Camp for Testing Hemoglobin
Are you vulnerable to anemia? In order to enable our students to find the answer, JMC organized a hemoglobin testing camp on 27th June 2024, with the support of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi. The camp was conducted by the AIIMS team of one dietician and two technicians supported by six interns, who are postgraduate (M.Sc) students of Food and Nutrition from Lady Irwin College and the Institute of Home Economics.
The JMC team initiated and coordinated the logistics for the camp under the guidance of the AIIMS team. This included procurement of consumables and arrangement of rooms. Instruments to measure height and weight were set up, as also tables for registration. The JMC team mobilized the parents of the students of JMC to permit their wards to undergo the testing at the Camp. A letter was written to the parents explaining the importance of this test and the benefits of counselling.



The camp lasted nearly four hours from 10 a.m. in the morning. It was a success, with over a hundred registering for the test. The beneficiaries were mostly adolescent girls and some boys from JMC’s remedial education programme. Women from Madanpur Khadar village, Shram Vihar and Rajasthani Camp including some lactating mothers, accompanied by some men, also registered for the test.
The team of counsellors spoke to each of the beneficiaries after the test, and conveyed to them the importance of iron in their body. They were taught that iron deficiency can lead to anemia. While medicines can offer temporary relief, it is finally a nutritious iron-rich diet that can cure anemia. The harmful impact of anemia on the physical and mental development of an adolescent and its consequent impact on mental faculties, like memory, were explained to the students.


The children whose hemoglobin was lower than the recommended level were advised to seek medical advice. Further, dietary recommendation was made – a glass of milk and fruit every day, and green vegetables like spinach as well as sprouted moong, channa and jaggery, which are rich in iron. The prescribed doses of Vitamin C which enables absorption of iron was also recommended.

