Community Health programmes


1. UJAAS – Menstrual Health Program for Women and Girls (2024)

Aditya Birla Education Trust (ABET) has provided financial support to VARDAN for promoting Menstrual Health and Hygiene among 5000 rural women and girls in Dehradun District of Uttarakhand and Sirmaur District of Himachal Pradesh. The major target group includes the Muslim and Buxa Tribe community who are very ignorant towards their health needs due to lack of literacy and poverty. The program aims at improving the knowledge and awareness of the adolescent girls and women besides removing the social myths and stigma related to the menstrual periods.

The program is basically implemented through following participatory activities in the community:


  • 1. Community Sessions of Women and Girls – This includes group sessions with the women and girls in the villages. Mode of education is through Flip Charts, Group Discussions and Case Histories.
  • 2. School Sessions for Girls and Boys – This includes classroom sessions on Menstrual Health for school students in the age group 10-18 years. Some sessions are also conducted for adolescent age boys to educate and motive them for supporting women and girls during the menstrual periods.
  • 3. Nukkad Nataks – It plays a very important role in disseminating awareness on Menstrual Health among the common rural masses. As the Nataks are performed in open places the participants are from varied demographic groups including women, men, girls and boys.
  • 4. Capacity Building Workshops for Health Workers, Teachers and Panchayat Members : Workshops are conducted for the local ASHA Workers, Anganwadi Workers and Panchayat Members to enhance their knowledge and understanding on Menstrual Health and Hygiene and further disseminate the same among the target community

2. Menstrual Hygiene Programme for Rural Women and Girls (2023-26)

Menstrual Hygiene is a prominent health concern of women and girls in remote hill areas of Uttarakhand. The major challenges are lack of awareness towards the use of sanitary pads and also the availability of sanitary pads in the remote located villages. As per our local field survey it was found that majority of women in the age group of 35 to 49 are reluctant to use sanitary pads and prefer using cloth during the periods which often leads to RTI infections. Hence VARDAN with support of Sri Dinanath Healthcare and Hotels Pvt. Ltd. Jaipur has launched a Menstrual Hygiene Programme for Rural Women and Girls in 40 Gram Panchayts of Narendra Nagar and Devprayag Blocks covering more than 5000 married women and Adolescent Girls. Each village has been provided Revolving Fund for purchase of Sanitary Pads through local SHGs. The SHGs will make bulk purchase of sanitary pads from markets through our appointed Community Resource Person in each Gram Panchayat and distribute it to the village women and girls. This will ensure timely provision of pads to these women. At the same time Sanitary Pads Incinerators are also installed in 10 Govt. Inter Colleges in the area for school going girls to facilitate the safe disposal of sanitary pads in schools.

3. Targeted Intervention Programme: ( 2010-15)

Targeted Intervention Programme on HIV / AIDS was implemented in Dehradun city area primarily for providing preventive health services and awareness to the High Risk Groups (HRG) women . The interventions included Condom Promotion , STI Management , HIV and Syphilis testing and community mobilization activities for the targeted 800 HRG women beneficiaries. The project was funded by Uttarakhand State AIDS Control Society(USACS).

4. Reproductive and Child Health Programmes-(2003-2009))

VARDAN has implement two major RCH projects viz. RCH for Buxa Tribes in Vikas Nagar Block of Dehradun and Mother NGO Programme for both the Buxa tribes and Muslim population with support of HIHT, Mother NGO in Uttarakhand . Our initiatives included mother and child health care, complete child immunization , RTI/STI management , Adolescent Health and HIV / AIDS awareness . The services were provided through the Govt. Health Centres in coordination with ANMs, Anganwadi Workers, and PHCs of the project area.

5. Adolscent Health Programmes (2004-2011)

VARDAN has implemented two major projects for adolescents in Uttarakhand state namely ARSH/UDAAN project for boys and girls in rural areas of Dehradun district and Kishori Utthan project for girls in Tehri Garhwal district. The projects focused on advocacy and counseling of over 250 Adolescents Groups covering more than 3000 adolescents on Life Skills, RCH, Health and Hygiene issues and provided primary health care and counselling services to adolescents through govt. clinics. The projects were supported by Directorate of Health, Uttarakhand, USAID and Department of Women and Child Development, Uttarakhand.

6- Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS (PPTCT) Programme (2011-14)

PPTCT programme was implemented in Dehradun and Haridwar Districts of Uttarakhand with support from IL&FS, Noida. The project focused on providing Advocacy and Awareness on HIV/AIDS among the ANCs, HIV testing of registered pregnant women, follow up of positive cases, ART referrals and DBS testing of new born babies to HIV positive mothers. It covered all blocks of Dehradun district and city area of Haridwar.