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Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS) organized a State-level training camp in Patna, Bihar, in January 2006. 35 health workers from 9 Hundred Block Program blocks, 7 Samata and BGVS leaders including Sarita Kumari and Dinesh Prasad, AID Jeevansaathis Kamayani Keki and Balaji Sampath, and Kalpana Karunakaran participated in the 3-day event. Kamayani was the translator during the entire program. On the first day, Kamayani gave an introduction about the training camp and organized group discussions. Participants sung group songs. Sarita discussed maternal care and then divided the class into 5 groups each of which prepared a related song or play. Balaji gave the keynote speech in which he emphasized the role of women as health activists. On the second day, as Kalpana discussed women’s health, she encouraged women to talk about adolescent health issues and their body ‘without shame’. Kalpana also described difficulties health workers may face while taking a class and suggested techniques to overcome them. In the course of the conversation she collected myths and superstitions and provided explanations to counter them. At the end of the day, the participants were divided in 4 groups which competed with each other in a fun quiz on health issues. On the third day, Sarita recapitulated issues raised in first two days. Kalpana discussed reasons and remedies of common women’s diseases such as anemia. Later, participants decided on tasks to be completed for adolescent-health classes to start. --- Shivani Saxena, Philadelphia
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