Child in Need Institute, India

Pauline Prince ibvm, Australian Loreto Sister and nutritionist, and Samir Chaudhuri, an Indian doctor, set up the Child In Need Institute (CINI), an organisation which has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of children affected by malnutrition, disease, poverty, family violence and poor education.

Pauline had been working with the poor in Kolkata. There, as a school principal, she saw first-hand the extent and effects of poverty in the community. Her students were too hungry to learn and every day desperate mothers would seek her help.

At the time, Dr Chaudhuri was running a nutrition program in the slums of Jamshedpur, 200km from Kolkata. Its guiding principle was to train local women as health workers, to spread the word through their families and their communities.

Together, they formed CINI, a non-government organisation which has grown to reach five million people, employs 500 staff, mostly Indian, and runs successful programs in rural and urban areas.
CINI focuses on the welfare of the mother, believing this to be the most effective way to provide care and safety for the child and to break the cycle of poverty, malnutrition and ill-health. It empowers women to talk to their councils and government.

And now, through the efforts of West Australian doctor Jennie Connaughton, Australians can also play a part. She has launched CINI Australia, an independent organisation with its own board but with ties to India.

CINI’s primary approach is based on prevention, education and community participation and its work is guided by ongoing evaluation and available research.

Dr Connaughton has put her faith in CINI because, she says: “It works.”

She first went to India in her twenties, as a medical student, and met Pauline.

“That experience helped me finish medical school,” she said, “because it showed me a different way for things to work. It showed me the power of giving people good information about their health.

“I stayed in contact and from time to time heard news of CINI through Sister Pauline. But it was never out of my thoughts and I have always felt that the wisdom of the organisation could be used anywhere and it certainly affected my approach to doctoring.”

Dr Connaughton went back Kolkata in 2008 and found that CINI had evolved, by continually reviewing its programs and their delivery, into an organisation which had touched the lives of millions.

“Once women and their babies are well, the next step needed to move out of poverty is to have an education. This means children are less likely to marry and have babies when young, be child labourers or be trafficked into the sex industry,” she said.

“CINI’s programs now reach across the life cycle, from early childhood development, through school to support for vocational university training.

“CINI maximises its reach by collaborating with existing women’s groups, local councils and governments and other NGOs. It doesn’t duplicate services but supports women to advocate for their delivery. Local councils and communities always contribute to the design and implementation of programs.”

“In this way, every person they reach becomes an educator of another.”

After leaving India, Pauline worked in Cambodian refugee camps, in the Kimberley region of WA, in Mongolia and in outback NSW. Her greatest satisfaction in retirement is teaching English to speakers of other languages.
 

Photo:

Pauline Prince ibvm with co-workers

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