week 8. last days of work

This week was the last one for a big part of the Health Project team. Lots of things to be done.

Parra was finishing the reports about HIV and medical caravans, and Luis the one of the medical examination done to Msitu children. Later, they show them to the doctor of Msitu and to PamojaTunaweza. Plenty of data was analized and really good information was got to plan new projects.

Jaime gave a big impulse to the program formation for the mamas, that later whe revise and finished all together. He was also helping with the tourism project, translating the information into Spanish.

Hanna was in charge of this week seminar. This one was difficult, as we wanted to talk to the mamas about drugs side-effects, in order to advise them of the dangers of giving drugs without medical supervision. The seminars went great, the mamas said it was because Hanna is a really good teacher, but Hanna insists that they are perfect students.

Julia was helping another NGO, Cre-Aid. They are building two houses in Msitu and they wanted us to talk to the families about personal and house hygiene. Julia worked this week with one of the families, and although it was difficult because of the conditions, with the help of Zara and with drawings that were put in the walls of their new house, everything went well.

In the dispensary, I was learning how is the pregnancy women and children-under-five care, as well as the family planning program. These issues are given a big importance during the last years, and in the dispensary, they seem to work quite well. Luis was with Junior and the doctor, measuring blood pressure. Our goal was that someone in the dispensary did that work when we leave. But they didn’t like the idea, as they said they have already a lot of work. We will try again.

Miranda has been preparing a new medical caravanfor the Home Based Care (HBC,) that will take place on Saturday with a doctor from PamojaTunaweza, thanks to the extra-money we got with the donations. The HBC is a program from the government that tries to give follow up to patients that require special cares and have difficulties to go to the dispensary. Veronica is the one in charge, and they are also other three workers and three more volunteers. They have more than 140 cases, so this week the team formed by Veronika, Gasto, Miranda and Hanna visit some of them in order to decide which ones will take more advantage from the caravan. This was hard work. Every day more cases about people with serious medical problems and  difficult family situations reach our ears. TATU can not take over these cases, as we don’t have the necessary resources, but there are some local NGO that can, as CCBRT, Plaster House or Gabriellla Rehabilitation Cente. This one is a NGO that works with disable children and has offered to evaluate the incorporation of a boy from Msitu with cerebral palsy to one of their programs. For future cases, we have gave the contacts of these NGOs to the doctor and Veronika.

Luis, Parra, Miranda, Jaime and I have said goodbye to Msitu this week. Luckily, Julia and Hanna are staying to give the final push to the project.