i’m itchin’
So as I have been in country for a few months now as a “student;” learning the culture, language, fomba of my community (ways of my community) I now know what issues are most important and what issues are viewed by community members themselves. I recently presented my Community Diagnostic Survery (CDS) with help from my Program Director of Peace Corps to community members in February. This survey/report was conducted throughout my entire time thus far in Madagascar, in Amporoforo. The timing of presenting the report was perfect because it gave the community members my sense of professionalism. They usually see me playing with kids, running around or telling people to wash their hands; which is all part of me being community integrated…but at this point I’m itching to get some projects started and get on a schedule.
I have started teaching at the middle school every Wednesday from 2-4 pm talking about various topics weekly and having discussions afterwards. This past week, I discussed diarrhea and the importance of clean water and hygiene. At the end of the class I asked who understood or was ‘mahay’ in the lesson and my neighbor, 11 year old Bakoli, raised her hand. I told her to come to the front of the class and take about the modes of transmission of diarrhea. I had a chart on the board of the four F’s…Flies, Food, Field and Feces. Each one depicting the course of transmission all stemming from a dirty environment. Diarrhea is the number one leading cause in developing countries and the majority of the reasons come from an unhealthy, dirty, crammed living conditions, and not drinking clean water or using latrines.
Which is going to be one of my main focuses during my time here. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). World Water Day is March 22, 2011 and in celebration I am holding a week long festival discussing the various issues involving water. Check out my blurb on the website and see what other individuals are doing all over the world that day: http://www.worldwaterday.org/page/3598
Each day is going to consist of activities and discussions with community members held at the local health clinic in which I work. Topics include, diarrhea prevention and treatment, clean and safe drinking water and hygiene. I have scheduled various activities throughout the week, that do not just tell people how to do things…I will be showing them as well. Giving proper demonstrations on hand washing. For the most part soap is considerably expensive for the people in my town, so there only option is to use ash in which they all have in their households. The granules in the ash scrub away germs and act as an exfoliant scrubbing away dead skin, which leaves the hand feeling baby soft. (Commercial slogan?) It really does! I’ve done it and your hands feel and are much cleaner. The month of March I’m going to focus primarily on water-borne diseases and clean drinking water.
So my projects that I’ve been thinking of range mainly from WASH, but some invloves HIV/AIDS and nutrition.
World Map Program – I was thinking about painting a large world map on the side of both the elementary school and middle school depicting the areas of AIDS around the world. Many children have no idea where other countries are in relation to Madagascar, not even Africa. This map will provide an educational outlet for kids to learn about other countries as well as the areas affected by AIDS, which is Madagascar. The children would help me throughout the project too, fun and educational! This I might be able to get funding for through one of the outlets from Peace Corps.
Improved water at health clinic – The rainy season calls for many families running to the health clinic, as it is one of few actual buildings in my town that have a roof and gutters, to catch water in their buckets and basins to be used for washing and everything else. My plan is to get water barrels and pvc piping and get some community members together to build the catchment tanks. This way people can get clean water that live nearby, and the patients that come into the health clinic have clean drinking water throughout their stay or treatment. The clean water will also be used to properly boil and sterilize instruments used during procedures. I have noticed, and this is going to be extremely disgusting, but after the doctor has used instruments whether to cut an umbilical cord or clean a wound, the respectable family member is advised to clean the instruments…as a thank you to the doctor for treating the patient, I guess. What they do is take it to the lake by the clinic and rinse it off and then through the bloody gauze into the trees. Once in a while I’ve seen the midwife rinse the instruments with alcohol, which is good, but when everything else around the instrument is infected that doesn’t matter. I know what you’re thinking, tell them to stop!…I have and this is an ongoing problem. General cleanliness within the CSB (Centre de Sante de Base – Health Clinic) is going to be my focus as well. Also smaller water jugs by the entrances of the clinic so individuals to wash their hands before entering the clinic and after leaving.
