Akha and Shahnaz health services
C-NES has been providing health services to communities on the river islands of the Brahmaputra in Assam, groups which do not have any access to health facilities and services through SB Akha and SB Shahnaz. Initially it was done since 2005 in collaboration with the District administration, district of Dibrugarh than Dhemaji and Tinsukia as well as Joint Directors, Department of Health Services, UNICEF and other departments. The boats are specially designed floating clinics cum training centres. Equipped with beds, saline bottle stands and other necessary medical gear, the vessels also provide facilities for treatment on board and enable the delivery of basic health services. The teams, lead by District Community Organizers (DCOs), work extensively on health awareness issues like reproductive health, population control, sanitation, nutrition, malaria control and prevention with priority given to delivery of national immunization programme for children as well as pre and post –natal check ups for women.
Over 20,000 people, mostly children and women have been treated and immunized in 30 health and immunization camps conducted in the sapories (sandbar) of Dibrugarh district of Assam covering almost the entire resident populations of the islands.
Shahnaz made its first official trial run from Nagaghuli ghat, Dibrugarh (near Maijan TE) on 28th December, 2006. Since than, it has been working on immunization and health check up activities in Dhemaji district, with a team of doctors, nurses and health workers. Sengajan sapori, Baligaon, Panbari, Sonarighat, Badalpur chapori, Lamba Kankan Chapori, Lamba Apsara and Siyung Shree saporis have been visited by the health team, who provided health services to a total of about 800 persons including, 526 immunization.
In February 2008, the health programme was significantly upscaled after an MOU was signed with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Government of Assam, to increase the districts covered to five, including Morigaon and Dhubri, and the selection of 60 new staff, including 10 doctors, 30 ANMS and GNMS as well as lab technicians and pharmacists. Work is going on full swing. Ashok Rao, a specialist in hospital management from Jorhat was appointed Programme Manager, Sanjay Sharma, a veteran of C-NES, is Associate Programme Manager and Sanjoy Hazarika is the Project Director. The five DCOs are Amrit Borah for Dibrugarh district, Hiranya Deka, DCO for Tinsukia, Dulu Buragohain for Dhemaji, Abul Kalam Azad for Morigaon and Meheboob Alom Hazarika for Dhubri. The NRHM has asked us to expand our activities and we propose to increase the outreach in 2008-09 to five more districts making a total of 10 in all. The last five districts are being finalized.
The effort is a major thrust to improve health conditions of, eventually, lakhs of people in Assam.