Sevak Project for rural health and sanitation in Gujarat

Like every year the Sevaks associated with the Sevak project in Gujarat gathered in Vadodara for the refresher training programme.

This year a sevak from Andhra Pradesh came for the training and implement in his area later on. As part of their expansion plan the Sevak project invite the sevak from AP which is their pilot project for expanding to other states.

The Sevak Project is a Gujarat statewide project of chronic disease screening, lifestyle intervention and referrals to rural Indians in India. It is currently implemented in Gujarat, India. The project personnel and infrastructure is comprised of 33 Sevaks, 4 regional coordinators, and a project coordinator.

The project headquarters is in Baroda, Gujarat. Currently the project is implemented in every district of Gujarat, for a total of 33 villages.The state of Gujarat is divided into four zones, north, south, central and west. Each zone has a coordinator and the coordinators job is to visit the village in his zone once a month and provide any logistics support such as survey forms, sty lets, strips, repair needs and collect the survey forms to input into an XL file.

“This is an American Project in India and is based on the Independent Duty Corpsman (IDC) model of the US. Navy. The training and orientation of the Sevaks is based on this model. The selected Sevaks and co-ordinator are given training of One week. In which all are trained to check diabetes, Hypertension, Chronic Disease, Sanitation, Water Purification, Blood pressure, and education of lifestyle of villagers. In addition Co-ordinator had given training of Computer. In end of training Glocometer, B.P.machine , Weight scale, Major tap, Styles given to every sevak and Co-ordinator for the Sevak Project,” said Thakor Patel MD, MACP and Chairman Sevak Project.

The IIT alumni NGO called WHEELS Global Foundation; USA is involved in building RO plants and supporting the toilet project with Habitat for Humanity India in the Sevak villages. The project have successfully completed two villages with R0 water and 100% toilets. They also take care of special cases such as Insulin dependent diabetics by giving the whole family education to check BS and give them glucometers and refrigerators for storing insulin. The project have a couple of diminished vision patients; will get them the right care. One patient who is a triple amputee was provided a special toilet.

The Sevaks undergo refresher training every year in December during the Annual SEVAK Seminar in Vadodara, Gujarat. In 2014, the refresher training included training on First Aid and CPR by the American Heart Association (AHA) to ”Save Children’s lives below the age of 5 years.

“Sevak Project held in Gujarat has become popular now-a-days, therefore one sevak from Andrapradesh has come for training. WHEELS Global foundation has provided one sevak from Banaskantha district and BAPS in Ukkai has also provided a propagandist who is trained well under our project to expand it further. In 2010, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of INDIA had given permission to run this project. After 2 years when we went to submit the report of Sevak project to our PM. and said that sevaks’ sent the B.P. and Diabetes Patients’ to PHC but medicines are not available over there, within 6 months medicines were provided to all the PHC’s of Gujarat by grace of Modiji. Now this project has entered its 6th year and it is helpful in educating villagers about B.P., Diabetes & Healthy Life Style,” said Patel.