Child In Need Institute

History

CINI emerged in part from the work of its founder, Dr. Samir Chaudhuri, who began his medical career working in the villages and slums of West Bengal in the 1970s. His professional collaboration with Sister Pauline Prince, an Australian Loreto nun and nutritionist, and Rev Fr J. Henrichs S. J., lead to the Child In Need Institute’s foundation in 1974. CINI has gone on to become one of the leading humanitarian NGOs of India.

In 1998 CINI was recognised as a National Mother NGO, under the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) program by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. That same year it was also recognized as a collaborative training institute by the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), New Delhi, and now constitututes the largest training facility in West Bengal for training health workers in nutrition, safe motherhood and HIV awareness. This training facility was extended from CINI’s own staff training centre to teach workers from other NGOs and government.

Having grown from humble roots, CINI's work has achieved increasing recognition. The organisation has twice been awarded the National Award of Child Welfare by the Government of India. In 2007, Dr. Chaudhuri received the World of Children Health Award for making "a significant lifetime contribution to children in the fields of health, medicine or the sciences."

Fondazione CINI International

A globally focused NGO, Fondazione CINI International, was launched on 1 February 2000 in Verona, Italy. CINI International works to establish North-South and South-South linkages to facilitate sharing and learning among partners working for children, adolescents and women in different parts of the world. Its president is Samir Chaudhuri.

National associations

Independent national associations have been formed in several countries to support CINI's work and/or carry out projects of their own. There are national associations in Australia, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Norway, Uganda, the United States and the United Kingdom, and, additionally, regional associations in Scotland and Wales. The British (UK) association is the largest national association outside India.

CINI UK was founded by Lady Odile Slynn, whose husband, Lord Slynn of Hadley, was a patron of the organisation. The organisation is chaired by Lady Slynn; Lady Susan Forsyth of Drumlean is vice chair. The patrons include Nasser Azam, Lord Bilimoria, Cherie Booth, Lord Dholakia, Lady Flather, Lord Puttnam, Sir Mark Tully, Lady Catherine Young, Lord Forsyth (who has raised funds for the organisation by climbing the highest mountain of Antarctica) and Lord Hastings, as well as the deceased Ambassador Sir Peter Wakefield.

CINI Italia is chaired by Eliana Riggio.

Work

All of CINI’s work aims for the sensitization of the local self-government (the Panchayat) about the health and education needs of the community and the development of effective communication at different levels of the community - especially between the Panchayat and the government health systems.

Malnutrition

‘Maternal and child under-nutrition have a life-long impact on the health and prospects of the child, potentially affecting future generations’ and India has one of the worst records of malnutrition among its population, despite its recent economic growth.

CINI’s work tackles malnutrition from the root, focusing on poor maternal nutritional status at conception; low maternal weight gain during pregnancy due to inadequate dietary intake; and short maternal stature due to the mother’s own chronic malnutrition since childhood.

Maternal Health

India accounts for one fifth of maternal deaths globally and the link between underdevelopment, poverty and maternal health has been clear for more than a century according to the Lancet. Though the Department for International Development (DfID) believes the Millennium Development Goal to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters by 2015 remains the greatest challenge, CINI continues to remain active in the field of improving maternal health. Specifically it runs an emergency ward that provides emergency nutrition for the dangerously underweight and counselling for new mothers.

Education for all

The urban wing of CINI was launched in 1989, in order to meet the needs of deprived urban children. A critical review of primary education in India in 2004 pointed out that CINI works to improve education, health, and the basic need for survival, protection, growth, and development among slums, squatter colonies, railway platforms and red light areas.

CINI has mainstreamed over 10,000 children into formal schools, both residential and non-residential. The majority of these children are from the slums, squatter colonies, railway platforms and red light areas.

HIV/AIDS prevention

With the creation of the HIV /AIDS unit, CINI has become involved in reducing the increasing magnitude of HIV/AIDS in rural belt of South 24 Parganas district and other parts of West Bengal.

Community-based HIV/AIDS initiatives of CINI are geared towards minimizing risk behaviors in order to contain the spread of the disease and to ensure better quality of life for HIV/AIDS-infected women, young people and children in a holistic manner through a life-cycle based approach.

Funding

CINI's projects are funded by grants from other aid organisations, international organisations and governments, among them Save the Children, UNICEF, CARE, the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank, the Indian government and various Indian state governments. CINI additionally receives funding from private corporations and individual donors in India and abroad. Its cooperation partners include corporations such as KPMG.

Around 90% of CINI's funds goes directly into programmes, while the remainder is used for administration and fundraising.

Awards

CINI or its founder and director Samir Chaudhuri have received many awards over the years, including