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Saving lives through emergency transport

Most of Ali Hussein is the head of village council in the small town in Uttar Naubasta Haidarpur Pradesh, one of India's least populous states. wife of Ali Hussein, Hussein Kheroon, assists him in office. Ten years ago, her pregnant daughter in law got sick overnight. The nearest hospital was nine miles away and the family was at the mercy of auto-rickshaws as they do not have their own vehicle.

When Hussein arrived at the hospital, the medicine required was not available. Could not find a doctor to help them. Finally, he convinced a nurse to accompany the village and provide medical assistance to his daughter in law. Fortunately, he survived the night and the baby was born healthy, but the memory of helplessness and fear remained with the family until today.

Neonatal and pregnancy-related deaths are a major problem not only in Uttar Pradesh but throughout India. The country accounts for a quarter of maternal and neonatal deaths in the world. Each year, 78,000 pregnant women and one million babies die in India due to these complications. Poverty, lack of awareness, and lack of access to health care are common causes of fatal accidents are often preventable.

To solve this problem, the Government of India runs the National Rural Health Mission and Reproductive and Child Health. It aims to improve the availability and access to health care quality for the socially and economically disadvantaged.

However, despite these schemes, supply gaps and problems remain. In a country size of India, where a maternal death occurs every seven minutes, it requires considerable effort from various sectors to ensure a smooth delivery and successful a health center for disadvantaged women.

So when Ali Hussein was approached by Sure Start , A five-year initiative based PATH, an international non-profit and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which was very happy to collaborate with the project in its mission to help mothers and their babies survive and stay healthy. Sure Start is working with rural communities in Uttar Pradesh and between settlements marginalized people in Maharashtra. The project aims to demystify health through promoting simple practices of maternal and neonatal health through innovative activities awareness. This makes the community aware of available medical services and governmental plans and are allowed to have access to them. Ensures accountability accounts, serving as a bridge between communities and health providers.

Sure Start began in exactly the right time to closely integrate with the critical government programs in India, as the National Rural Health Mission, which are designed to improve overall health outcomes for the rural poor and urban. Good start has played an integral role in building capacity and activation of community groups accredited by the government and the people of the Health and Sanitation Committees (VHSCs) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs). ASHAs are volunteers (usually housewives) of the community, comprising members VHSCs elected from the community. Because these agents of change are also part of the national Rural Health Mission, act as critical links between local people and government. That empower communities through improved logistics and rural infrastructure, development of knowledge and skills of mothers, planning and supervision of MNH services in the village level and ensuring that families know how to get attention. Good start of efforts have been integral in activation of the VHSCs and ensure that members of regular meetings. Through the committees, the communities have been able to demand better care care and other services the district authorities.

These efforts have undoubtedly had an impact on people Haidarpur Naubasta. Ali Hussein believes that 70 percent of men and women in her village, we now know about the benefits of opting for institutional delivery before a delivery. Men are encouraged to ensure their pregnancy women receive proper nutrition, folic tablets, iron, and tetanus toxoid vaccine during pregnancy. members of the community people have also developed a fund health emergency to help pregnant women receive health care who otherwise would not be able to pay.

Perhaps most encouraging for Ali Hussein is the old truck he bought for his people with discretionary funds available to village councils by the government. This transport system emergency is always there, day and night, for a pregnant woman Haidarpur Naubasta village to the nearest hospital. All you have to do is dial a number (Printed on the front of the truck) and a community volunteer will be at your door.

Kheroon Hussein says, "I am proud of what they have achieved perform together. I can sleep peacefully at night knowing that no pregnant woman has to worry about getting to a hospital. "

Sure Start, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by PATH, works with about 25 million people to improve maternal and neonatal health in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in India.

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