In January, 2000, our Center for Asian and International Bioethics of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, began its first Mother and Child Health Education Project in the Palar River Delta area of Tamil-Nadu, India. The aim of the team was to continue initial ties, begun a year earlier, with the Dalit Liberation Education Trust and the Dalit population of the area.
A team consisting of a bioethicist, two physicians, a nurse, a nurse-lawyer and a medical student from Ben Gurion University, and an environmental educator from Maharastra India travelled to Kadallur village in Tamil-Nadu. In order to achieve the goal a group of 30 women, many of whom illiterate, from the nearby villages, were gathered for a two weeks health education camp. After the course these women went back to their village to spread what they learned as "Health Ambassadors", by setting good examples and gentle teaching. They received a monthly stipend and reported on their work to the Delta School of Nursing in the Pallar river Delta Center.The initial project was the result of three years planning, in partnership with local colleagues. We were helped by the Israeli Foreign Ministry ("Mashav" Project), the A.M.M. Foundation, Chennai, the Dalit Liberation Education Trust, the School of Life Sciences, University of Madras, Chennai, and personal funds of some of the participants.
The local people invited us in the first place, and they have asked us to
continue in the future. This is not surprising because the Dalit are one of the most discriminated-against populations in the world, and access to proper health services is extremely difficult or non-existent. Our teaching couldn't reach the local women without the dedicated help of the teachers of the new Delta School of Nursing. Their main contribution, beside the hospitality, was a professional interpretation of our teaching from English to Tamil. The nursing school itself started in 1999 with 20 Dalit village girls and still faces many difficulties on its way to governmental recognition.
Our team is unique in that although the project is Israeli, the team is international, with members from Hungary and India.
We believe that as Israelis, citizens of a prosperous country with a good western social medical system, we have an obligation towards deprived people in the developing world.
In spite of the enthusiasm at the concluding ceremony of our first project, we know that we were successful only if this is the beginning of a long-term undertaking. Having given these people the hope of health, we must now follow through.
We are planning our return in October, 2000, to conduct a refresher course and continuing education for our first group of thirty Health Ambassadors, as well as to start another group.
Our long-term plans with the Dalit Liberation Trust include a clinic and ambulance to serve the local population, who are in dire need of these facilities. Later we hope to help in building a hospital that will also serve as a teaching ground for The Delta School of Nursing. It could also serve as a place for medical and nursing students from Beer Sheva, as well as experienced doctors and nurses, to learn on site about problems solutions to health problems in the developing world.
Another project we try to develop is a water-purification one for the Delta region. Its planning has already begun.
We are also interested in small-scale eco-friendly industry and nutrition sources for the local villagers, and hope to begin to implement some of these in October, 2000, with the help of the Murugappan Research Centre, Chennai.
Other people that advised and whose help was crucial for the success of the project:
Henry Thiagaraj, (Director, Dalit Liberation Education Trus, Chennai, India)
Prof. Jayapaul Azariah, (PhD, Zoologist, Bioethicist, Chennai, India)
Prof Chandra (MD, Social pediatrics, Chennai, India)
Mercy Kanakan, RN (Principal, Delta School of Nursing, Kadalur. India)
Prof Aruna Sivakami, (PhD, Political Science, Chennai, India)