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IND12a - Rural Health Care Development : Partnership Reports



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Report Date: October 21, 2019

Report from BHW Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person:  Subong Aier 

encouraging visitI visited for three days from the 28th September to the 1st October 2019. 

Recent Events

Rural Health Care Development 

There is a current group of five nurses is being trained.

The team runs medical clinics and camps for poor and vulnerable communities. They plan to do two or three a year and fund this from their own resources. However, time and resources are hampering their ability to do these. They have done one this year already but unfortunately had to cancel another one as the roads were washed out. One is planned for mid-November in a remote location on the Assam border.

busy clinicThe day we arrived in Dimapur the team was running a clinic in a new church plant within Dimapur which we visited. Many of the team are doctors and nurses. This church was started by a local man witnessing to Bihari rickshaw drivers and now sees a church with a new building and 60 baptised members. The day we were there was for the church members but a number of others sneaked in! Another clinic will soon be held for the community.

Pig Farmer's Association (IND12)

The Association submitted a project to the government which they are funding. There are 41 farmers who are registered members of the Association. To become a member you have to have 10 breeding sows. The project is set up to provide a herd of pigs to the poorest families in Nagaland operating through the churches. Subong goes to the rural areas where there is most poverty and brings the church leaders together. He then explains how the project works. People are given a 3-month-old female pig that is vaccinated and they are taught how to look after it. 

giving people dignityThese pigs are purchased from the members of the Association at a reasonable rate. There are clear benefits for both the seller and the recipient. The government provides funds for the purchase. The new pig owners then have to bring back one 3-month-old, healthy, vaccinated pig to be given to another family. They are also taught about tithing and giving so there is benefit for the churches that are involved as well. The people who receive the pigs and the church leaders are very happy with this arrangement. The pastors report much more engagement with church as the church is now seen as investing in its people rather than constantly taking from them. 

Subong is out among the churches constantly, training, bringing people together and delivering piglets. As part of the project the government has provided two new vehicles, a 4x4 for Subong to get around and another with a large crate on the back for the transport of the piglets from and to the various locations. 

Two days before we arrived 42 piglets were delivered to one area. Pigs are such an important part of Naga culture and having a pig gives a family so much dignity. However, they do have to be taught how to look after them using more modern methods for hygiene, feeding and vaccination. They are now working with the Department of Veterinary Services to monitor the breeding as there is a lot of inbreeding of pigs which is causing major issues. 

Farm

busy manThe farm continues to operate although currently Subong is so busy out and about that it is not as pretty as it could be. He has stopped the chickens as this required him to be there constantly. However, there are 13 cows now and he is milking three and selling the milk locally every day. Most are young and not yet producing but within a couple of years this will change significantly.

There were 60 pigs the day we were there and 20 had been sent away three days before to supply other poor farmers. The sows and their piglets looked in really good condition and it will not be long before another group is sent out. A bit of maintenance should be carried out but because Subong is away so much it doesn’t all get done on time. 

Subong is very busy but sees this as a wonderful result of the original vision and investment. It is hard to disagree with him. He has no idea how many pigs have been produced and sent out or how many people have been blessed!  

 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

significant influenceThe greatest influence in an ongoing way is the impact of the Nagaland Pig-farmers Association which is developing well and making a real impact in the lives of many poor families. Subong is the main person and the organization and the Department of Animal and Veterinary Affairs will not allow him to resign! He sees this as a fruit of his vision and the input of Bright Hope World. 

In addition to this and the medical clinics, which are also having a significant impact, one of the other things the team does is to visit churches to encourage them to become outward focused and look for ways to engage their communities. To mobilise their people to serve. The Naga church has become inward-looking and extremely ethnocentric. The young people are not coming and faith has become nominal. It is a pity to see huge buildings empty. The Sunday we were there we visited one church building that can seat 1,500 people and there would not have been 200 people with an average age of 60ish! The emergence of younger pastors is beginning to be felt, but there is great resistance to change.  

 

Plans for the Future

making a differenceThe training of the nurses is going to change. The Burmese government has put a lot of personnel into the area that the nurses were serving so the opportunities are significantly reduced. The current group is the last one they will train specifically for Myanmar. One more group will be trained but from a specific location within India that they are targeting. At the end of that year, 2020, we need to assess if this is going to continue. 

BH Nagaland is working on a new initiative on the border with Nagaland and Assam. There is an area there with the highest number of tea gardens in India. 200 years ago the British brought in Adavasi people to work in the gardens and they have grown to nearly 6 million in number. They are poor, violently political and fiercely Hindu – with animist undertones. They are uneducated and very difficult to deal with. 

Recently they killed a doctor who went there to help them in his retirement. He was 76 years old and went to help as no doctors will work there. The doctor was not at the hospital when a woman was brought in. It was night and he was called but the woman died so the people blamed him and clubbed him to death. 

Nearby, across the border in Nagaland, are a number of churches and missionaries who want to reach to them but it is very difficult. One missionary was allowed to go in and was given some timber by one village to build a house. However, an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation found out, accused him of paying people to convert and he was beaten and imprisoned. However, they are not daunted. Along with the 20 local Baptist churches that are part of the Assam Valley Baptist Mission, some missionaries based across the border in Nagaland and some Christian government workers, BH Nagaland is working on a strategy to be able to initially visit and see what can be done. Nakachari is the town this is based around. They may come to us for some partnership in this once a strategy has been developed. They hope to train medical people from this area in next year's nursing batch. 

 

Current Issues and Challenges

The Bright Hope Nagaland team are all very busy people, most with government jobs. Many are posted in remote parts of Nagaland and come back to Dimapur infrequently. The roads are so bad it is a real barrier to travel. 

That more churches will come on board with their vision and understand the need to be outwardly focused.

The plans for a new initiative in Assam has some roadblocks to overcome.  

 

Prayer and Praise Points

1) The Pig-farmers Association having such a positive outcome in communities. 
2) That the team here meets regularly to pray and discuss strategy. They are pretty focused and united. 
3) That the medical camps are proving to be effective in reaching people and encouraging churches.
4) That they will be able to find the right candidates for the primary health care workers for next year.