What We Do

So what do I do here? Well, a little and also a lot. Because trying to do anything sometimes feels like a lot! Projects and progress and change are slow but also sure. 

When I first came to Malawi, I knew I wanted to teach. I love it- it's a passion. So I became connected to the local Secondary School or High School in my area and I started teaching Life Skills which is a class that teaches students about everything from HIV to globalization to conflict resolution to setting goals and having healthy habits. Basically, skills you need to really excel and love in life. I very much enjoy teaching this class. I teach 2 different grades each having about 50 students in the class. This takes up about 2 days a week. 

This past year I've also started an after school club with a fellow teacher called AIDS TOTO Club meaning "the refusal to get AIDS." We focus on discussions, lessons, songs, dance, poems and role-play to learn. We are hoping to take our talents out of the school and into the village to help teach others. We also encourage each student to know their HIV status by being tested and setting an example. Since the club started, several male students have gone to the health center for testing! This is a big deal as men here in the community usually do not come as often for testing or treatment. These boys were true leaders bold and brave!

I have also started a program with a fellow NGO in my area working with girls. Namalomba Secondary School, where I volunteer, has a new boarding school where about 100 girls live. We are taking about 1 Saturday a month to chat with and teach the girls about Sex Ed and female specific health such as menstruation. And since sanitary pads, tampons and Diva Cups are expensive and not common here, we are also teaching the girls how to sew and make their own reusable sanitary napkins for menstruation. We provide all the materials and help them sew their own while also answering all their questions about menstruation, sex, boys, pregnancy, future goals, etc. It is a very needed program in this area plagued by school drop-outs and early pregnancies (as young as 14 yrs). Last year, 44% of deliveries at my health center were by girls 21 years or younger. 

At my health center we've started a natural medicine and nutritional garden with the help of the Health Center Committee- 10 unpaid volunteers from the community. And we just started to partner the garden with a newly formed HIV/AIDS home-based care (HBC) group. We want this garden to be an easy place for the community to get healthy, nutritious food to combat malnutrition and hunger. A counterpart from my community was trained with me on Natural Medicine and Nutrition and now every Friday at the HIV Clinic at the health center he is teaching HIV positive patients how to build their immunity and use natural remedies along with their medicines. We also do demonstrations, sell, and give out seeds, plants, and food. My counterpart has taught about Moringa tree and powder (we sell powder to patients), garlic, and now lemon grass and citrus lemon. We have lessons and demonstrations lined up for the next couple months. We try to bring the patients a little hope this way. 

And then, I volunteer at the health center. I help the pharmacy assistant in stocking and doing inventory on drugs. I help in the malaria room especially trying to train health workers on how to increase accuracy in record keeping and data entry as well as infection prevention strategies. I help in the HIV clinic every Friday helping weigh patients and take their height. I've helped organize patient charts and files to make the clinic run more efficiently and the end of month reports go faster. I've learned how to fill out and register charts for new patients. I really enjoy this work. I've also learned how to take blood pressure with the help of a nurse and we and recommend healthy diets in addition to treatment if it's high. I especially do this on Mondays at the Antenatal Clinic.

My health center has also asked me to help them write proposals. I helped them write 3 proposals for funding in which we received around 1 million Kwatcha. We used this to buy solar batteries so the staff houses have light. We also bought buckets with tap and made hand washing stations around the health center. We bought gloves, mops, cleaning materials and other infection prevention (IP) materials. In July pre-funding we had an infection prevention (IP) audit with a score of 37%. Yikes! In October 2013 post-funding our IP score went to 70%! My health centre is awesome! We now also have a proposal for the Out-Patient Department maintenance and repair. We hope it is approved!

There's a local non-governmental organization (NGO) in our area called H.E.L.P. Malawi and I partnered with them to finish and build a guardian shelter at the health centre where expectant mothers and guardians can sleep and cook. There's also a new shelter for our Under 5 Clinic and Nutrition Clinic. 

And now, I'm knee deep in helping the health centre clinicians in data analysis and overall facility improvement. We are making charts, tracking trends, learning to use Excel, adding Patients' and Workers' Rights as well as individual job descriptions (JDs) to increase performance. All these things help increase staff performance, patient satisfaction, and audit scores. The proposals we write and get approved are funded by the NGO OPTIONS. The facility staff gets a monetary award the higher their audit score is. So, I work with them on weaknesses to improve their scores.

This has not all been easy and is many times slow and methodical. But little things are happening. After rainy season ends the villages want to partner with me to help turn some of their water wells into pumps and to protect the well. The HC is also thinking about adding a Youth Friendly Service program which I will try and help them with. There's possibilities always. Sometimes things fail. Our garden for example has taken a hard hit during rainy season. And I lost some great staff at the secondary school who were helping me with AIDS TOTO Club due to transfers. And last week, a 1 year old child died at the clinic due to malaria complications. It's always about figuring out how to carry on. How to be sustainable. How to stay encouraged. How to motivate others to work with you. I am learning a lot about myself and the world through these projects. I am happy to be here even in stress and failure. 

Thank you all for your support and encouragement to always carry on.