Progress

Change has occurred more quickly in the community than expected. We will not be able to see if a change in behaviour has affected health until the mid tern evaluation in mid 2010.

Positive Changes

Since the start of the project more than 500 women have joined groups. These women feel much more confident to work together and support each other. They also feel more able to speak out if they are having problems in their families.

Women in the groups feel like ambassadors of the project and see it as their duty to help more marginlaised and isolated women. This is a strong indicator that the community feel the project is theirs. With the community mapping, the staff and community are able to locate and provide support for pregnant women not in groups.

With the introduction of mobile clinics, women who would not have attended any antenatal checks are now able to do so. For the delivery All women in groups are using clean blades or SDKs. After the birth there have been substantial improvements such as:

• Most post natal women are now breastfeeding colostrum.
• More are exlcusively breastfeeding and with support have negotiated more time off physical work.
• Most post natal women have stopped washing their babies and are using the baby blankets as intended

As an ongoing support we are having success in our savings initiative. Even the poorest women are managing to save a few rupees a month in the group. They can access this at any time without needing to ask their husband.