Wrapping it Up

We finished up staff training on Monday with a review and a friendly competition. The staff was divided into 2 groups and were asked questions pertaining to the material in the health booklet. I was very impressed with their knowledge and could tell that many of them had studied and understood the material well. Our meeting ended with a lively song and dance. As a parting gift I cooked a stew for the staff and fed more than 25 with what I called Mozambiqan Stew. All 4 of the food groups were represented in the stew. Our Director Joao suggested that there were many of the staff who had probably never tasted a more nutritious flavorful meal in their lives. Time and alot of work will bear much fruit in the lives of these beautiful people.

An Amazing Story

The health promoters are already making a difference in the lives of their neighbors. Francesca, a health promoter from Subida became aware that one of her neighbors began labor at around 2 am. She went over to see if she could assist. Complications developed and the woman did not want to go to the hospital. She argued and insisted that she go to the witch doctor. After going to the witch doctor her condition deteriorated, her life was in jeopardy. Francesca, using her quick thinking sent some one to a nearby community to get some one with a car that they could pay the driver to take them to the hospital. This was arranged and the mothers life was spared and the baby is doing fine thanks to the courage and concern for one of the members in her zone. As the promoters in Care for Life villages teach and promote good health practices that they have received training in, I am sure many more lives will be impacted for the better in these poor rural communities

A New Begining

Today we completed the initial health training in our last village, Subida. We feel confidant that we have laid the initial ground work to making a lasting change in self reliant health in Mozambique. This is the begining of great things. We have taught them that children, pregnant women and the elderly are especially vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. We introduced them to the food groups with examples of locally available foods and taught them to insure that they eat varied foods from these groups on a daily basis. We taught them the signs and consequences of malnutrition and breast feeding and weaning guidelines for women including those who are HIV positive. We taught them how to make oral rehydrating solution and guidelines for assessing and treated those with dehydration ( a large cause of mortality in Africa). We taught them the signs of severe dehydration and how to recognize and prevent cholera and dysentery. We taught malaria prevention and treatment along with reviewing the importance of disease prevention related to the vaccines that are available locally. We the observed and coached them as thy role played and taught these principles to each other. They now have a big challenge to learn the information and the take this information to the families in their zones. Some promoters have between 20 to more than 30 families in their zones. This will take months before all families are contacted and years to strengthen and perfect. It is very humbling to be a small part in this process. I admire these people for their willingness to step up and take on roles and responsibilities that are new to them and dramatically different from their ancestors.

Ngupa Health Promoters

We just finished teaching our first village the remaining content of our health booklet. Our training went much better than last week. We distributed booklets to each of the promoters for the families in their zones and next week we will visit the families and observe them teaching. I am excited to see these people learn and teach each other these concepts.

Back in Moz

It has been a very humbling week teaching the people in the Beira area. On Monday I taught the Care for Life Coordinators the first half of the new Health Booklet. Until you begin to teach new material you have no idea how to present it to your audience here until you get started. It went fairly well. On Tuesday we taught the health promoters from Ngupa 1 and Ngupa 2. This is where the frustration began. Many of the individual's could not read and did not fully understand Portugese. Justin Larkin translated to Portugese and Annamicus translated into Senna. Thank goodness she was here and helped us salvage our training. On Wednesday and Thursday we taught the health promoters in Motel Bispo 1 & 2 and Vilamassane. These people ate it up. They were hungry for more information as we introduced them to simple concepts of nutrition and health. On Friday we taught in Subida and we were back at square one. After 2 hours of training the promoters struggled to name the 4 basic food groups. I don't believe it has anything to do with their intellect, but more of a failure on our part in not adapting the information to their way of thinking. It's a big world and most of it does not think the way we do. Next week we start all over and see if we can build upon what we have learned through this excercise. There is nothing more exciting than to see into the eyes of an individual and detect they are learning and comprehending new information. It motivates you to work harder to share more. I see why educators often continue to teach in spite of challenging circumstances and low pay, it is made up for in the satisfaction of information shared and imparted into a mind ready to absorb more.