Proper nutrition till 5 years of age is the foundation to a healthy all rounded life. In a report published by UNICEF, 69% of deaths under the age of 5 was attributed to malnutrition.

Health and Safety (H&S) has been a primary focus of Ambuja Foundation across all programs with customized interventions for different target audiences. Whilst the majority of the year saw efforts focus on COVID-19, the team still managed to carry out a variety of interventions at the beginning of the year at SEDI:

75-year-old Vitthal Jayram Vinchu was distraught when he learnt he was ailing from High Blood pressure and Diabetes. Over the past few months, he had been perpetually thirsty and hungry. Subsequently, his weight had swelled to 110 kgs, making it arduous to do any physical activity. His gait had also assumed a limp and needed the support of a walking stick. That was when he decided to visit a government hospital and get a health checkup done.

All her life, Amreika Patel dreamed of being a nurse. But at just 13 years of age, her father passed away and she soon got married. For almost 13 years she was restricted to housework and her nursing dreams seemed but a pipe-dream.

Ambuja Foundation is promoting adolescent health through a peer led, life skills based, education programme called APEKSHA (Adolescent Peer for Enhancement of Knowledge, Skill and Healthy Association) - reaching over 28,170 youth by training just 970 peer educators from 72 Schools.

Rural women are key agents for development, yet in India, there remains a large, latent potential in the country's women - particularly in rural areas. However, many communities are finding ways to tap this latent potential to enable 'last mile reach' in remote, rural communities for various community services - in particular, healthcare.

Rakhi Singha is an Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHA worker.

The health team of Ambuja Foundation has been at the forefront during this critical time in creating awareness about COVID19 in our core villages

Ambuja Foundation in partnership with NGO Arogya World, launched the m-Diabetes App across all locations as a major initiative in its effort to impact Non-Communicable Disease via behavior change of 2lakh people over the next 3 years across Ambuja Foundation communities.

Ambuja Foundation Nalagarh recently organized a general health camp with an objective to provide general health check-up facilities to rural populations for reproductive health, eye strength, and blood sugar / haemoglobin levels. The doctors recommended treatment to those who required and distributed free medicines.

Ambuja Foundation is tackling Diabetes through an association with mDiabetes - circulating information through pre-recorded messages on mobile phones about diabetes prevention, nutrition and lifestyle modifications to the community along with other efforts.

SHG women in Chandrapur have set up and are managing an outlet to provide Health & Safety equipment to key stakeholders at Maratha Cement Works, a unit of ACL Upparwahi, Maharashtra - helping rural women earn another revenue stream to support them and their families.