Vitamin A supplement: Reaching the last mile- the last child

The Vitamin A supplement program started in Assam from 1st November 2017. The Boat Clinic health teams have made best efforts to give Vitamin A supplements to all children in their targeted char/sapori areas by organizing special camps, awareness sessions and distributing IEC leaflets. The teams have visited village homes, paddy fields, schools etc for covering those children who did not come to the scheduled health camp & vaccine sessions. 

The Lakhimpur Boat Clinic Unit led by District Programme Officer Tapan Bora while walking to an interior remote island of Dambukial on 21 st November 2017, over 3 kms from the Subansiri riverbank to cover children left out from the Vitamin A programme found a child with her mother near a paddy field. Then team checked the due list and accordingly gave her Vitamin A supplement. The others in the group included Lima Chutia ANM, Elizabeth Kom, GNM , a boat crew along with a local health worker. In rural India most mothers take their children to the field. They therefore do not get the benefit of Government programmes often. Again sometimes these programmes do not reach the grass root level.

C-NES’ 15 Boat Clinic Units provide health services to remote river island villages of the mighty Brahmaputra under extremely challenging conditions. Maximum effort is taken to ensure that services are taken to the last mile with special focus on mother and child and the vulnerable adult groups.