NGOs stress upon family health
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13
Over 38 volunteers from various NGOs like Yuvasatta, All-India Women’s Conference, Indian Council of Social Welfare, Anganwari and Servants of the People Society participated in a sensitisation meeting of outreach workers and anganwari workers organised at Lala Lajpat Rai Bhavan, Sector 15, yesterday.

Jointly organised by Servants of People Society and State AIDS Control Society, the workshop stressed on the need to make the ‘family health awareness campaign 2003’ a success and to consider ways and means to train people and enable them to undertake work for enhancing awareness on HIV/AIDS and other fatal diseases through, peer education, advocacy, media campaign and interactive activities.

The chairman, Servants of the People Society, Mr Onkar Chand, talked about the significance of various campaigns being run to tackle the menace of HIV/AIDS. He referred to Chandigarh AIDS hotline (interactive voice response system) — 1097 (toll free) — an innovative project run by Servants of People Society received over six lakh calls in the last four years. He recommended the involvement of family and community as a whole in the process of creating understanding with regard to the various health hazards being faced.

Dr Avnish Jolly, project coordinator, Chandigarh AIDS hotline, spoke on spreading awareness about treatment of various sexually-transmitted diseases. He told the outreach workers that people attending the camp would get a free check up and screening facilities. He added that those suffering from infectious diseases would be referred to the PGI, GMCH-32 and the GH-16. Medicines, free of cost would also be provided to those attending the campaign. During his presentation he also made a mention of the need for sex education to contain the risk of disease.

Mr Surinder Singh, counsellor, Progressive Education Society, spoke about history and scenario of HIV/AIDS. He also explained the organisational set-up linking National AIDS Control Organisation, State AIDS Control Society and NGOs. The role of outreach workers in sensitising groups about the objective of intervention and the need of adopting approaches to tackle HIV/AIDS was also talked about. Later the importance of counselling was touched upon by Dr Sangeeta Jund, coordinator, Indian Council for Social Welfare. She emphasised the need to adopt and maintain safer sexual behaviour.

Coordinator, Progressive Education Society, Mr Hemant Kumar, took a session on ‘family health awareness campaign 2003’. He discussed the information regarding aims and objectives of the campaign and roll, apart from duties and problems of outreach workers.

Healthcare talk for SBI staff
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13
After successfully initiating its second round of outreach programme on health awareness covering Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, Fortis today organised a public lecture on heart care management for employees of the State Bank of India. This is the first such initiative by a hospital to reach out to the people of the city and generate awareness on cardiac care. Over 180 employees attended the lecture and were benefited from the interaction.

The doctors discussed the latest advances in the world of cardiac care, epidemic like growth of cardiovascular diseases in India, particularly the northern region and facilities available in the region today.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rakesh Jaswal, consultant Fortis, said, “Among many health predictions for the new millennium, the most alarming is cardiovascular disease (CVD) — heart disease and stroke — topping the list for death and disability. While there are undoubted regional differences between the developed countries and other economies, the predictions for India by 2015 show a steady increase since 1985”.

He said, “coronary artery disease (CAD) is also becoming one of the leading cause of death in women. For several decades, there was the misperception that coronary artery disease was a man’s disease. While most women fear breast cancer, the facts are that women are at a great risk of developing heart disease. Studies have shown that although women and men share the same risk factors for coronary artery disease but smoking, obesity and diabetes mellitus pose a greater danger for women than men. Knowledge of risk factors for coronary heart disease is important in taking steps to prevent a heart attack, one of the devastating consequences of coronary artery heart disease”.

Stadium A win cricket title
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, June 13
Stadium ‘A’ outscored MES, Patiala, by 38 runs to bag the title in the final of the First Cool Cotton (under-13) Cricket Tournament played here today at Sector 16 Cricket Stadium. Batting first, after winning the toss, Stadium ‘A’ scored a 145 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 30 overs. Sahil Samsun scored 42 runs, followed by Sahib Malhotra who was unbeaten at 17 runs while Gaurav Puri made 14 runs. Nitant took two wickets for 27 runs while Karan also claimed two wickets for 34 runs.

In reply, MES, Patiala, were bundled out for 105 runs in 26.3 overs. Sunil scored 22 runs, while Jaspreet made 17 runs. Nipun Sodhi claimed three wickets for 12 runs while Akshit bagged three wickets for 36 runs. The man-of-the-match award went to Nipun Sodhi.

