New project in India: Applications for “Health Equity Course-2023” are open!

The outline of the project

A 10-day participatory training course is a key component of this project.

(See the article on the course impression)

Participants of the course
Young community leaders and health frontiers

The outputs of the course
1. To sensitize the participants on the basic principles of health rights
2. To build capacities of the participants to identify health issues through the social determinants and the rights-based lens.
3. To build capacity of the participants to understand and critically analyze health related policies and systems
4. To build capacity of the participants internalize the participatory approach
5. To develop a community-based action plan to fulfill and protect health rights.

After the course…
The participants implement their action plan in their respective communities. And moreover, the participants keep updating with each other on the progress of their community-based actions and exchanging the lessons learnt.

Title: Building a Community of Young Leaders for Combating Health Inequities and Health Challenges in India

Area: Rajasthan and other states of India

Project period: May 2023 – May 2026

Implementing Organization: Prayas, represented by Ms. Chhaya Pachauli (ILDC2019)

Overall objective:

To build a community of young leaders and health frontiers for bridging health inequity through community mobilization and building effective demand for conducive health care policies and practices so as to make free, quality and accountable health care available and accessible to all.

Background:

The public health care system of India faces several constraints to deliver quality health care services. The lack of orientation of public healthcare providers around socio-economic determinants of health and low level of health awareness among a large population make access to public health care services even more challenging especially for the poor and vulnerable sections of the population.

In order to put the different health policies into operation effectively and efficiently, extensive civil society engagement will be required to collaborate with the government, healthcare providers and also with the communities. Meanwhile, Prayas has confirmed the effectiveness of participatory method on ownership shifting for claiming the effective demands.

The role and responsibilities of Prayas
1. Have the overall responsibility for the project cycle management.
2. Mobilize human resources for the organizing committee* and the mentor group from Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (People’s Health Movement in Rajasthan, India) and Learning community.
3. Facilitate team building and capacity development of the organizing committee.

*Organizing committee is in charge of;
– Plan, prepare, implement, monitor, and evaluate the course.
– Enable the participation of the course to strengthen existing network in their respective communities and build new action-based networks committed to community empowerment and multi-sectoral collaboration.
– Monitor and evaluate the impact of the course on the participants and their respective communities.
– Mobilize financial and physical resources that are necessary for implementation of this project.

The role and responsibilities of AHI

1. Financial supports for;

(i) creation of the participatory training module and follow-up mechanism
(ii) formation and capacity development of the organizing committee for sustainable project management and development.

2. Coordinate the human and intellectual resource from among the Learning Community

Words from the Kickoff meeting

"What is the most exciting or challenging to you? "

Kagumi (AHI)

"What I am looking forward to is that we organize a learning group in a very creative way. The participants who come with experiences in the development sector set the agenda and learn from each other, not just sit and listen to somebody says something."

Shobhita

Mentoring group

"This is the first time that I am involved in organizing a 10-days training course like this. I’m also very excited to be a part of the organizing team."

Dinesh (Prayas)

Organizing Committee

"I found the key is that the young leaders will be coming in the wake of right and raising issues through the training course and coming to lead the flag of health rights throughout the process. I guess it could be a revolution."

Neeraj

Organizing Committee

"It’s a great opportunity and a novel experience of learning for the participants, the moderators, as well as the mentors like us. I consider myself a student all along. A lot of experiences coming from the participants and us feeds into the training course."

Meeta

Mentoring group

"The most challenging things would be a follow-up process, because it takes much time and is uneasy to keep the participants being engaged with us even after they go back to their organizations.
The current challenge is how we take time out to be a mentor or an organizing committee member to manage this project together, apart from our own responsibility in the organization. But, I hope that we all put our best into this project."

Chhaya (Prayas)

Organizing Committee

"Since many health challenges come up in different shapes today, it’s very important　to listen to the community members and the health frontiers.
I’m looking forward to seeing that the training course in which we stay together 24-7 for 10 days will bring a new dimension to us, have us move forward and let our young leaders and health frontiers make a difference."

Pritampal

Mentoring group

"It’s a unique concept that the participants decide what they want to learn in the course and how to conduct sessions. At the same time, it’s very challenging for all of us. We as facilitators play a minimal role in the decision-making once the course starts but we are responsible for knowing well about the participants’ learning needs and helping their learning process. We have never done like this before."