Asian Resource Center
Asian Federation on Intellectual Disabilities

Star Raft Award 2013
星槎賞The winner
OUTSTANDING ACTIVITIES PROVIDED BY VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONASTHA in Hazaribagh, INDIA

8 th , Oct, 2013

What does “Seisa/ Star Raft”?
There is an old Chinese story. A young man in a period under strict national isolation dared togo out and see the world. When he returned he saved his country with the knowledge and experiencehe gained abroad. It is said that his raft arose from the sea and traveled across the sky. A raft oflogs of different lengths tied together with a strong rope. The word “Seisa” is composed of two
Chinese characters, “Sei” is the “Star” character. “Sa” is the “raft” character.
It is hope of Seisa Group to be your Raft with the spirit of “Living Together”.

Malnutrition- A vicious cycle in which a child actually getstrapped inside his mother's womb itself even before he hastaken birth. His life succumbs to fatality in the pre arrival of
his in the world. First, the improper nutrition to the motherand then to the child both add up to ultimately block thefruitful growth of the child to which he has every right toentitlement. In the absence of a balanced nutrition, evil
effects of malnutrition starts figuring in and the immunity ofchildren against deadly diseases starts diminishing -thisfinally results in pre mature deaths of them.
The issue of tackling Malnutrition has repeatedly troubled
the policy makers especially in South Asian countries likeIndia. Due to a huge population and a larger percentage ofthem being mired with poverty, it often becomes difficult for
the government to directly provide relief to them given thepoor infrastructure and lack of resource, funds etc.
In this respect the initiative of District Administration ofHazaribagh, a small district in the tribal dominated state of
Jharkhand, is really a commendable one. Known by various
names like "Kuposhan ke khilaf Jung me, Hum Sab Sangme" (In the fight against Malnutrition, All of us are together),"Bachpan Bachao" (Save Childhood), "Jeevan Asha" (Hope forlife), this initiative has been an excellent example in terms ofdecentralized policy formulation & implementation.
The story of this initiative started about ten months ago
when reports regarding wide infant deaths started pouring inthroughout the district. This was slightly ridiculous because
in every district there exist MTC (Malnutrition TreatmentCentre) which has been designed to take care for such cases.
When this matter was further investigated it was found thatthe capacity of regular treatment is by far restricted vis-it-vis
the number of cases arrived. It was then concluded that theresources of the state is grossly limited to cater to such asituation and something out of way must be plannedimmediately to counter the issue.
A drive across the district was carried out to locate theexact number of such malnourished children by deploying
more than 900 teams who were supposed to visit every healthcenter in the nook and corner of the district, measure thevital statistics like weight, height, muscles, edema etc andidentify the children suffering with SAM (Severe AcuteMalnutrition). This strategy was devolved by way of a "JanSamvad" a kind of "Public Dialogue" which was conductedprior to this survey with the participation of all the possible
stakeholders to this initiative. In this survey it was observedthat the state of health of a number of children in the district
was pitiable. Most of them showed a complete lack of growth,skin devoid of any muscles, bones easily prone to fracture,swollen stomachs, protruding eyes etc. In fact these weresigns of deficiency diseases like Kwashiorkar, Marasmus,
Pellagra, Rickets, Night Blindness etc. the horribleness ofwhich were unknown to the poor people.
Knowing the fact that the direct interference of thegovernment is difficult, the District Administration under theable leadership of Dr. Manish Ranjan, Collector cum District
Magistrate decided to rope in the local people to eradicate thisproblem. The poor state of children health and abject poverty
level of their parents were widely publicized in the media anddiscussed through meetings, seminars and conferences invarious forums. The effect of such advertisements had acumulative effect on the civil society as a number of local
intelligentsia, affluent class, government servants, NGO etc
came forward voluntarily to extend all kinds of supports. TheDistrict Administration extended warm appreciation toeveryone for such a nice gratitude of theirs towards thesociety and made a small request to adopt as many of thosechildren as possible thereby bringing them out from the evil
clutches of Malnutrition. The adoption was not like the true
adoption but in the form of monetary help of a mere Rs. 150/ per month to the parents of the affected child. In this way thechild was to remain with his parents only with the funding
coming to him in the form of donation by his adopting
parents.
An important aspect of this initiative was the developmentof a balanced nutritious food material made out of cheap
ingredients like wheat, oat, barley etc which was cheap andeasily digestible by the child. It was actually the conventional
wisdom of the elders in the villages which was behind thedevelopment of this food. Availability of this food at all thehealth centers was ensured.
Such was the popularity of this initiative that nearly all the2000 odd SAM children who were identified were successfully
adopted by one or the other parents.
It is quite understandable that not only poverty but
ignorance and illiteracy have also played a vital role in spreadof malnutrition. The practice of marrying girls during theirteenage, conceiving before the appropriate age, lack ofnutritious food during pregnancy, lack of colustrum feeding to
the child, lack of substantial diet six months after birth,superstitions etc are some of the major reasons behind the illhealth of children. The District administration tried to hit
this aspect often exceptionally through its public awarenessprogrammes where experts from hospitals, institutions,
universities and international organizations used to lighten
the minds of everyone.
Summing up, it was indeed a unique and highly
appreciable initiative since six months after its inception
there was evident examples of improvement in health amongchildren earlier suffering from deficiency diseases. This
practice of mobilizing community itself and using local
resources without roping in government resources was an
unconventional approach which was well undertaken by theadministration. The method by which general public wassensitized who finally realized that there are some of the
responsibilities which everyone must take care as a humanfor the mankind as a whole was a good breakthrough. In all
respect, this initiative deserve all applauds and replication
across the globe.