December 2011

Pictured: Peace Corps/Foxes' NGO Volunteer Meredith Pinto has her picture taken with the older boys at the Children's Village. Meredith was with us for a year, and her service was a great success!

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

The following was a story Children’s Village manager, Jenny Peck, wanted to share:
As the children get older, the challenges we face become different- previously, it was ‘do we have enough nappies for the babies? ‘ ‘Are there enough caregivers for the amount of young children’ to now, where the challenges are more about behaviour, and what to do about teenage children discovering who they are and who they want to be, and acting out. As our young children grow into young adults, we have seen a trend as they ‘test the waters’ to see just how much they can get away with! The rule here at the Children’s Village is that all children need to be in their homes at 6pm, just to make sure everyone is safe and sound, but also if someone is missing, we have time to find out where they might be or if something is wrong. One evening, as the boys were coming home from school, they stayed out past their 6pm curfew, and arrived home at 730pm, causing worry with all the guardians. Motorcyles with search parties went to find them, and phones were being called in all corners of our village. The boys had just been at the bicycle shop, fixing up their bikes, and didn’t communicate with home to tell the guardians they were late. It was decided from the guardians that the boys should have some sort of ‘penalty’ to pay for breaking the house rules, so it was decided that the next day (Saturday), they would perform community service work. What resulted was better than anticipated! The boys were sent to the village of Mlevelwa, where we have two home based care volunteers. There is a very sick man with cancerous sores on his legs, Seti, who is being looked after by these 2 HBCV and his mother, but to take care of him is very difficult. His wounds are smelly, and as he is unable to walk, getting to the bathroom is difficult-causing further smell in his house. His mother can’t afford soap to wash his clothes, and is elderly herself, so keeping his room tidy, his clothes clean, his wounds sterile and well tended, just doesn’t happen. Because of the smell, people don’t visit, and it was harming Seti’s mental health. We sent our boys, armed with bandages, brooms, buckets, food and soap to Seti’s house where they cleaned his house, aired out his bedding, washed all his laundry, fetched water for his mother, found a week’s worth of firewood for the family, and cleaned the flesh eating maggots our of Seti’s wounds without any complaints. In fact, while they were busy helping Seti, the Village Executive Officer (VEO) and other village leaders just happened to be nearby. They asked the boys who they were and were shocked to hear that they were ORPHANS! How could it be that orphans, that need help themselves, were giving back to the community?! They were shocked, and humbled by this, and as the boys left, said to the guardian that went with them “ You have all taught us something today. Thank you!’. This warms our hearts, and gave us more ideas. Now, our children in secondary school are going into the communities once a weekend to help serve the less fortunate: the grandmothers who need help fetching water or firewood, blind people that might need assistance farming, and other people who need a temporary helping hand. The children are enjoying the lessons learned through this service learning, and they have said that they are happy they are able to help those the way they have been helped.
One major HIV prevention method that has received a lot of international attention recently is male circumcision. It has been said by major AID agencies that this intervention can prevent the spread of HIV by up to 60%. There has been a major campaign in Mufindi and across Tanzania, encouraging men to be circumcised, and in fact there was a two-week seminar at the Mdabulo CTC just as it was beginning to be used in October 2010. Five of our boys decided- on their own- to have this procedure earlier this month. They were given all proper education about the procedure and its effects before –hand, and were not encouraged or discouraged by our organization to go-ahead with the procedure. At the very least, it is encouraging to see the boys thinking about their future, and about HIV.
Construction work on the Igoda Children’s Village Social Center has continued well this month. The kindergarten classroom/social hall has been built up enough that it is already in use! A ceiling is in place, electricity has been installed, and all mason work is complete. Only plumbing and carpentry such as window shutters, doors, and furnishings remain. The space has already been used by some kindergarten students during the December school break. Cornelia, the Igoda primary school teacher, is teaching during the day, and all of the kindergarten-aged children at the children’s village (and some children coming from the nearby area) are all getting some valued tutoring during their holiday break. The room was also utilized for Christmas celebrations. The children of the children’s village sang songs, opened presents, ate food, had candy, and put on a performance of the nativity scene for themselves and guests visiting the Lodge for Christmas. We are excited to see this facility already in use, and it looks as though it will be a very valuable resource.
Finally, construction at house site number one got a chance to progress as well this month! There had been some delays with transport, but mason workers were able to complete the foundations of this house, and things should really take off in the new year. We feel our final house will be ready for use by the end of June of the coming year. With that, all children’s housing will be complete!

