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FRLHT believes that home remedies hold promise for self-reliance in
primary health care for millions of households in India and thus
making possible the dreams of ‘people’s health in people’s hands’
and ‘health for all’ in the near future.
Home herbal gardens in rural
areas
Homestead herbal gardens (HHG) of medicinal
plants for primary health care and primary veterinary care has been
initiated across the states of Karnataka, Kerala
and Tamil Nadu facilitated by
women self-help groups and reputed NGOs. 1,50,000 HHG have been
established thus far.
HHG package is a self-help package to meet the Primary Health Care (PHC)
needs of rural communities in the villages. The package
consists of training on the use of 20 carefully selected medicinal
plants (comprising of 10 to 15 eco-system specific species) for
relieving PHC-related complaints at the household level as a first
response.
The HHG programme has been targeted at resource-poor rural women and
their families in general and also their livestock.
The HHG programme facilitated awareness on the role of home remedies
for preventive, promotive and curative care for primary health
care-related complaints such as cold, cough, fever, diahorrea,
menstrual problems and skin conditions. A few nutritionally
important medicinal plant species such as guava, pomegranate,
papaya, drumstick and curry leaves have also been included in the HHG
package that enables rural households to add nutritional value to
the rural diet at no extra cost and effort. It also helped the rural
households to save on the primary health care-related expenses
through use of home remedies as a first response to a health problem
at the household level.
Home Herbal Garden concept has also integrated animal health needs
as a part of the programme. This has been adopted by the
district milk unions of Dakshina Kannada, Kolar, Shimoga, Hassan and
Tumkur. An exercise of documentation and rapid assessment of
ethno-veterinary practices followed by expert pashu-vaidyas in the
above districts was undertaken prior to the promotion of the use of
home remedies for animal health care.
Amruth HomeGarden Programme
FRLHT
launched the Amruth HomeGarden Programme in Bangalore on 18 February
2005. The programme primarily involves making a mosaic of carefully
selected healing plants available to the city dwellers for use as
first response to take care of their primary health care needs.
The plants under Amruth HomeGarden
programme have been selected based on their use value, ease of use,
safety, efficacy and ornamental appeal. These plants do not
require any specifically earmarked areas and can add their colour
and rejuvenating value to the available nooks and corners of the
household. The 21 plant species selected under the programme have
been formed into packages of 7, 14 and 21 species keeping in view
space availability in different households. Similar
packages containing upto 40 plant species – some of these being
trees - have also been developed for Institutions.
Each of the Amruth HomeGarden package
includes a set of plants and a User’s Guide. These nominally
priced packages can be procured from FRLHT’s ‘Amruth Nursery’.
All subscribers of the programme can have one free health check by
expert vaidyas at the FRLHT clinic and 10% discount on all FRLHT
publications.
The basic package
of the Amruth home herbal garden is priced Rs 125 and the advanced
package Rs 200. The complete package of 21 species (30 plants +
User's Manual + Amruth Annual Subscription) is priced Rs 420. The
basic institutional package is priced Rs 2200 and the advanced Rs
2700. The complete package for institutions will cost Rs 3000.
For More details contact
mpcn@frlht.org.in
Tele: 28568000 (Contact Person: Roopa
Bhatti)
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