Short Jamkhed Report - Sept. 25th 2009
I arrived in Jamkhed late on the 17th of Sept and left again the afternoon of Sep 24th. It has definitely been a life changing experience.
Jamkhed is village of about 65,000 and is the marketing town for another 200+ villages.
In 1970 Drs. Mabelle and Raj Arole arrived in Jamkhed determined to better the lives of the poor villagers in the area, The Aroles had received their medical training first at the Vellore Christian Hospital then at John Hopkins in Baltimore.
After trying a couple of other places they came to Jamkhed in 1970 and here they were offered land and closed veterinary hospital to start their work. Little by little they won the confidence of the local people and the Comprehensive Rural Health Program(CRHP) was born. Comprehensive is the key word, the Aroles believe health goes far beyond curative intervention, but begins with the basics, nutrition, clean water and sanitation.
What has been accomplished over the past 39 years is nothing sort of a complete transformation. What they have done is empowered the communities – the complete communities. .The caste system has been destroyed and each community has found ways to use the skills of their people and to constantly improve these skills. Each village has farmer’s clubs and women’s clubs. These are the guiding forces of the community.
Every village now has a village health worker, chosen by the village itself. By and large these are illiterate women whose skills are constantly being upgraded be the CRHP staff. They are the first line of health care – bi-weekly a travelling clinic visits the village and trains not only the health worker but also the men’s and women’s club members. Medicine has been demystified. Each visit the traveling clinic will concentrate on a particular area of health, but also answer questions on any areas of concern.
How successful has this approach been? The infant death rate has dropped from 176 per 1000 to 18 per thousand. The three villages I visited have not had a case of malaria or typhoid in the past ten years.
The area in the Jamkhed block has two months of rain per year (July and August) and ten months of hot weather. It was a semi desert area and especially the lower casts and untouchables suffered from chronic malnutrition and actual starvation. The cast system was very strong and each caste lived unto itself, the untouchables were not allowed to live in the village itself. Through the men’s and women’s groups the caste system has disappeared and the whole community is working for the good of the whole community.
Water was the key and each village has a major water project. Streams are dammed making a chain of small lakes. In the dry season these lakes would evaporate but they have dug a large well and the water percolates into this well not only eliminating evaporation but raising the entire ground water level.. Now all of the villages have abundant water for all household uses but for massive irrigation projects - now there is no malnutrition!!
Prior to the formation of the people’s clubs wife abuse was rampant. Men would get drunk and beat their wives for the slightest provocation. The women had no perceived value and were expected to stay home and be a slave to the husband and his family. Once the women’s clubs were active when a husband began to beat his wife she would scream and the housewives, often up to forty, would come running and put the husband out of the house and keep him there until he mended his ways. The women had been empowered and quickly became a real asset to the community.
Of the three villages I visited one had an illiterate low caste mayor and the other had women in the three top position in the village.
There are no church buildings in any of the villages in the Jamkhed block. When I first heard this I was very disappointed but after observing the simple Christian live so many of the villagers are leading I have had to re-evaluate my perception of what is a true Christian. Each of the health workers I talked to professes to have turned from the Hindu god’s and are followers of the way.
Originally the Arole’s planned to build a church building but feel that God told them to build the church in the people’s hearts not with brick and mortar – as I look at the miraculous transformation of the villages in the Jamkhed block I must admit this was a wise decision – these people many of whom still profess to be Hindus are leaving a more pure Christian life than any community I have ever visited. There entire life is built around making the community a better place for all.
Every village has it’s health worker, the modern hospital cares for those who need further medical intervention. There is a interesting blend of modern Western medicine and traditional herbal medications. Many former false Hindu faith healers now use drama to show the villagers how they were duped in the past. I witnessed one example of this. The ex-faith healer drew the images of three spirits he claimed were attacking the woman. He said he would take the spirits from her and put them on himself. Then he burned the paper and rubbed the ashes on his arm and the same three images appeared on his arm. Then he explained how he had fooled many people with this trick. The images were painted on his arm first, with a liquid that was invisible but absorbed more of the carbon from the ashes than the surrounding area. Thus the images appeared. He had made much money from this trick but now repented and is working hard to correct the false thinking.
People are now coming from around the world for training a Jamkhed. Over it’s 39 year history CRHP has trained over 100,000 individuals. Just recently the State of Andhra Pradesh has signed a contract to have all their health workers receive some of the training with CRHP.
God never ceases to amaze me how He can use a few dedicated people to transform an entire region and then use this example to make a profound difference world-wide. We have much to learn from examples like this.
Submitted by Stuart Spani Sep 26th 2009
www.jamkhed.org www.friends-of-mizoram.org