Every girl deserves the educational and career opportunities that offer them a better life

Since its inception, GPM has focused on girls education. In many historically marginalized communities in slums and underserved villages, the challenges faced by girls can sometimes seem insurmountable. Challenges include:

• preference for families to educate only male children (The average female literacy rate in India is 62.3% for women as compared to 80% for men)

• girls forced into early marriages (102 million married before the age of 15 last year)

• cultural attitudes and financial constraints around girl's menstruation that keeps girls away from school during their period (one out of five girls say that they miss school during their period).

• extreme poverty forcing families to send their girls to child labor and drop out of school (10.1 million child laborers are reported in India, one of the highest in the world.)

• general cultural attitudes that girls and women should focus on household/farming chores and not pursue an education (India has one of the lowest female labor force participation rates in the world; 21% of women in India over the age of 15 participate in the labor force).

• lack of female hygiene products in schools and home that hinders school attendance and causes girls to drop out of school (Every year more than 23 million girls in India drop out of school due to the lack of necessary products and hygiene education)

Gabriel Project Mumbai has been working to counter these awful trends through:

• Grants for girls. Helping families receive government grants towards paying for their daughters’

• 
  educations
• Girls STEM. Teaching STEM (Science and Math) subjects to girls and guiding girls towards higher learning in the Sciences
  
• Menstrual support. Distributing female hygiene products in schools and in the villages in coordination with the local government health authorities
  
• Female hygiene training. Teaching a comprehensive hygiene education curriculum in schools and to young mothers
  
• Community education. Providing outreach to communities about the importance of girl’s education
  
• Combatting child labor practices. Coordinating community level campaigns combatting child labor in hundreds of remote villages

Every girl deserves the educational and career opportunities that offer them a better life.

Please join Gabriel Project Mumbai in promoting girls’ education to hundreds of girls living in underserved communities in India!

Donate today: https://www.gabrielprojectmumbai.org/donate 

Israel Consul General, Kobbi Shoshani visits Gabriel Project programs in tribal communities in India

Preferring to sit on the floor with the rest of the Gabriel Project Mumbai staff in the tribal area of Mokhada, Israel Consul General Kobbi Shoshani expressed his love for India, the culture, and his admiration for the impact Gabriel Project is making in the area.

“What amazing life-saving work you do”, said Mr Shoshani addressing the Gabriel Project team that cooks and delivers daily nutritious food to a hundred infants diagnosed with acute malnutrition.

At the Mokhada Rural Hospital, the only major hospital in the area serving a population of 180,000,Mr. Shoshani toured the site of the oxygen plant set-up by Gabriel Project and Israeli organization, IsraAID, to supply oxygen to the 30-bed ward where patients receive piped oxygen at their bedside. At the Nutritional Rehabilitation Center (NRC) Dr Mahesh Pail, Medical Superintendent of the Mokhada

Rural Hospital explained medical and nutritional challenges faced by many tribal families and praised GPM’s nutrition and health outreach programs at the NRC and in the surrounding villages.

“It is so inspiring to see Gabriel Project working so closely with the government health bodies”, said Mr Shoshani while at the only major hospital for 180,000 people. “This is a perfect example of how NGO’s can work with government for the sake of the people they serve.”

Next stop was to the center of the Mokhada market place, where the entourage entered GPMs office for processing grants and registering for essential government social services. Mr Shoshani handed out grant certificates to several residents and learned about the ambitious expansion of these services to all 59 villages of Mokhada; a GPM-IsraAID initiative.

Mr Shoshani visited GPMs village industry center where different women’s livelihood collectives produce various goods for sale. At the GPM showroom the Consul General purchased several items in support of the collectives.

At the Hirve Government Residential School, Mr Shoshani inaugurated GPM’s innovative STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Math) program for all 2100 7^th -12^th graders in the district government high-schools.

“The visit of the Consul General of Israel encourages and inspires our staff to do even more for the tribal people of Mokhada,” said GPM Senior Manager of Programs Thaiza Dias. “When dignitaries from far away come to visit our programs and communities, it boosts the morale of our local team members and validates our work. For the communities we serve, the Consul Generals’ visit helps widen their horizons and sends the message that development is not beyond their reach.”

GPM Rural Emergency Response Program Saves Lives!

