. Then we retrieve the patient data from Jaroka Tele-Healthcare system database and map the patients visually according to the disease category selected and corresponding to the GPS coordinates of the address location of the patient.

Initially when the page is loaded, it displays the villages located in rural Mardan District, Pakistan and shows the number of patients in each village (refer to the figure below).

Then the user can select the disease category from the drop down list present on the left side and view the patients falling into the category of that particular disease, let’s say we want to see the patients with the disease LRTI/URTI (refer to the following figure).

As here we want to view all the patients falling into this disease category, therefore both male and female patients are mapped along with the children. The differentiation between the patients is presented by using different colors. The map legend is present at the left bottom for reference. Following figure displays all the patients with the disease LRTI/URTI.

Note that we also show a small info box with each patient to show the village, gender and age of the patient. This information presented visually becomes much easier to analyze for the doctors and experts to see the outbreak of diseases in rural area of Pakistan.

Now if you want to see only the female patients falling under the disease category of LRTI/URTI, then following will be the output:

We have also mapped our Hospital onto the map so that the doctors can see the distance of patients’ location from our facility.

Jaroka Electronic Health Record System provides opportunities for further Research and Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:23:00 +0000

Mardan Facility has been operational from September, 2008 based on the experience of one and a half year and a number of events & activities arranged before and after its opening the project has proved itself creatively successful and well received in the area.

Our hospital UMTrust is located in Zahidabad at the border of Buner District and therefore, we have seen a huge influx of refugees in our area in Summer 2009. There are more than 50,000 patients we have treated in year 2009. Out of which there were around 15,000 IDPs we have treated in rural Mardan in the days of regular operations.

A sample of 30,000 patients out of a total 50,000 reflects that 50.97 % are females, 29.01% are children and 20.02% are males.

It is amazing to see such enormous ratio of female patients in the underserved rural area of Mardan. Among these patients majority were women and children, which emphasizes the main objective of the Jaroka Telehealth Project i.e. to reduce maternal and child mortality cases.

Our calculation is dependent on run-time data gathered. The electronically saved records allows our doctors to see much more of a person’s medical history than do paper files. It also enhances practice efficiency. The real data that is being gathered with the help of OpenEMR provides research opportunities for us as well as stakeholders involved in our project.For example: With the help of data analysis we came to know the most common diseases in the area, statistics of patients for each month, requirement of medicines , preventive measures for diseases etc.

Currently our records collected by OpenEMR software showed that mostly people in Mardan are suffering from URTI/LRTI diseases. And patients suffered from this disease category were total in number of 5879. For your understanding you can view Patient Distribution Graphs below with respect to different disease categorize.

Patient Registration Graph -2009

Patient Distribution Graph w.r.t Diseases.

Now Doctors can access images of the Patients on their mobile via MMS service

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 07:59:00 +0000

A very exciting news to share with you all is that, now we can access images of the patients uploaded to our Tele-Healthcare system via MMS service. We just need to send an sms with a particular message format to the number authorized by network administrator.

The images, available on the system can easily be send back to the requested mobile phone via MMS service. The good thing is that only incurred cost in this process will be at the reception end, using the GPRS on the mobile phone.

Health Map Module has been implemented in Tele-healthcare system

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:42:00 +0000

We have moved one step forward to achieve our aim by developing a Health Map module. It depicts the visual representation of the statistics related to the patients stored in Tele-Healthcare system. This module includes the display of the patients onto the Google maps according to their GPS locations available with us. Right now, we are able to map the patients according to their corresponding disease categories and also on the basis of their gender. The genders are differentiated with respect to colors displayed on maps and also a short summary is provided along with visual mapping.

This enables our team to see how many patients related to a particular disease came to their hospital and what ratio of the visiting patients suffers from a particular disease. This also enables us to refine the visual representation of the patients (suffering from a particular disease) based on their gender.

We intend to embed more refinement options (e.g Age Groups, Death rate in a particular disease e.t.c.) to the maps for the sake of better search and analysis capability being represented visually.

Jaroka initiated mobile based services in rural Mardan

noreply@blogger.com (Hina Mushtaq) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:07:00 +0000

We are developing a sustainable Tele-healthcare system that utilizes the mobile platform to extend tele-healthcare services in rural Mardan. This includes Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). Upto now we have successfully developed, tested and utilized SMS Service in the facility. It is one of the most vital objectives of our project as we will be providing training to LHWs by unleashing the opportunities provided by mobile platform. Mobile is one of the best ways to reach to public in order to create health awareness as large population in Pakistan uses mobile and providing services through it.

The SMS Service application developed by our team members enables lady health workers operating in rural areas and disaster affected communities to get rapid diagnosis, expert advice, and opinions from specialists around the world. For the time being SMS service is being utilized to connect to our central system through SMS to get expert medical advice, register patients and their appointments with the doctors. This service is helping in reducing the sudden deaths, medical complications and increasing prevention of pandemic diseases in rural areas at a very low-cost.

Following SMS based mobile services have been implemented:

New patient registration
Information about the definition of a disease
Symptoms of the disease
Assessment plan (AP) services
Broadcast SMS message to Group
Vaccination Alert Services