United Way spreads the word on mangroves and hepatitis to improve Mumbai's health

MUMBAI: The Mumbai arm of an international NGO has spent a busy week creating awareness about causes as diverse as environment and health. Its agenda as well as outreach have attained a large wingspan.


United Way Mumbai (UWM) is part of the international United Way movement which is 130 years old and has a presence in 41 countries.

On the occasion of Mangrove Action Day July 26, UWM devised a series of creative contests surrounding poetry, photography, slogans and posters.

Interestingly, the overpowering neglect that Mumbai's environment has suffered had evinced itself on the same day in 2005 when the city was flooded under 944 mm of rainwater that could not find an outlet into the sea. Mangroves are crucial to the health of coastal cities.

"At this event, over 160 students from 21 schools and colleges in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai voiced their thoughts on the subject of 'Mangroves: The Shore-keepers of Mumbai'. The winners were felicitated by Airoli MLA Sandeep Naik, and N Vasudevan, who is additional principal chief conservator (forests) of the state government's mangrove cell," said UWM's communications manager Swati Raghunathan.

The competition was organised under the aegis of UWM's 'Mission Mangroves' initiative in association with iNaturewatch Foundation, Godrej & Boyce and the environment NGO Vanashakti. Support also came from the Mangrove and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation of Maharashtra.

Laxmikant Deshpande, manager, Wetland Ecosystem and Sustainability at Godrej said, “Our company's contribution in conserving mangroves in (its headquarters in) Vikhroli has been acknowledged through national awards. We are also donating mangrove saplings, sharing mobile apps and posters for exhibitions, and volunteering expertise on mangrove management through our web site www.mangroves.godrej.com."

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Deshpande remarked how such collaboration among stakeholders like the forest department and NGOs would multiply their resources and help achieve the common goal.

Dr V Shubhalaxmi, founder and managing trustee of the Kharghar-based iNaturewatch Foundation said, "It is important to bring city people closer to the city's biodiversity. Navi Mumbai being a coastal city, mangroves are the closest forests in our neighbourhood. That is why we have been organising mangrove walks within the city.” iNaturewatch is led by the 'Butterfly Man' Isaac Kehimkar.

Jayanti Shukla, CEO, United Way Mumbai said, “In keeping with our collective community impact model, we understand that mangrove conservation and education is a mammoth task. Since all stakeholders must join forces to drive this agenda, we partnered with like-minded organisations to generate awareness.”

This has no doubt been a busy week for UWM. July 28 is commemorated as World Hepatitis Day. This NGO infused new blood into the cause by leading an awareness rally through Mumbai's red light district of Falkland Road July 27. UWM and another NGO named Social Activities Integration (SAI) used slogans, placards and pamphlets in the rally, and ended with a street play.

UWM's director, community investment, Anil Parmar said, "We are also organising a community conversation July 28 where trained anganwadi sevikas will be felicitated as peer health educators on Hepatitis B and C. We have undertaken a month long campaign to educate 17,000 citizens in high risk community groups about this ailment."

Poverty restricts diagnosis and consequently treatment to vulnerable groups like commercial sex workers, truck drivers, scrapyard workers, barbers, members of the LGBTQ community and pregnant women. UWM is conducting awareness sessions as well as making provision for free testing and vaccination to 1,500 patients, Parmar said.

UWM says approximately 40 million Indians are infected with Hepatitis B while 6-12 million suffer from Hepatitis C. India is among the 194 signatories to the World Hepatitis Alliance that seeks to eliminate viral hepatitis as a public threat by 2030.