Hepatitis Awareness Rally

Rotary Club of Chandigarh organized today the hepatitis awareness rally at Sukhna Lake, as a precursor to the WHO’s officially supported World Hepatitis Day which falls on 28^th July 2011.

Dr. Yogesh Chawla, Head, Hepatology Department, PGI flagged off the march with Rotarians, Rotaractors and their family members, distributing literature amongst the large number of people who gather at the lake on Sundays.

Hepatitis kills more than one million people every year and as per WHO report, approximately 500 million people worldwide are infected by hepatitis B or C1 necessitating awareness of the people, said Rotary Club Chandigarh’s President Neena Singh.

It is believed that one in 12 people worldwide are infected with these virus and majority of those infected by it do not know about it.

Rotary Club is also organizing a one day free screening camp at Rotary House, 107A, Sector 18A, from 10am to 5pm on Monday, Neena Singh informed. 

Are you ready to End Polio?

As we come closer to the eradication of polio from our country, with only 1 case reported so far in last six months, it is time to sit up and be extra vigilant, extra cautious, and more active in ensuring that the polio virus does not return.
The Emergency Preparedness Plan is what Rotary is working out with the government to be ready to combat in the eventuality of a polio outbreak. Our areas are more at risk with more migrations, and the need is to identify the migrants, sensitise them, and immunise the children travelling with them.
Yesterday, the Punjab PolioPlus Task Force, comprising of 24 senior Rotarians with Rotary International Director Yash Pal Das as Advisor, and PDG Shubh Karn Gupta as Chairman-Convenor along with Dr. Dinesh Singh from WHO and Dr. Balwinder Singh, State Immunisation Officer, Punjab, met at Chandigarh Judicial Academy to thrash out the immediate plans.
Past Rotary International President Rajendra K. Saboo who had all along been a great votary and driver of polio movement in the world, said that Rotarians, perhaps, feel that we are done with polio and "we're almost there".  "Almost", he emphasised, "is the most dangerous terminology that is leading us to complacency, and almost does not mean the completion of the task at hand".  He urged the Rotary leaders to engage Rotarians more and more in the task of keeping the pressure on, on the society, on the state agencies, on various other stock holders, so that any child carrying the virus gets detected at the early stages and reported.
Rtn. Yash Das said that for the intensified eradication activities planned until 2012, there is a global deficit of Rs.2992 crores, and hence continued financial support by Rotarians is a must.
He also pointed out that there is poor response to NIDs and approximately 60 percent of the children get covered despite massive efforts and in the next two days 40 percent uncovered children are reached out through door-to-door campaigns, which should be tackled by Rotarians.
The Task Force identified certain key areas in which Rotarians must intensify their efforts and involve themselves throughout the year, including :

• Developing and managing communication plan and ensuring better visibility through multi-pronged campaign
• Help in the Emergency Preparedness Plan and conducting mock drills to manage an eventuality
• Recognise doctors/revenue districts reporting maximum cases of AFP
• Organising media sensitization workshop
• Identifyication and reaching out to migratory population

Every Club, every Rotarian must come forward to make a difference and ensure that no child is left out.

'Hamari Beti' to go on air

After having successfully launched its Facebook community page, which has attracted community participation to join the debate against female foeticide, the Rotary Club of Chandigarh (District 3080) has been able to tie up with Panjab University’s School of Communication Studies, for initiating a radio series titled “Hamari Beti”.

The community radio, Jyotigramye 91.2 MHz, would be producing series of interview based programmes on various facets of the issue including female foeticide, crime against women, literacy, women empowerment, rights of women, the health issues, and the medical fraternity’s role in preventing the menace of female foeticide, etc.

The programme was kicked off with the interview of Rotary Club Chandigarh’s President Rtn. Neena Singh who spoke about the Rotary’s initiatives in reaching out to the women in the region and sensitise them to the isseue.

From Drop Box

We shall be enaging the local community and have interviewed people living in the villages and the residences around the campus, who would be part of the radio programme “Hamari Beti”, informed Rtn. Charanjit Singh, an alumnus of the School of Communication Studies.

The programme is aimed at reaching out to the community at large targeting the youth in the campus plus people living in Chandigarh in a periphery of 15-20kms radius, where this community radio is heard.

The recording bank is being created at the moment, and is being packaged with lots of other inputs from students and research scholars in this programme and would be launched within a fortnight for which some celebrities are being approached, informed Dr Archana Singh, Head of the School of Communication Studies, Panjab University.