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POPULATION: 1,166,079,217
ACTIVE IN: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh and the union territories of New Delhi and Puducherry
PROGRAMS: Livelihoods, HIV/AIDS, Disease Prevention, Disaster Response, Maternal and Child Health, Orphans and Vulnerable Children
A CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Despite dramatic economic growth in recent years, more than 400 million Indians live on less than $1 a day. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, too many families live in dire circumstances, and many children are forced to work instead of attend school. India is struggling to eradicate preventable diseases such as polio that have all but disappeared elsewhere in the world. Also, an estimated 2.5 million Indians are living with HIV, making India one of the most highly infected populations in the world.
PCI’S MICROFINANCE PROGRAM HAS ENGAGED OVER 4,109 WOMEN WITH AN OUTSTANDING LOAN PORTFOLIO OF NEARLY $450,000 IN JUST 4 YEARS. | OVERVIEW
Project Concern International (PCI) established its presence in India in 1997. With more than 200 staff working in ten states and two union territories of the vast subcontinent, PCI’s far-reaching programs focus on low-income, vulnerable populations, in particular, people living with HIV/AIDS, women of reproductive age, and at-risk children.
DISEASE PREVENTION
According to the World Health Organization, India reported one of the highest rates of new polio infections in 2008, second only to Nigeria. Part of the CORE Group Polio Project, PCI is working in three high-prevalence districts in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh with a focus on building enhanced community awareness and mobilization resulting in increased participation in prevention and immunization interventions. PCI assists in organizing and facilitating health camps that provide vaccines and encourage positive attitudes and hygienic practices aimed at reducing new infections, especially in children under 5 years of age. The health camps also address corresponding health priorities including malaria prevention, vitamin A supplementation, de-worming treatment, and access to physicians, nurses, and auxiliary nurse midwives, thus offering a more holistic approach to improving the health outcomes of vulnerable communities.
HIV/AIDS
Home to one sixth of the world’s population, India reports a growing number of HIV cases each year. According to most experts, the window of time to effectively tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic in India through prevention, care and support before it explodes throughout the country is quickly running out. In response, PCI has literally taken to India’s streets, transforming communities through home-based care teams that are assessing the magnitude of the epidemic at the community level, identifying HIV-positive beneficiaries in need of anti-retroviral therapy, and developing relationships with local health providers to serve the needs of patients and their families.
PCI’s HIV/AIDS program activities include community and home-based prevention and treatment; tuberculosis screening and access to treatment, including the provision of directly observed therapy; anti-retroviral therapy; self-care skills training; care giving skills training, and nutritional support. PCI also helps strengthen local support for people living with HIV/AIDS through the development of peer support groups, access to micro-credit, partnerships with local community-based organizations, and the formation of self-help, youth and women’s groups.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
In 2005, PCI started its first microfinance institution, Planned Social Concern (PSC), with seed capital from the Grameen Trust of Bangladesh and investment capital from a group of private donors known as the Jaipur Investors. With two branches in Jaipur, PSC provides people living in poverty, particularly rural women, small loans to assist them in starting their own businesses and participates in their professional capacity building.
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
In August 2008, heavy monsoon rains caused the Kosi River in the northeastern state of Bihar to overflow its banks, resulting in the worst flooding in the region in over 50 years. PCI provided immediate assistance in the hard-hit district of Araria, working closely with populations displaced into formal government camps and informal encampment areas by increasing access to and use of clean water, improving sanitation and hygiene, providing re-hydration strategies, and ensuring people had access to medical support and other services. PCI’s Hands Across Bihar: Humanitarian Assistance for Natural Disasters project is providing continued support to people in 16 of the hardest hit villages of Bihar’s Araria district by ensuring access to clean water and sanitation as well as developing protection programs to enhance the safety and security of vulnerable women and children. In addition, PCI has facilitated the return of the flood affected victims to their home villages.
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH
PCI is addressing the disparities in maternal and newborn health within urban slum communities in the southern city of Pune in Maharashtra. Program activities include providing access to quality prenatal and postpartum services for pregnant women and new mothers, improving access to a wide array of physiological, social, education, and economic empowerment services within slum communities. In addition, through a variety of approaches such as health fairs, festivals and support groups, PCI is strengthening the link between slum communities and formal health facilities, as well as raising awareness of the positive behaviors that affect the long-term health of mothers and children, including the importance of pre-natal care, breastfeeding, and child immunizations.
ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN
UNICEF estimates that approximately 25 million children in India under the age of 17 years are either orphaned or living on the streets. In the capital city of New Delhi alone, there are an estimated 100,000 orphans and vulnerable children working and living on the streets and in the city’s train and bus stations, exposing them to many human rights issues such as physical and sexual abuse. In response, PCI provides interventions and services that include outreach, counseling, drop-in centers, vocational training, a mobile health clinic, a short stay home, access to formal education, and family tracing and reunification services.
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