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.