Awaaz.De is excited to launch partnership with The Rural Unit of Health and Social Affairs (RUHSA) and University of Sydney. RUHSA is a department of the Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore, Tamilnadu. RUHSA covers well over 120,000 people in the area around K.V.Kuppam in south India and has been involved in all aspects of rural development, agriculture, animal husbandry, adult education, vocational training, women’s training and help for the elderly and people with disabilities.
RUHSA have been collaborating with the University of Sydney, Australia for the past five years. During this time they have been implementing a low-tech cervical cancer screening program for the rural women (Cervical cancer is a leading killer in women and can be remedied with early detection). One of the biggest issues they have been facing for this program is providing reliable and timely health information to the women in the villages of South India. Through the use of peer educators working in women’s self-help groups, they are seeing some success but still lack a functional way to reach women because of the social stigma and the low literacy rates. This problem led them to think about using some kind of voice-based educational forums where people could anonymously access information in the local language and at their own time simply by using their own mobile phones. Awaaz.De is excited that the lead researcher has decided to trust our services with this important mission and we are excited to roll out this project to help educate communities with health information.
Recently, we hosted training at RUHSA with RUHSA’s staff members on how to post information on “voice site” and how rural women can access the information. Staff members were really exited after listening to cancer prevention information in local language.
We are so grateful to launch this rural health project with the team soon, as this visit was a great reminder on why we do what we do. Stay tuned to hear updates as this project continues to roll out.