Residents of the rural villages of Mokhada that GPM serves are currently facing drastic life or death emergency situations as a result of extreme weather. Seasons of long drought are now being followed by intense monsoons that have ushered in harsh flooding, destruction of property, animal attacks, health care shortfalls, and relentless food insecurity.

Severe flooding is ravaging the community. This has had many devastating impacts over the past few weeks:

• A pregnant woman with complications could not reach a hospital to give birth because her village was cut off from the main road due to surging flooding.
• A child playing in a field was bitten by a poisonous snake and only had a few hours to get to the hospital to receive the antivenom to save his life.
• The entire Botoshi village of 560 individuals experienced food scarcity of essential food items

The community of Mokhada desperately needs tools at their disposal to deal with ongoing emergencies and save lives. Mokhada, a tribal district that has hundreds of village hamlets located in remote jungles or mountainsides in almost isolated conditions. The absence of roads and bridges and other transportation services due to monsoon flooding results in life-threatening situations. This leads to severe anxiety, hardships, stress and extreme danger for the villagers.

In response to this urgent life-threatening situation, GPM has launched the Rural Emergency Response Program aimed at providing crucial life-saving equipment and resources.

The Rural Emergency Response Program, designed in collaboration with members of the community and the support of local government, includes:

• Ambulances. Emergency all-terrain medical vehicles to transport people to hospitals. The
  community currently has none.
• Local emergency medical training. Training local volunteers in emergency logistic response and medical first aid
• Emergency medical supplies. Mobilization of basic health devices, safety equipment and medical supplies including essential medicines.
• 
  
  Urgent food rations. Deployment, transportation and delivery of emergency food rations in cases of natural disasters (severe draught, climate-related crops damage)
• Home damage repair. Fixing homes damaged in natural disasters (ie flooding, monsoon rains, cyclones etc)
• Emergency helpline. The creation of emergency 24/7 helpline services for urgent transportation for treatment at nearest health clinics and hospitals.
• Continuity of services. Long-term follow-up and supervision of cases

GPM must immediately raise $100,000 for its Rural Emergency Response Program to provide emergency services to the tribal district of Mokhada serving 180,000 people!

We urgently need your help. We cannot do this without your support: https://rootfunding.com/campaigns/emergency_response

Oh...and by the way, as part of GPM’s Rural Emergency Response Program, the child that was bitten by a snake received the anti-venom in time to save his life, the entire village of Botoshi
received emergency rations and the pregnant woman delivered healthy…twins...a boy and a girl!

The GPM Bal Blawaan Malnutrition program: 70% of malnourished children are healthier today!

As we are entering the hot summer months and the spring holiday season of Basakhi and Gudhi Padwa, Easter, Passover, Ramadan, I would like to share with you some encouraging news.

The rural district of Palghar in India is notorious for child malnutrition. GPM has been tackling this

challenge head on with our Child Nutrition and Food Security Program 'Bal Balwaan' which means "healthy child" in Marathi. In January we launched the program for 100 children ages six months - six years who were diagnosed as severely and moderately malnourished. After only three months we have seen incredible results, with 70% of the children demonstrating improved nutritional outcomes! We aim to maximize these results, and as we prepare for the droughts over the hot summer months, we will also be supplying clean drinking water to these families.

At GPM we are always learning, listening, and doing what we can to improve our programs. This is why the next phase of our Bal Balwaan program will include supporting the nutritional health of pre- and post-natal mothers, ensuring a strong link of nutritional heath from mothers to their babies.

All children deserve access to nutritious food and the opportunity to grow up healthy and strong!

Read more about the Bal Balwaan program here: https://www.gabrielprojectmumbai.org/bal-balwaan-infant-malnutrition

Clean drinking water for rural hospitals in tribal areas

For patients and staff of emergency medical facilities in remote tribal villages, the last thing they need to worry about is if the water they are drinking is safe.

GPM thanks long-term corporate partner Eureka Forbes for working with us to supply clean-water purification units to eight primary health care centers and a government rural hospital in the tribal districts where GPM operates.

Eureka Forbes Institute of Environment technicians and GPM staff installed four water purifying units in the Mokhada subdistrict Primary Health Centers of Washala, Moranda, Ase and Khodala and the Jawhar subdistrict Primary Health Centers in Jambsar, Sakur, Nandgaon and Sakerasat. These water purifying units provide 80-100 patients and medical staff with safe-drinking water, every day.