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Milk Formula Project

Our Milk Powder Program continues to show encouraging results, as we now have 32 families enrolled, and each and every child enrolled has had overall health improvements. The general weight of the children has risen steadily under the program, and there have been no problems of diareah or dehydration as of yet with any of the children. Our case study- Shamira- had a December 7th weight of 3.66kg and has been a very healthy baby. In the new year we plan to collate all of the data we’ve collected for this program and have a presentation ready explaining the successes, challenges, and processes of this program. It appears as though more and more this is an example program that could be replicated elsewhere where HIV prevalence is dangerously high.

HEALTH CARE

Dr. Leena Pasanen

Dr. Leena brought some more guest volunteers with her this month. Andreas Harmsen and Johannes Edström were here in Mufindi during Dr. Leena’s latest visit. They are each medical students, and expressed interest in returning to Mufindi one day as doctors. They only stayed a short time with us, but were very impressed with the projects here, and have since kept in contact about how to help the organization from their homes in Sweden. Dr. Leena’s positive impact on the community and the projects doesn’t just include her own services, but she has continually brought professionals to Mufindi, thus improving the overall health care of the area.

EDUCATION

Igoda Community Hall

For the third year in a row, the Igoda Community hall was host to a World AIDS Day event on December 1st. This year’s World AIDS Day global message was a focus on zero stigmatization, zero new infections, and zero deaths from HIV. This message accompanied an ambitious goal of a generation without HIV by the year 2015! The message in Kiswahili was posted in colourful banners around the Community Hall, and was written on t-shirts that were given to all performers and volunteers. The event featured dozens of performances, speeches, and messages all highlighting the importance of prevention and protection from this disease. HIV testing was again available for all throughout the day, and the event had an extra air of importance as the District Commissioner arrived – on time- and took part in the festivities, including sharing her own story of how HIV has affected her family this past year with the passing of her brother who died from AIDS. This now annual event is something the community seems to really get behind and support, and it seems like each year people are even more comfortable talking about their status, and talking about preventing others from contracting the disease. Once again the community hall is being used by the community as an educational resource that the surrounding area uses to educate itself about the issues most important to its people.

VOLUNTEERS

Meredith Pinto was a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years teaching at Mdabulo Secondary School from 2008-2010. She decided to extend a third year through Peace Corps, but with our NGO here in Mufindi. Our connection with U.S. Peace Corps went really well, and Meredith’s service to the projects in Mufindi made an indelible impact. During Meredith’s time with Foxes’ NGO she helped organize several girl’s conferences at our Community Hal, she held several seminars at the Hall for women’s rights, and women’s health, and she contributed in many other ways to the overall management of the Children’s Village, and the NGO as a whole. Perhaps her biggest achievement during the year spent with us was starting a Home Based Care program that gave us a big step in the ever-evolving community outreach program. Meredith hosted a 21 day training for ten volunteers who were taught how to be proper volunteers under the government of Tanzania guidelines. The volunteers were taught basic first-aid, how to give proper HIV education, and how to educate people in this rural area on how to use the existing health facilities. Meredith coordinated monthly meetings to initiate and manage the program, and she made frequent visits to the five villages currently involved to see the work first-hand. The Home Based Care program has given us a further insight to the problems of our area, and it has improved Dr. Leena Pasanen’s work as patients are shown to us by the program’s volunteers. We were fortunate to have Meredith with us for 2011, and we wish her luck as she has gone to the United States to seek a graduate degree in public health. She will be missed, and we all hope to see her back in Mufindi before too long!

submitted by Jenny Peck and Geoff Knight

November 2011

Pictured: Ruth James and Anne Pearson from african Book Box, with Mufindi District's Executive Director, Shimwela L.E.S., who came from Mafinga to help celebrate the opening of Luhunga Secondary School's new Library.

