Our teams are aided by nursing students from Shirati Hospital; they translate English, Swahili, d Luo (the indigenous tongue of the region). In each village, the volume of patients is so large it is difficult to care for everyone. Many patients have never before seen a physician, and many children have received no immunizations.
Based on need, the teams have spent more time in Roche than the other two villages. In Roche, the team utilizes a primary schoolhouse for triaging and treating patients, conducting learning workshops, and setting up the field pharmacy. Nyambogo is about 1.5 hours from Shirati by four-wheel drive vehicle on very rough roads. Patients are treated in the village church, a large building of wood and mud bricks with a dirt floor. Burere is over an hour from Shirati, and is fortunate to have a pharmacy, but the supply of medications is limited to several bottles of over the counter pain killer. However, the building provides shade and a central location for the team to set-up its field clinic. The most diagnosed ailment is Malaria in all three villages.
June 2007 Brigade
The June 2007 Health Team volunteers traveled hut to hut performing the Rapid Catch Survey, a tool designed to help us collect health data to better serve the needs of the villages. This information helps identify health and other concerns that we can address with our project planning, and serves as a way to measure the effect that our projects have in the villages.
The Health Team was also able to work with our onsite project coordinator, Dina, to evaluate the progress of the Mosquito Net Project. Dina works to distribute thousands of nets and educate the locals on proper use. Reports from families and village leaders overwhelmingly affirmed that the nets are dramatically reducing cases of malaria, the region’s top health concern. Dr. Jennifer Ernst, who runs our MNP, is exploring an option for us to procure the new “Permanets,” which have the insecticide instilled into the fabric of the nets and do not need to be retreated.
Plans for the October Brigade are going well. Our team is finalizing our order to MAP International, a non-profit organization from which we are able to buy low cost medications to supply our temporary field clinics. Many old faces will be around to help out in the field clinics and during our community health education programs, and we have a bright crop of new volunteers as well. We are also excitedly discussing the possibility of building a permanent clinic site in the not too distant future.
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Contact us anytime at: contact@villagelifeoutreach.org.