Anemia Awareness Camp

On the morning of Sunday, June 3^rd GDL held an Anemia Camp in Jatavas, one of the mohallas in Bagar where the anemia awareness campaign is currently focused. The objective of the camp was to raise anemia awareness in the area, and to get women tested to get an idea of how big a problem anemia is in Jatavas. We did meet our objectives on Sunday. 95+ Jatavas residents were tested for anemia, most of them were women. If they were found to be anemic, they were given at least 12 iron pills to start, and were told that the hospital in Bagar provides all women with a low hemoglobin count, iron pills free of cost. Most of the women tested were found to be 9g/dl (hemoglobin count). There were outliers, however, with the smallest count being 5g/dl. For women, the hemoglobin count must be between 11-15 g/dl to be anemia-free.

The camp was held for three and a half hours in the morning, from 9:00am – 12:30pm, including a half-hour time extension due to the large crowds that would not cease to swell. Every five seconds I would turn my head around, and there would be five new women walking through the gates of the space where the camp was being held.

We had fun publicizing the camp.  After creating Hindi flyers, they were posted on the walls of the mohallas in Jatavas.  I managed to spend most of my time going door-to-door to invite women to the camp for two days before the camp.  On the day of the camp, we rented an autorickshaw, a battery as well as a microphone and went around Jatavas in the vehicle announcing the camp over the loudspeaker.  We had fun publicizing the camp. After creating Hindi flyers, they were posted on the walls of the mohallas in Jatavas. I managed to spend most of my time going door-to-door to invite women to the camp for two days before the camp. On the day of the camp, we rented an autorickshaw, a battery as well as a microphone and went around Jatavas in the vehicle announcing the camp over the loudspeaker.