Chetan Sharma, a former cricketer, distributed the prizes. Sahil Samsun won man-of-the-series award, Akshit won the best bowler award, best batsman was Manan Vohra, best fielder was Sunil and best wicket-keeper award was given to Lavish.

Karate training camp

A karate training camp was organised by the Chandigarh United Karate Association (CUKA), a body affiliated to the All-India Karate Federation (AIKF), in Saupins’s School, Sector 32 here from June 2 to 12.

On the concluding ceremony of the camp, the president of the association, Ms Sucheta Kundu, highlighted the need of karate training in the school curriculum so that children could learn the basic skills of self defence. She also said that the CUKA will organise more such camps in the future.

A budding cricketer
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, June 13
Gaurav Chopra, a budding cricketer, has established himself as one of the brightest cricketer of the region. Gaurav who has just passed Class X examinations by scoring 86.7 per cent marks, has set his aim to don national colours one day.

Gaurav took to cricket when he was a student of Hansraj Public school, Sector 6, Panchkula. Just after few years after taking to cricket, he led Haryana schools cricket team in the under-14 section. Then Gaurav was selected to represent Haryana in the North Zone Inter-state Cricket Tournament for Vijay Merchant Trophy.

Gaurav then played for Punjab in the North Zone Inter-state Cricket Tournament for Sushil Bali trophy which was organised under the banner of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Gaurav said he took 21 wickets in four matches while playing against Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Punjab was the overall winner.

Gaurav said last year also, he was selected in the Punjab under-15 cricket team, for the North Zone Inter-state cricket meet for Polly Umrigar Trophy. Again Gaurav helped Punjab win first place. Gaurav said, on the basis of this win in the north zone meet, Punjab played in the All-India Inter-state Cricket Meet and remained winner.

Gaurav said last month he represented Chandigarh in the under-17 and under-19 sections in the Punjab state Inter-district Cricket Meet for Dhruv Pandove trophy, thus again brought accolades for his team.

By playing in maximum number of tournaments, one gets confidence and of course, the mental boost, so he was aiming in that direction, Gaurav said.

Civil Servants’ golf today
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13
Forty golfers have confirmed their participation in the third Chandigarh Civil Servants Golf Tournament being organised by the Chandigarh Golf Association at Chandigarh Golf Club tomorrow.

The tournament is open to civil officers located in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. The ceremonial tee off will be held at 7 a.m., according to Mr D.P. Azad, President, Chandigarh Golf Association.

Mr Varinder Singh, Adviser to the Administrator, Chandigarh, will give away the prizes.

For the smooth functioning of the tournament various committees have been constituted.

Championship committee: D.P. Azad (chairman); C.S.R. Reddy, J.S. Cheema, Vivek Vahi, H.S. Baidwan, Daljit Singh and Desh Deepak Khanna.

Technical committee: H.S. Baidwan (chairman), B.S. Gill (special observer), J.S. Gill, B.S. Mangat, J.S. Cheema, Jai Shree Thakur and Vivek Vahi.

Referees : J.S. Gill, B.S. Mangat and H.S. Baidwan.

Admn launches campaign against malaria
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 13
Gearing up to prevent outbreak of vector and water-borne diseases, especially in the slums and migrant colonies in the city, the UT Health Department has decided to make mohallah committees for better coordination and control of disease.

The Health Department which is observing June as the anti-malaria month, today launched a campaign against the disease in Indira Colony. Following outbreak of dengue in the colony last year, hundreds of people had to be hospitalised.

Inaugurating the camp, the UT Health Director, Dr C.P. Bansal, emphasised the need for creating mohallah committees, as its members can play an important role helping the authorities in taking preventive measures. “All the steps being taken for prevention and control of malaria and dengue should assume the form of a people’s movement so that awareness on the issue can be created,” he stressed.

The Assistant Director, Malaria, Dr J.K. Kalra, said anti-malaria services were being provided to the people at their door step. He urged the residents to make their houses mosquito proof.

The steps taken by the Health Department teams in various parts of the city would include house to house survey, spraying of larvicides and chemicals, collection of blood smears from fever cases for early diagnosis and prompt treatment and enhanced information and education activity.