CRADLE - help 125 new & expectant Indian mothers

We are quite excited to report that we are fast approaching the launch of the first set of workshops for the first Cradle batch! In the past quarter, we conducted home visits and surveys in our communities. The new program is and will continually be shaped by the needs of the community women. On September 26, the workshops will begin in two centres - Urur Kuppam and Ramapuram. We are all set with our lesson plans and learning kits for the weekly workshops that will be held over a period of 10 weeks. These workshops will be conducted by our team using materials issued by organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, and Canadian Public Health Agency, and adapted to our context. They will also include sessions by external coaches, like gynecologists  and certified breastfeeding advisors. For our very first batch of Cradle Health graduates, we will focus on teaching women about nutrition, their own bodies as well as the development of their babies. 

We have had a breakthrough in finding a community space for the workshops in Urur Kuppam. ‘Kottaai’ is a gazebo in the middle of the Urur Kuppam village which was largely occupied by drunk men. Now, with our regular visits and sessions, it has been taken over by children as a community space for playing and craft. This means it has also become a safe space for the women in Urur Kuppam to attend the Cradle workshops.

We have been conducting individual meetings with women to follow up on what they had reported a few months earlier as well to understand their issues, so that the workshops suitably address them. The final admissions for the workshop are ongoing, and we are welcoming all women who are interested in these workshops. We are also in the process of recruiting staff from each community, who will be responsible for monitoring the progress of participants. 

With the place, content, and staff ready, we are all set to get the ball rolling!

As the Cradle Program continues to grow, we are pleased to announce that we have a group of women from the Urur Kuppam community visiting our centre weekly and engaging in a variety of activities to increase knowledge on topics such as hygiene, sexual health, and personal safety. The Cradle Program is working in collaboration with the Women’s Program to attract more participation on a weekly basis. March 8th 2019, was International Women’s Day and was celebrated at the Pudiyador Centres by our women staff members. The day’s activities were themed around unity, reflection and action. Each staff member along with the local women who attended were gifted the book ‘Pen Yen Adimaiyanal’ (Why Women Were Slaves) to read and discuss in a book club forum this upcoming summer.

Most recently, the women and mothers came together to celebrate Mother’s Day through the nurturing nature of womanhood. Our mothers are continuing to come together to share and discuss pregnancy joys and fears. We are really proud of the inclusive and honest space that is being created within these sessions. We invited Dr. Dharani, a gynaecologist, with over 40 years of medical experience to join our celebrations and conduct a question and answer based session to respond to any of the questions that our women might have regarding pregnancy. With Dr. Dharani, the women discussed and learned in greater depth about basic female hygiene. There were also discussions that took place on breast cancer, irregular periods and early childhood care. Dr. Dharani helped the women evaluate every part of their body from head to toe, to gain a more holistic understanding of how to best take care of one’s self.

In the upcoming months, we will continue to collaborate with the Women’s Program and continue to increase our weekly membership. Nithya, a staff member at Pudiyador is now spearheading the Cradle Program and we can’t wait to see what she has in store for the programming. Moving forward, we at Pudiyador have realized that it is important for the women to have ownership in a place, building trust and comfort to facilitate these difficult conversations, while simultaneously providing a safe space. Pudiyador is currently looking at options for these women to gain access to a space of their own so that gynaecologists and local health care centers can continue to offer support in our programming and workshops in a personalized environment. We will keep you updated on this project! In the meantime, workshops are continuing to be scheduled as needed with the pregnant women of Urur Kuppam community and we continue to strive in contributing to creating a wholesome environment to raise children in Chennai.