Meditations on a halfway point: A photographic update...Workshops, etc.

 

Workshops, etc.

 

MALARIA

This week another volunteer and I got the opportunity to attend the national malaria conference along with a PC staff member. The three of us presented on the efforts of PCVs in Botswana to contribute to the elimination of malaria. Botswana is one of 8 countries in southern Africa working to eliminate the disease. One of the tools widely used is indoor residual spraying (IRS), where teams spray the interior walls of homes with insecticide to reduce the mosquito population and interrupt the malaria transmission cycle. Tiphaine (the other volunteer pictured) and myself are working to use GPS units to mark which houses are sprayed and not sprayed in our villages. You can then look at the spatial distribution of these points and use that data to do targeted follow up in certain parts of the village that have low coverage. We also want to GPS the locations of malaria cases in our communities to compare the hot spots with the IRS coverage to see if there is a correlation. Exciting stuff!

 

 

Explaining the mapping program, OpenStreetMap, which we are using for these mapping initiatives.

 

 

GENDER

I hosted a gender-based violence workshop using a tool called "In Her Shoes" for about 30 police officers in my village. After rescheduling twice and two local counterparts bailing on me, I decided to do the workshop by myself. I would have preferred to co-facilitate with a counterpart, but with the way things went I was alone. I was very nervous, but quickly found my stride and facilitated some good conversations following the activity.

 

(MORE) MALARIA 

I also helped train the malaria community mobilizers for my village and the handful of villages in our catchment area. Leading up to that, I developed the training curriculum for the district health team staff who trained the mobilizers in the rest of the district where I couldn't attend the training sessions. It felt like a good way to help capacity build and contribute my own knowledge to the training program while still allowing the district staff to take the lead, as it should be. 

 



The first day of training was with community leaders, meaning the chiefs of the local villages. I was surprised at their lack of knowledge coming into the training.

One of the staff members from the district health office training the chiefs.

Community Health Educators demonstrating to the Community Mobilizers how to hang a bed net.



I developed this simple training tool to help test the volunteers' knowledge about how to assess a compound while using the field reporting tools they will be employing on a daily basis.

  



 WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK

 

This was something I didn't personally help plan, but I participated in the event at my clinic. Mothers were trained on correct hygiene practices as well proper positioning and attachment of infants. We even gave out prizes for those who were doing it best.

 

Two of my counterparts, both health educators, teaching the mothers together. There were even a few fathers present!

And because pregnant mothers are at a heightened risk for malaria, we also did a bed net demonstration.