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| This was the third awareness talk I participate in. The awareness talk, this time, focused on malaria. We delivered the talk to class 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Pupils seemed to have much more awareness of malaria than they did of HIV, which was reassuring. Pupils used their books to answer some questions which I gathered meant they'd had a lesson on the topic. |
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Recording the cause, symptoms and prevention of malaria. Particularly for the younger ones, to make it more interesting, I did some fun actions to help them remember the different symptoms to look out for. We did extreme shivering and acted vomiting which everyone found hilarious.
A short while after the talk, one of my students in Class 3 was lying down on the bench at her school desk. The previous two days she had been unwell but she had appeared to have taken a turn for the worse. I was very concerned; she had vomitted, was sweating, was very weak and disorientated. Possible malaria? I was very worried and as the teachers decided to send her home which was a long walk away I tried to insist I would take her home in a taxi. But as I am a guest here, I was put above her and I couldn't take her home 'because it would be too much for me and I would have to come back alone'. I was very frustrated as I watched an older boy begin the walk carrying her home. I kept pushing and pushing to let me take her home but I was fighting a losing battle. The whole of the rest of the day my mind was on little Rebecca, a very giggly and intelligent girl. One of the class teachers scared me even more when I was told she wouldn't go to hospital, but her mum 'would cook some herbs and let her drink that for medicine'. I planned to visit her in the evening, but was not able to. As soon as I woke up the next morning I wanted to find out how she was and luckily was told she had been taken to hospital afterall. I am now worriedly waiting for news and feel completely powerless. She is so small and wish I could do more! Out of all of the horrible things i've seen on my various travels and volunteering that have obviously been emotional, this, by far, has really pulled my heart strings. I was almost in tears (a rarity in anycase) at one point...i'm attached to my students for sure. |
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| This was my second time assisting the community nurses at the mother and baby clinic. It was absolutely incredible and so, so exhausting. These nurses really do amazing work. |
At the clinic, I weighed 111 babies. There was such a difference between each child. Some were scarily small and some were very chunky! Weighing them using this technique is very difficult as the babies love to kick, which jogs the dial on the measuring device, making hard to make an accurate recording.
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| Earlier in the week we visited the stone quarry site, where TANF rescues its children from labour and puts them into education. We went to interview some of those who work there to understand properly what life is like. We spoke to one man, Wonder, who was one of the loveliest men I have ever met. We spoke to him for a long time about how we are trying to help more and more people and he gave us an idea of his daily life. This consists of climbing a steep hill, breaking off chunks of rock, rolling it down the hill, then sitting under this 'shelter' on these stones and cracking them into tiny pieces...for 10/11 hours a day, 7 days a week. |
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| Class 3! My lovelies... |
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| Class 2...My other lovelies |
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Me, Jana (a volunteer from Germany) and 3 of the teachers at Wisdom Academy.
I'm still doing lots of marketing for TANF and continue to write up regular news stories of events that have happened...read TANF's blog to see full stories of everything I have been involved with :) |
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