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

Enida Mkolefu came to the children’s village in September when her older sister passed away leaving a newborn child orphaned and in need of a guardian. Enida has since been the primary caregiver to Shamira (now three months old, getting healthier, and gaining weight rapidly). This month Enida went to Songea to take an entrance exam to enroll into a child-care college. She passed with flying colours and will join the school in January. This is another step towards getting more certified caregivers at the children’s village, and we are glad to find a caregiver from the area that will give the whole facility more expertise and professionalism.
This month, we had a visitor from another organization come by to see the condition of Hezron, a 13-year-old boy staying at the children’s village who has cerebral palsy. Stefano runs a Community Based Rehabilitation program in the village of Waning’ombe near Dr. Leena’s Ilembula Hospital. Stefano gave us lots of advice and ideas on how to improve Hezron’s quality of life here at the children’s village, and we have also arranged to have Hezron visit Stefano’s site in the New Year to receive a week of intensive physiotherapy. Once again we were blessed this year to have Annie Gibbs give her services, and work on new exercises that can help in Hezron’s physical development. These exercises, and this added experience for Hezron will all help to improve his quality of life.
Near the end of this month all of the older boys from the children’s village traveled to Mafinga to take part in a 3-day boy’s conference as hosted by some U.S. Peace Corps volunteers from around the Mufindi district. The boys learned about trust and communication, as well as life skills, and health lessons such as learning more about the dangers of contracting HIV. We feel that the conference, and the experience will benefit the boys as they reach an age of self-discovery and expression.
Finally, construction of the Children’s Village kindergarten/social hall is continuing nicely with floor and ceiling frame already in place. We hope to have our Christmas celebration in this space, and we’re hoping sometime in January or early February this room will be complete and ready for regular use.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Home Based Care

A memorable visit was made this month to see the home-based care program in the village of Ludilo. The two home based care volunteers in Ludilo, Shida and Michael, had arranged for Dr. Leena to see many patients who were either too sick to reach a health facility, or were in need of special assistance that was otherwise not available in the area. The HBC program in this village, and indeed in all involved villages, is really doing a wonderful job in spreading health education and basic health services. We were slightly disheartened this month however, as two patients were sent to the regional Hospital in Iringa (over 125km away) only to get insufficient or no service at all! This further exemplifies the need for a rural Hospital in our area that can serve the community’s health care needs. Without proper health care, the community is struggling to care for all of its orphaned and vulnerable children. People living with HIV/AIDS are in specific need of such health services, and without such advances, progress will be a growing challenge for this area’s people.

HEALTH CARE

Mdabulo Hospital

The need for a proper health facility has never been more evident than it has in recent months with the Home Based Care program giving us a full-picture of the health problems in the area. With such a high prevalence of HIV in our area, there is an even greater need for health services as opportunistic infections afflict more people due to the HIV pandemic. Improving health care in this area is a vital development goal in enabling the community to get back on its feet and ultimately care for all of the orphans in our surrounding villages.
This month we have completed all mason work for three rooms at the Mdabulo site- two for doctor’s consulting, and one x-ray room. Once these rooms are complete, we will continue on with construction of the functioning part of the Hospital. In the coming year, the facility will be ready to host professional health volunteers, thus bolstering the site and getting quality health care to this rural population.

EDUCATION

Igoda Community Hall

This was a busy month for Canadian volunteers Anne Pearson and Ruth James. The pair worked predominantly at Luhunga Secondary School on this five-week visit, but they also worked on some learning exercises at other local primary schools, as well as the production of a play. On the road to Market was performed on November 17th to an audience of excited and enthusiastic secondary school students. Luhunga Secondary school students performed the play, and it was very well received by their peers. The entire performance really showed what the community hall is all about- an entertaining, educational, resource that can be used to bring the community together.

