Lily Jordahl
ARMMAN
Mumbai, India
I would like to echo Rebecca’s sentiments about time in the post below me. While the days do not seem to be moving at a particularly unusual pace, I still have trouble believing that I have been in India for almost one month at this point. My tendency to act as an observer rather than a reporter has made me hesitant to put my thoughts on my experience down on this blog, yet having been here for this period of time, I have had significant opportunity for reflection on my involvement in Mumbai thus far. It is challenging to create concrete understandings of my life here, though, as I feel that I see or do something differently each day, even while I generally maintain a similar schedule of activities on a day-to-day basis.
Thus, to briefly reiterate my previous posts from before my travels began, I have been working in Mumbai, India during this summer where I am examining the right to maternal healthcare and the different methods through which this care can be distributed. The NGO I am working with, ARMMAN, has three predominant projects in the works at this point and while I originally believed that I would exclusively be working on one entitled mMitra, which provides voice-messages and animations to pregnant women giving them information about their health and how to take care of themselves during pregnancy, I have also been contributing towards a different on-going project at the organization as well. This is an endeavor entitled Project Hero, which has the goal of creating a database of publicly available information, updating at a real-time pace, stating the amount of beds accessible at hospitals and the availability of blood at blood banks throughout the city.
At this point, ARMMAN is in the midst of discussions with various hospitals during which they are trying to convince them to use a web-application which will be the methodology through which this information is provided to the public. There are eleven hospitals in Mumbai that have already agreed to participate in Project Hero, the challenge now is ensuring that this web application is satisfactory to each of these hospitals. Thus, during these past weeks I have been participating in several different tasks for the project. The first is assisting ARMMAN with communication and outreach to the greater Mumbai area. While this program is significant, and unlike anything that exists at this point in the city, it is not a useful tool unless the general public knows about it. So, I have been working on outreach strategies that can be executed when the web-app is launched to increase awareness. Additionally, I have accompanied the project coordinator on a hospital visit, and will likely go on several more throughout these next weeks, during which I was able to see the hospital setting, including the admitting area and blood bank, where Project Hero will be utilized most. From this visit, another intern working at ARMMAN and myself will try to put together information on how the staff working at the hospital’s admittance can be trained and reminded to use the web-app.
One aspect of ARMMAN that I have found to be incredibly interesting thus far is the way in which health gaps are examined in subtle ways. When one initially hears about an idea like Project Hero, the first thought may not be related to maternal healthcare, yet there is a clear link between the two. If a woman is in an emergency situation during pregnancy and arrives at a hospital that is unable to treat her then there could be severe health consequences, thus this information offers a way for pregnant women and their families to plan in advance. Yet, the downside of this program is that the information will only be available for those living in Mumbai who have access to the Internet, which excludes a significant portion of the population.
Outside of my working life, I have been exploring the city a bit and really enjoying it. I have always found that I personally learn such a great amount from seeing the daily activities of a city and this case is no different than others. While it is consistently cloudy and rainy because it is monsoon season, I have still been able to see some different parts of Mumbai which has been extremely interesting. I will write about some of these experiences in a later post, I simply wanted to use this one to give a glimpse into what I have been up to with my project for the past several weeks and thus will try to write more consistently as of now.