Women and Girls often do not have easy access to the information relevant to their Health and Health Concerns”- Prof Fionnuala MacAuliffe, Chair, FIGO Committee on the impact of Pregnancy on long term Health.
In Sri Lanka a topic that is often shied away from is the knowledge on sexual and reproductive health. It is considered a taboo topic in our culture thus leading to the lack of knowledge or misunderstandings in the subject. Despite the islands high literacy rate and robust public health system, the health and wellbeing of children and women are still under threat and compromised at many levels.This leads to further issues of gender inequality and discrimination. Therefore, we have decided to tackle this problem further as a continuous project ; “SUWALIYA 3.0 “by Rotaract Club, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo considering all age categories.
In SUWALIYA 3.0 we conducted two sub projects ; 3.1 Suwaliya and 3.2 Suwakekulu.
In 3.2 ,During first phase, an awareness programme for post-menopausal women was carried out along with Annual Health Camp of Faculty of Medicine, Colombo in Gothamigama,Katharagama on 22 of October 2023.Posters regarding menopause, health issues in menopause, how to face them was demonstrated along with interactive discussion.
There are over 15 000 children in about 414 residential care homes in Sri Lanka who live without the basic family support and guidance. Adolescents in these homes are going through a stage where there are many physical changes and they are beginning to mature mentally. This is a time where children need guidance and support, especially for girls who become the women that carry on the next generation. There fore in 3.1 during second phase, an awareness programme was held in Shilpa children’s trust , Rajagiriya and Gunasekara children’s development Center, Rajagiriya for adolescent girls as two hours’ session with posters and Q and A session about what is youth and differences occurs in body in detail, menstrual hygiene and nutrition in youth. At the end we donated few booklets as a source of knowledge to the care home libraries.
Also as a new start ,we collaborated with Eye care center, Faculty of Medicine ,University of Colombo to do a primary eye screening program of the adolescent girls in the care homes with relation to the “world sight day ; second Thursday of October 2023”. We are collaborating with Amana Bank to provide spectacles to the needed adolescent girls after the second screening in the Vision Care.
In 3.1 during Phase 3, As breast and cervical cancers are the leading causes of cancer mortality and incident rates among females in Sri Lanka , we organizes awareness programme for reproductive age women in Cristal Martin Pvt Ltd., malwatta on March 13,2024.Despite the government’s provision of free screening services for both types of cancer, utilization remains low due to a lack of awareness. The awareness session, led by students and a nursing sister from the MOH,Veyangoda with presentation , leaflets and Q and A session.The contents of the presentation mainly focused on recognizing signs and symptoms, conducting self-breast examinations,utilizing early detection methods and about well-women clinics and the other health services offered by the government to promote female health.
The second part of project Suwaliya 3.0 is Suwakekulu where we mailnly aim to empower mothers to improve their knowledge on health, to better take care of themselves and their children.
In Suwaliya 1.0 and 2.0 a Mobile application consists of 5 components which are Growth ,Development ,Nutrition ,Immunization and Knowledge and Facts was made.
“Watching your child suffer the horrors of treatments in order to have a chance at life is something no parent should ever have to experience”- Kristin
A child who is having mild disease itself gives parents unbearable mental pain, distress. So a child who is having severe illness like cancer and in most cases which does not have treatment, cure and to extend even one day in child’s life parents has to see them go through painful treatments will shatter parents life into tiny pieces . It’s not only the permanent mental breakdown they will have, it will for sure affect their families wellbeing in many ways; one being economically.
Therefore in Suwakekulu phase 3.2, as a new start we gave our support to the parents and children who are in Maharagama Apeksha Hospital pediatric wards by donating Merapen 30 vials worth of 243,090 rupees on 28 th of March,2024.
The first 3 phases achieve the SDG 3,target 3.7 – Ensure access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education as it promotes health seeking behavior in adolescent girls regarding sexual and reproductive health and the SDG 5, target 5.6 -Ensure access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights. The rotary focus area targeted is basic health and literacy as it improves health related knowledge in adolescent girls and the public at large.
The final phase of this project achieves the SDG 3, target 3.2 – Reduce preventable deaths of new-borns and children under 5 years of age as the Suwa kekulu mobile app provides knowledge and means of monitoring development and immunization and promotes the health and well-being of both child and mother. The rotary focus area targeted is maternal and child health as it helps a mother in the journey of caring for one’s child and also promotes the wellbeing of the child.