A larger water-purifying unit, with a 150-use capacity was installed in the only public hospital in Mokhada, the Mokhada Rural Hospital (MRH).

Eureka Forbes has graciously provided all units with a year free maintenance contract and Gabriel Project staff check and manage the water -purifying units on a weekly basis to make sure that the patients and medical staff have safe-drinking water, at all times, in these medical facilities.  

Critical patients now have oxygen 24/7

Gabriel Project Mumbai (GPM) celebrated Indian Republic Day by hosting a handover ceremony at the Mokhada Rural Hospital for a brand-new Oxygen Plant.  The Oxygen Plant, manufactured in India, was funded through a partnership with Gabriel Project Mumbai, IsraAID and UJA Federation of New York.  Originally installed in July 2021 to treat critical COVID-19 cases during the devastating ‘second wave,’ the facility will now be available to the community. “During COVID and beyond the pandemic, we will be able to give highly concentrated oxygen to those patients critically in need of oxygen for their treatment,” said Dr. Mahesh Patil, Medical Superintendent of the Mokhada Rural Government District Hospital. 

Ribbon cut by Member of State Parliament, Honorable Shri. Sunil Bhusara and Deputy Collector Mrs Ayushi Singh

Palghar District health authorities and government officials attended the handover ceremony. Member of State Parliament, Honorable Shri. Sunil Bhusara thanked Gabriel Project and IsraAID for their critical support during the COVID pandemic- " This Oxygen plant has saved many lives, helping people who are most in need during one of the most critical periods of time,” said Shri. Bhusara. “Thank you to Gabriel Project.”  

Also in attendance was Dr. Sanjay Bodhade, District Civil Surgeon, Shri. Dilip Gutte, Assistant Collector, Smt. Ayushi Singh, Deputy Collector, Dr. Rajendra Kelkar, Assistant District Civil Surgeon, local media and GPM staff.

Member of State Parliament, Honorable Shri. Sunil Bhusara

GPM opens a medical center in tribal district of Mokhada

Today Gabriel Project Mumbai opens the doors of the Mokhada Community Health Center (Mokhada Aarogya Seva Kendra) in the Mokhada tribal district of Palghar, Maharashtra.

Mokhada Community Health Center / Mokhada Aarogya Seva Kendra

Four years ago, Gabriel Project Mumbai (GPM) began working in the tribal district of Mokhada, just a 4 hours’ drive from the slums of Kalwa. We expanded to this remote rural area as the 59 villages there were experiencing extreme poverty with severe child malnutrition, starvation and with little access to any healthcare! With 40% migration from villages in Maharashtra to Mumbai, many of the residents of Mokhada had migrated to the slums in Mumbai and Thane in a last move of desperation in the face of extreme poverty.

We set up food distributions, nutrition programs and emergency health treatments. 

While we know that the food distributions helped significantly with hunger, we quickly began to realize that nutritional needs are just the beginning. We kept seeing sick, unhealthy people with no access to any kind of medical professionals, which meant that emergency medical needs, communicable diseases, and treatable conditions like dysentery were causing high rates of illness and death. It also meant that people with chronic illnesses or noncommunicable diseases, like high blood pressure or diabetes, had no chance of getting better or controlling their symptoms. After countless discussions and research in the region, we decided to open a Healthcare Center located in the heart of the Mokhada district. It is a vital component in advancing a long-term vision for health and hygiene for the members of the community. 

With Israel Consul General, Mr Kobbi Shoshani outside the Mokhada Community Healthcare Center

The beautiful five-room medical center we built on a 1.5-acre central location in Mokhada is a vibrant center for health in the district. One room houses a diagnostic center for blood testing and vaccinations (sponsored by the Minkus family of Chicago and UJA Fed of New York) while another room contains an emergency dental clinic sponsored by the estate of Martha B Leigh). The other consulting rooms lead to a large hall used for patients and for after-hours training of medical staff. The medical center has been visited by the Deputy Collector of Palghar, Ms Ayoushi Singh and we are partnering with the Dr. Vasantrao Pawar Medical College in Nashik for ongoing medical programs at the medical center. Recently, we completed a large-scale oral health screening with the Indian Dental Association and a menstrual hygiene project with the Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR) including a distribution of sanitary pads to 3200 adolescent girls. The medical center also works closely with government health bodies like the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS), Mokhada Rural Hospital and the Nutrition Rehabilitation Center (NRC).