Glenmark Foundation’s flagship Child Health Project – Project Kavach
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Glenmark Foundation’s flagship Child Health Project – Project Kavach
INTRODUCTION
The motto of ‘Enriching Lives’ is a common thread that binds everything at Glenmark. Enriching Lives is a belief they put into action by continually striving to find new ways of doing things.Creating a healthier and happier world is Glenmark’s key mission, which it steadfastly strives to achieve through its business activities. This commitment and effort is not only limited to improvements in its operations but also extends to being a responsible corporate citizen.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is therefore one of the ways in which Glenmark strives to enrich lives of people in the larger society. One of the causes that Glenmark has focused on is the problem of child health, which is a serious issue across the world. Instituted around the theme of ‘Healthier Children, Healthier World’, Glenmark Foundation, the CSR arm of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, is actively working towards improving child health and reducing infant and child mortality.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
A detailed research in the field of child health and its key findings directed Glenmark to initiate ‘Project ‘Kavach’, its flagship CSR program. The word ‘Kavach’ means a shield and symbolizes protection.The aim of ‘Project Kavach’ is to reduce infant & child mortality in children between 0 to 5 years. Project Kavach’s strategy is to systematically identify the target groups; educate and inform them about positive health seeking behaviour and introduce several novel service delivery mechanisms that help in making an impact. In order to maximize the scope and impact of its programs, Glenmark Foundation works very closely with various non-governmental organization (NGO) partners as well as existing government health mission programs. The interventions are focused on adolescents, newly married, pregnant mothers, new-borns and children. Glenmark believes that the right impact can be made through the approach of staying with the woman from the time she is married to when her child is five years of age. Thus Glenmark has staged interventions at each crucial phase of a mother and child’s life.
In order to improve access to healthcare, Glenmark has also launched the ‘Health on Wheels for Children’ which is a mobile health delivery service aimed at making quality healthcare services available to the underprivileged.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
Glenmark has impacted over 8,00,000 lives through its various interventions in child health spread across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Gujarat in India and Nairobi in Kenya. Out of this over 1,65,000 were children who were reached through the various initiatives to improve nutrition, immunization and sanitation levels.Glenmark’s interventions have improved the lives of children and their mothers which in turn have helped the supported communities to be healthier, stronger and better equipped to live happier lives. These interventions provided pregnant women and mothers of infants with targeted health-related information which has equipped them to take informed decisions for themselves and their family’s health, thereby reducing maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.
Glenmark has been able to transform anganwadis (Day care Centres) to model anganwadis making them child friendly, thus ensuring maximum attendance and tracking services such as supplementary nutrition and immunization. In various communities Glenmark has played a huge role in ensuring complete immunization of infants and children by creating customised calendars which track immunization and distribute them to the local stake holders. The promotion of backyard nutrition gardens and backyard poultry resulted in direct intake of micronutrients in malnourished children thereby improving their nutritional levels. Another initiative, the mMitra project which reaches out to the underprivileged pregnant women through mobile technology has improved the interaction between women and the health care system resulting in safer and more informed pregnancy and the children are born healthier. Through its various interventions Glenmark has been able to bring about a positive impact in the communities it supports.
FUTURE DIRECTION
Glenmark will continue to focus on improving child health in remote rural and tribal areas where infant and child mortality is very high. Glenmark believes that building partnerships is the key to multiplying the magnitude of its impact. With this perspective and the learnings gathered during the implementation of its child health projects Glenmark will scale and replicate the model in other communities to make a wider impact.Going forward, Glenmark also aims to focus on testing innovative solutions for creating greater efficiencies and impact; thus reaching out to maximum population with minimum resources.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (GPL) is a global innovative pharmaceutical company with operations in more than 50 countries. Glenmark has a diverse pipeline with several compounds in various stages of clinical development, primarily focused in the areas of oncology, respiratory disease, and dermatology. Glenmark has improved the lives of millions of patients by offering safe, affordable medications for nearly 40 years.
