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World ORS Awareness Week: Meet teaches Lko slum kids to take care of selves, families
The children were educated on when and how to drink ORS, as well as how to make a similar rehydration solution at home if they could not afford to buy it
Diarrhoea is a frequent and common problem faced by children with diets that lack nutrition and those with poor immune systems, experts said on Tuesday.
However, oral rehydration salts, or ORS, helps make up for a deficiency of electrolytes in the system, they said.
Childline director Sangeeta Sharma said that it is important for slum children to know the symptoms of such common illnesses so that they may learn how to take care of themselves and their families when they arise.
The children were educated on when and how to drink ORS, as well as how to make a similar rehydration solution at home if they could not afford to buy it. Moreover, the children were given school stationery, ORS packets and zinc tablets to take home after the event.
The Lucknow Academy of Pediatrics along with Childline Lucknow and a few other medical non-profit organisations conducted a week-long awareness programme in commemoration of World ORS Awareness Week, for children living in Gomti Nagar slums, which ended on Tuesday.
Dr. Mirza Waqar Beg, Lucknow-based paediatrician took the lead in this programme, informing the children about how oral rehydration salts and how diarrhoea causes a deficiency of electrolytes in the system. He said that diarrhoea is a common health issue, the symptoms of which are nausea, weight loss, stomach pain, etc. and lasts a few days.
“There were about 50 children and some parents taking part in the event, all living in the slum near Singapore Mall here in Gomti Nagar. Many of them originally belong from Sitapur, Hardoi and Unnao, and have come to Lucknow to earn a living,” said Sharma.
“None of the parents were educated but all wanted their children to study and are sending them to school,” she said, which made a health awareness programme like this pertinent for them.
