Activities

NLR India is supporting persons affected by leprosy in two ways

1. Indirectly by strengthening the management of National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) of India at the National level, state and district level of six states of India.

2. Supporting persons affected by leprosy in self care & rehabilitation through involvement of GHC staff, disabled people’s organizations and NGOs.

Activities related to Programme Support
Year 2008 was very busy for NLR India and was very productive. New projects came into shape and we started our projects/activities by applying theory into practice. It started with Capacity building of NLR recruited staff, followed by situation analysis of the functioning of District Nuclei to be supported by NLR, so that we can act according to the needs of the programme. The main focus of activities was to technically strengthen the functioning of “District Nucleus” so that they are able to carry out NLEP activities including supervision efficiently & effectively and thus improve quality of leprosy services to be provided through GHC staff. With these objectives we could support & organize following activities during the year 2008.

1. Recruitment and Capacity Building of Leprosy Programme Advisors (LPAs) - To improve their technical skills and update their knowledge, all LPAs were oriented in programme activities, in January 2008, at NLR branch office so as to equip them, for the mission at hand.

2. Training in ‘Teaching & Communication skills’ of selected LPAs’ at Pokhra Nepal – To further hone the skills of selected NLR LPAs, Dr. S. P. Sood, Dr. V. S. Pal, Dr. R. P. Chaudary, Dr. Arun Kumar, Dr. S. N. Mishra and Dr. C. S. K. Rai were sent to Pokhran, Nepal, to undergo a training in Teaching and Communication skills from 13th to 25th January 2008.

3. Training of Self Care Group (SCG) Coordinator in Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) - Mr. G. Dickshit, NLR SCG Coordinator from branch office participated in a training course in CBR from 10th to 26th January 2008 at Kugler Memorial Physiotherapy Degree College, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh with support from Enablement, an NGO based at The Netherlands. The purpose to train SCG coordinator was to develop his capacity in CBR, so that NLR can use his knowledge and skills in expanding its activities in CBR.

4. Training of Delhi DLOs’ in Planning, Monitoring and Supervision - This was conducted in the month of January 08, at Dehradun, to train DLOs’ of all the 9 districts of Delhi. During this workshop actual district action plans were also drafted and exercises on monitoring and supervision were also practiced.

5. Harmonization Workshop - This workshop was organized in March 2008 when all the NLR LPAs took their respective positions and worked for sometime. In this workshop everyone belonging to NLR, including administrative staff, participated. It was presumed that by working in the field for sometime, each one of them will have some questions/doubts to be clarified. During this workshop their doubts were clarified and the new roles and responsibilities were discussed further to bring everyone on the same wavelength. It was also a good opportunity to know each other and further develop the needed skills together.

6. Workshop on Supervision – With the available expertise and experience of Dr. Richard de Soldenhoff in facilitating supervision workshops, this workshop was organized in the month of March 2008 at Agra, for all the LPAs of NLR. To maintain uniformity throughout the state of UP, WHO Coordinators from UP were also trained to equip them with supervisory skills. The purpose of this training was to equip our LPAs to transfer their skills to District nuclei.

7. COMLEP Workshop II – To promote computerized data generation, COMLEP database was developed by NLR in conjunction with WHO. To train programme mangers of different russian countries, COMPLEP workshop was held in Delhi in the year 2007 during which pilot projects were planned to test the database. Second COMLEP Wokshop was also organized at Delhi in the month of May 2008, to review the pilot projects in different countries. It was known during the workshop that COMLEP database is very well received in Asian countries.

8. Review of LFA Workshops - Logical Framework Approach (LFA) for planning the activities in National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) was introduced by the Central Leprosy Division in collaboration with Netherlands Leprosy Relief (NLR) via strategic planning workshops for four NLR supported states in the year 2007. To review its acceptance and usefulness NLR conducted the review of these workshops in India. The review team comprised of Mr. Jos Brand, Dr P. L. Joshi & Dr. M. A. Arif. The preview was conducted from 27th July to 8th August 2008. The review mission studied relevant documents and interviewed staff and support organizations in three States (Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Delhi) and at National level. …more…

9. Review Meeting of NLR at Bodhgaya – After 6 months of functioning of LPAs, a meeting was organized in August 08, again to review the progress made by LPAs in their respective districts and to further strengthen their skills.

10. ILEP member representatives 2nd meeting of the year at Delhi – NLR India hoisted this meeting at branch office in the month of September 2008.

11. Workshop on Designing NLR India website - In the era of fast communication and overload of e-mails, it was felt by NLR that the information sharing can best be effectuated by creating its own website. Dr. Anrik Engelhard, our Medical Advisor from Royal Tropical Institute of Amsterdam, motivated, supported and encouraged us, to venture into website creation of our own, without depending on web designers & web site experts. This workshop was organized in branch office, in the month of December 08, facilitated by Dr Amrik himself. One LPA from each state participated in this workshop and oriented themselves with the development and the maintenance of the website.

12. Printing of Infolep Brochures – www.infolep.nl is NLR’s website specially dedicated to leprosy. Through this website one can get all the information, literature, links and other information related to leprosy. To advertise and promote its use, brochures were printed in India, same were distributed in the International Leprosy Congress at Hyderabad and are used to disseminate information at every occasion.

Activities related to Rehabilitation
In order to enable the persons affected by leprosy, having disabilities, to take care of their disabilities themselves and to prevent further worsening of their disabilities and to restore their social life, NLR-India has started supporting the District Nucleus staff in the formation, monitoring and supervision of “Self Care Groups” in leprosy colonies of four states of India viz. Uttarakhand, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar.

On the basis of inputs received during the workshops held in Indonesia, NLR India has developed guidelines for formation and functioning of Self Care Groups in India. As per the guidelines, a NMS will be identified from the system .i.e. from District Nucleus and will be named as ‘facilitator’. The facilitator will be trained by NLR staff. Disability assessment of each inhabitant of the leprosy colony will be carried out by this trained staff from the DN team.

In the year 2008, the process of establishment of SCGs has started in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi. The process started in 4 out of 5 persons affected by leprosy homes in NLR supported districts of Bihar, 3 out of 26 homes in Jharkhand and 1 out of 5 homes in Delhi. The process of formation of SCGs was also initiated in the remaining 26 homes of Uttarakhand.

One very senior NMS, Mr. Ghanshyam Dickshit has been appointed as “National SCG Coordinator” by NLR who will be based at Delhi, for the purpose of training, coordination and supervision of the formation and functioning of SCGs in states supported by NLR. In each of above states one NMS is posted from NLR to oversee SCG projects in the states.