In working among adolescent girls, the importance of menstrual health and hygiene cannot be emphasized less. Myths and taboos are, however, highly prevalent and dispelling them become essential to executing a successful programme in this space.

The Swacch Bharat Mission was undoubtedly the biggest public health, behaviour change campaign in the world, with the Government undertaking the gargantuan task of making India Open Defecation Free. Whilst a lot of hurdles remain, the impacts are clear - *110 million household and public toilets were built in just 5 years and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that over 300,000 lives were saved as a result of fewer cases of diarrhea.

Last mile coverage of maternal healthcare in villages across India continues to remain a challenge. The quality of health service provided by Primary healthcare centres and Sub-centres is often sub optimal, essential medicines and beds in short supply as well as lack of qualified medical professionals.

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.