WIN PROJECT

Presentation

India: a country with an economic growth rate of 8% - but where to this day a crime against women is committed every 3 minutes, a young married woman is burned, beaten to death or driven to commit suicide every 6 hours, where, according to UNICEF, only 15% of mothers receive complete antenatal care, and where a mother dies every 7 minutes because of complications during pregnancy or childbirth.

Mumbai: capital of the State of Maharashtra, a city with some 18 million inhabitants, nearly half of which – i.e. a number exceeding the total population of Switzerland – lives in slums, faced with poverty, insalubrity, unemployement, diseases, malnutrition and many other evils.

The WIN project includes the creation and operation of 20 health centres, access to a clinic offering ambulatory surgical services, and a centre for management, coordination and training.
This model is likely to be replicated on a large scale, in various cities of India and elsewhere.

Beneficiaries and Infrastructure

The WIN programme focuses mainly on women and children; it deals with health, including sexual and reproductive health , education, training and income generating activities.

WINis based on a pilot project, which was initiated in the slums of Mumbai (Bombay) in 1964, and has achieved growing success ever since, both among beneficiaries and a number of experts in the field of development and poverty reduction.

Expenses related to the operation of one health centre for one year amount to CHF 6,500. Each centre provides medical treatment to an average of 1,000 women and children per year, and is therefore extremely cost-effective. This amount also includes the services and home visits carried out by health workers, costs related to the management and coordination of the project, as well as various training modules (for project staff and beneficiaries).

The services of WIN health centres include medical care (diagnosis and treatment of common illnesses, gynaecological supervision, pregnancy checks, etc.), prevention of health deficiencies and sexually transmitted diseases, access to contraceptive methods, infertility and reproductive health counselling, immunisation and medical supervision of children, as well as information on hygiene and nutrition.

Each health centre also employs 4 health workers, who are recruited among the female slum population. Health workers are duly trained before they start their field activities and given continuous in-house training. They earn a modest salary.

Health workers play an essential role within the project as they hold a key position on the level of information and education, raising awareness among families in a decentralised way, i.e. outside the centres.
Each health worker looks after approximately 250 families and visits about 20 of them each day.

The activities of health workers are not only focused on health and medical issues but also deal with questions related to the social and economic status of women and girls. Through interacting with families, they aim at encouraging parents to send their girls to school, and at promoting the vocational training of adolescents and women (tailoring, embroidery, jewellery making, etc.), as well as the creation of income generating activities and savings groups. They thus make an essential contribution towards strengthening the position of women and providing them with the means to manage their own and their children's life in a more autonomous and responsible way.

WIN is based on a global view of women and children's living conditions. It focuses on a comprehensive approach of development issues in order to achieve a sustainable improvement for its beneficiaries.

IFPD actively assists the WIN management on the level of project financing, planning and implementation. A representative of the Foundation travels to India on a regular basis to assess progress, evaluate current needs and outline future objectives.

For further information:
Cristina Marich – IFPD General Secretary – +41 21 341 41 00 – cmarich@ifpd.org