Gadchiroli June 9 (District correspondent) In tribal and non-tribal areas of Gadchiroli district, health problems are still there due to lack of facilities. Many officers, doctors, nurses are afraid to come to the tribal area of Gadchiroli. People coming from outside are afraid of the forest, Naxals and snakes here. However, Asha Workers live in such an atmosphere and they are the hope of the people of these remote tribal areas, said Dr. Padmashri Dr. Abhay Bang, founder of the organization ‘SEARCH’.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a training camp for Asha Workers held at Shodhagram the other day. District Health Officer Dr. Dawal Salve, Dr. Swapnil Belekar, Dr. Anand Modak, Dr. Satish Jambhule were prominently present.
Dhanora taluka is known as 90 percent tribal taluka. Search health workers have been working in 48 villages of this taluka for the last 25 years. From this year, SEARCH has taken the responsibility of improving the health of 230 villages in the entire Dhanora taluka. In 1988, when SEARCH started the program of ‘house-to-house new-born and maternal care’, it trained under-educated women in the village and handed over the health of the village to them and succeeded in preventing infant mortality and maternal mortality. Now SEARCH and Gadchiroli district administration has taken the initiative to strengthen health services in tribal areas by training Asha Workers.
SEARCH is imparting training to Asha Workers of all the five Primary Health Centres in Dhanora Taluka. The first batch of this training camp has started from 7th June at Shodhagram.
. Dr. Salve expressed gratitude towards Abhay Bang for providing the training to Asha Workers. Now Asha has got the opportunity of getting training from the place where ‘Asha’ programme started. This will help in developing Asha’s skill, he hoped. Also, he said that last year there was no maternal death in Dhanora taluka and the same situation will be maintained, he hoped.
As many as 176 Ashas from Dhanora taluka will be trained in this camp. Senior search worker Dr. Baitule and Dr. Supriyalakshmi is imparting this training. During this training, Asha will be provided with scientific knowledge to identify cough or pneumonia as well as equipment to measure the breath of new-born baby, medicines for immediate treatment of common diseases etc.
Dhanora taluka is currently facing the problem of malaria, pneumonia and dysentery. With the help of Asha, Search is implementing this initiative to improve Dhano’s health condition.
Dr. Abhay Bang, Dr. Dawal Salwe and others seen at the inauguration of the ASHA training camp.