Also there is currently a water catchment tank at the elementary school which then flows into a hand-washing station which was funded by UNICEF. But it is currently broken, so repairs of this is on my list as well.
Latrine building – There is currently three latrines at the middle school which the floor has fallen in and therefore no one uses. Where do they use the restroom? They go far, is what they say. There are 140 students at the middle school and no where for them to go use the little toilet. There are 277 students in the elementary school and no where for them to go either. As you can see sanitation and hygiene is the most important issue in my community. The people understand that they should be using latrines but they do not build them. They say they are too tired to get the materials and no money to purchase them. One of my goals is to educate people about them and start building them. I have contacted some NGO’s; Catholic Relief Services, CARE and Land O’Lakes to see if they can help me out with this.
Pump Construction – There is one pump that is from a clean water source. This one pump is currently broken and is not enough for the 10,000 people in my community. Most of the women walk very far to this well to ‘mangala rano’ – ‘get water.’ I have an appointment with Caritas (RanoHP) which is an NGO north of me in Manakara that might be able to assist me with pump construction.
Fruit Drying – The elementary school day starts at 7am and lasts until 1:30pm. Throughout this time the children are not provided with any lunch or snacks and they get hungry throughout the school day…which leads to lack of focus and nutrition. Most of the children also walk up to 15 km to go to school. Fruit drying would be a great way to provide the students with snacks during school and also to sustain the enriched Vitamin A mangoes that are only in season three months out of the year. Mangoes, pineapple, banana and coconut are great sources of nutrients that are able to be dried using the sun. A volunteer in Ghana, I believe, has recevied $1,000 from sources back in the states and was able to build 9 solar driers using these funds. My hope is to reach out to some organizations and individuals back in America to potentially get funding for this.
Moringa/Ananambo – this ‘magical tree’ is full of nutrients. The leaves contain 7 times the amount of vitamin c in oranges, 4 times the amount of vitamin a in carrots, 4 times the calcium in milk, 3 times the potassium in bananas and 2 times the protein in yogurt. The seeds can be made into a powder using a mortar and pestle and used to treat water. The root can be mashed and eaten like horseradish with rice. They require little water and maintenance and grow in any type of soil. In about a year the tree is ready and the leaves and seeds can be used.
TOMS Shoes – TOMS Shoes, if you don’t know what they are go to the website…www.tomsshoes.com. They’re awesome. For every pair of shoe you buy a pair gets donated to a child in need somewhere in the world. Well Madagascar is not a country that TOMS Shoes distributes to. Some of the other current PCVs have already contacted TOMS Shoes to see if they can somehow include Madagascar and we can become a ‘Giving Partner.’ Brianna, another PCV closer to the capital, has contacted an NGO called CARE to see if they can be the in-country correspondent. In order for TOMS Shoes to work in a country they have to have a permanent in-country representative to house the shoes and distribute them. The 100 some-odd Peace Corps Volunteers throughout the country will be the liaison and hopefully distribute the shoes to the children in their respected towns and villages. The NGO has to have a place big enough to store a 20 or 40 foot container that can hold anywhere from 17,000 to 33,000 pairs of shoes. Hopefully in the next few months CARE and TOMS Shoes can collaborate and we can start distributing shoes soon. CARE is down and so are we.
Improvements to temporary housing – There are currently five houses next to the health clinic that are the traditional ravi (leaf) and wood hut known in the SouthEast and other parts of Madagascar. The floorboards are currently falling out and the walls collapsing. These houses are frequently used. When a patient comes to the health clinic for treatment and have to stay for an extended period of time the family is able to use these houses, to sleep in and cook in. The family usually brings everything but the kitchen sink with them. This is something that I will have to go through PCPP to get funds.
There are options for funding within Peace Corps but there are other options as well. The Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) is a place where I can post the types of projects that I want to do and post it to the website and people from back home are able to add money to the project through the website and once I meet my goal of lets say $1,000 for a fruit drying project then I get the money to start it.
In due time. I’m itchin’ to get started.
Updated my reading list. Check it out.
