The goal of the medical health camp was to provide preventative screenings and health education on cancer and related health issues resulting from high blood pressure, excess weight and other factors. The event, which was held free of charge for participants, provided education and health screenings for more than 550 women.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), close to 5.8 million Indians die each year from heart and lung diseases, stroke, cancer and diabetes. One in four Indians are at risk of dying as a result of a non-communicable disease before they reach the age of 70. Doctors in the country are also finding that people are being affected by heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases at younger ages.

The WHO notes that globally, more than 4 million deaths are caused by exposures to indoor household air pollution and 3.7 million deaths are attributed to outdoor air pollution each year. Approximately 40 percent of the deaths from indoor air pollution and 25 percent of those attributed to outdoor air pollution occur in Southeast Asia. The poor in India who live near busy roads and industrial sites are disproportionately affected by air pollution as are women and children who spend more time at home breathing in smoke and soot from cooking stoves.

“Salesian missionaries care for the sick in nearly 100 clinics and hospitals, located mostly in rural areas, around the globe,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “The medical health camp provided many Indian women access to necessary health education and screenings that will help to prevent disease and improve their overall quality of life.”

During the medical health camp, medical personnel administered screenings for diabetes, high blood pressure and body mass index. Gynecological and sonography services to screen for kidney and gall bladder stones, hernias, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts and appendicitis were also provided. In addition, the women who attended the camp were educated on the benefits related to income planning, saving and loans.

With more than 1.2 billion people, India has the world’s fourth largest economy and according to UNICEF, is home to one-third of the world’s poor. Close to 217 million of India’s poor are children. Although more than 53 million people escaped poverty between 2005 and 2010, most remain vulnerable to falling back below the poverty line.

Lack of educational opportunities in India are often due to issues of caste, class and gender and with 44 percent of the workforce illiterate, there is much work to be done. Less than 10 percent of the working-age population has completed a secondary education and too many secondary graduates do not have the knowledge and skills to compete in today’s changing job market.

Sources

Don Bosco Development Society

Don Bosco India – Free Medical camp held for women on Women’s Day

UNICEF – India

World Health Organization – India: first to adapt the Global Monitoring Framework on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs)

The post INDIA: Don Bosco Development Society Medical Health Camp Provided Screening to More than 550 Women first appeared on MissionNewswire.

The goal of CREAM is to encourage and enhance youth participation in the development process of promoting children’s rights and ensuring their care and protection. The project will include the formation of more than 450 child rights clubs and the training of 900 teachers and 22,500 children in Human Rights Education. It will also impart children’s rights awareness to about 75,000 children within a three-year period.

“Youth in every region and in every culture around the globe are entitled to basic human rights,” says Father Mark Hyde, executive director of Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco. “Through educational programming, the Salesians fight tirelessly each day to make sure the voices of marginalized youth are heard and accounted for. This program will help to enhance this work and make sure every child knows his or her human rights and is able to become a part of the development process.”

The CREAM project’s inaugural event began with an address by Sashikala Shetty, director of the Integrated Child Protection Scheme of the Government of Karnataka. She emphasized that every child by virtue of his or her birth has the right to survival, protection, development and participation, and noted that unless children are educated about their rights they will not be able to affirm those rights.

Following Mrs. Shetty’s address, Father Thomas Anchukandam, Salesian Provincial of Bangalore, spoke of the Salesians in India actively participating in the protection of children’s rights through the Young at Risk Forum and other Salesian programs and educational initiatives.

Father Joy Nedumparambil, executive director of the Bangalore Rural Educational and Development Society (BREADS), gave the keynote address and explained in detail the objectives of the project. CREAM is an initiative of BREADS and will cover 10 districts of Karnataka, namely, Bangalore, Ramnagara, Mysore, Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadgir, Chitradurga, Yadgir, Bellary, Raichur and Davangere. Other dignitaries were also on hand to celebrate the event.

The Salesians have been active for many years fighting for the rights of youth in India. For the past 22 years, the Salesians in Bangalore have focused on the rights of abandoned youth on city”s dangerous streets. With the help of many lay volunteers, the Salesian-run organization, Bangalore Oniyavra Seva Coota — locally known simply as “Bosco” — takes thousands of youth off the streets and offers them the chance of a better future.

The “Bosco” project began in 1980, when a group of Salesian students from Kristu Jyoti College in Bangalore decided to get personally involved with the abandoned children and youth in the city. They soon discovered the harsh reality experienced by the thousands of minors fighting for survival on the streets of Bangalore and started a weekly outreach project.

Today, Bosco has eight Salesian-run centers for youth, almost all in Bangalore, as well as six others in places of greatest risk. More than 100 Salesians and volunteers are involved in the centers and about 6,000 youth are rescued from the streets every year.

Learn more about Salesian Missions Programs in India >

###

PHOTO: Neill Holland / Salesian Missions

Sources:

ANS – Bosco Project: giving life in all its fullness

Salesian of Don Bosco – Bangalore

Salesian Missions – India

The post INDIA: New Salesian Initiative to Provide Human Rights Education to Tens of Thousands of Youth first appeared on MissionNewswire.