Press release
Mangaluru, October 6: The School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, organized a two-day international symposium “Spandana” on October 6-7. Dr. PP Devan, a renowned physician from AJ Medical College Mangaluru was the chief guest and keynote speaker of the symposium. During his speech, he especially insisted on his presentation on the sustainability of physical health. He started his speech with a reality of Mangaluru which is seven medical colleges with 700 beds each full of sick people. All these people suffer from various minor and major illnesses. Why does this happen? It’s because of the things we eat that impede the growth of the immune system and lead to a deficiency in vitamins, iron, zinc, and calcium. He invited his listeners to reflect on this situation and prevent it.
As the saying goes “prevention is better than cure”, he then talked about the things that would contribute to the sustainability of health. He pointed out that we should avoid consuming things that lead to diseases. For example, avoid consuming tea as it reduces iron in the body. Iron is the backbone of the immune system. We can check the hemoglobin level once a year. One can easily avoid any type of disease if he knows what to eat and what to avoid. He insisted on the consumption of foods rich in iron, zinc, calcium and vitamins.
Highlighting the role of social workers, he said social workers must have the basic knowledge of food habits that improve the lifestyle of members of society. Nature and history are the best teachers for us. We can learn from the way of life of our ancestors to live a healthy life. Nature provides everything our human body needs. He talked about all these basic things for people to know how to live a normal and healthy life.
Dr. Juliet CJ, in her presidential address, began with a quote from Gandhi, “A smart village provides its inhabitants with all the basic facilities in an efficient manner. In a smart village, the community, individually and collectively, will be empowered to make smart decisions using technologies and with the support of a smart workforce and self-sufficiency management.” She cited the example of one of the villages in Andhra Pradesh which transformed into a smart village after encountering problems. The problem faced by this village was the lower demand for millet production due to the easy availability of rice in the ration store. However, they started working hard and smart on focusing on the problem. They came up with a plan to make millet the usual consumer product of the people again. They have researched various types of millet productions that can be readily available to people. They prepared different kinds of millet bundles and started selling to people, which eventually turned into a sustainable market. Therefore, a smart decision made by a smart man can create sustainable smart villages.
Vice Principal of College Dr Jenis P Mary, HOD of Professor MSW Eveleen Bennis, Organizing Secretary Dr Meena Juliet Monteiro, Student Welfare Officer Jinsa Joseph, Student Animator Devika, Secretary Sandra Prince and Gina – Volda University Student Representative Norway were present at the occasion.