Luhunga Library

The following day, November 18th, was the official opening of the Luhunga Library. An honoured guest from the district offices- the District Executive Director – was on hand for the festivities, and the students and teachers really showed appreciation for the project. The Secondary school library will house computers for the school to use for IT classes, and to furnish the library, there have already been several substantial purchases of books from African Book Box, to go with books sent from Orphans in the Wild. The library will be a tremendous educational tool for the school, and it is already being used every day.

Ikaning’ombe Primary School

The NGO received another honour this month as Geoff Knight and Jenny Peck were invited as the honoured guests at Ikaning’ombe primary school graduation. As part of an address to the school, Geoff and Jenny congratulated the school and the community for helping themselves with a few recent developments. African Book Box Society contributed some cement, and new school desks to the school, and the community has since come together to build-up and refurbish a classroom that will be used for a kindergarten, and school library. The village of Ikaning’ombe has shown some strong initiative taking control of its own projects and contributing as a community for the betterment of its children. We are hoping this type of self-reliance will reverberate throughout the entire area as the devastating effects of the HIV pandemic subside with better treatment options, and healthier people.

October 2011

Pictured: Sekela Mwamdemele, who returned to her family this month after a successful stay at the Children's Village.

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

Two and half years ago three woman, all carrying babies, arrived at the children’s village to talk to us about a problem they had. With them that day was a 9-month old child named Sekela Mwamdemele whose mother had just passed away. The three women were all sisters of Sekela’s mother and they all had small children of their own under the age of one. They had said they needed assistance in carrying for Sekela as none of the women had the ability to care for her at the time. The plan was made for Sekela to live at the children’s village for a temporary time period until the aunts could care for her again in their homes. This month Sekela returned home. One of her aunts found employment in Mbeya region, and Sekela will live with her and be raised in her own family at home. About the time of Sekela’s arrival two and half years ago the children’s village welcomed several cases like hers of children needing a temporary shelter while their families get their lives in better shape to care for them. Over the next year we expect several children to be re-united with their families in the village, and we are excited to see how this stage of the children’s village project will progress.
The children’s village has a new house constructed and in operation this month! House number 2 (the fifth house constructed) will be home to children right away as the children’s village was over capacity with 54 children and only 4 homes. Now the children are more appropriately spaced out in each of the homes. The newest home will have boys and girls of younger ages, and the lead housemother will be Rehema who has been registered through a college for child-care, and has been with the children’s village from February this year. The new house is the second last house remaining for children’s housing at the children’s village, with the final house to be constructed with a donation from a Dutch foundation.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Home Based Care

The Home Based Care program is continuing nicely with each of the 10 volunteers visiting over 50 homes. This month some volunteers that came in a group divided themselves up and all visited volunteers in their village and made some home visits to observe the program in action. The villages of Kidete, Ludilo, and Mlevelwa were all visited, and all were working to prepare patients with serious health problems for Dr. Leena Pasanen’s upcoming visit. The home based care volunteers are promoting good quality care for the sick in the community, and will inevitably encourage others to care for their neighbours, as is the cultural tradition in this area.

Milk Powder Program

Each month the milk powder program seems to be running more consistently and successfully than the last. 28 families are enrolled in the program, and each child involved is showing improvements in health and overall weight. The child we are reporting on monthly, Shamira, has gained weight again this month. Up to nearly 3 kilos after joining the program only a short time ago weighing less than two kilos. Shamira is now a healthy looking child with chubby cheeks, and is gaining strength by the week. She is in the good care of her 20-year-old aunt who is planning to go to school to become a professional child-care giver at the children’s village.

HEALTH CARE

Dr Leena Pasanen

This month saw the much-awaited return of Dr. Leena! She was kept very busy on her two-week visit to Mufindi and had a filled itinerary this time around. She held clinics at Mdabulo and Luhunga health dispensaries, as well as helped at Mdabulo during one of the busy Care and Treatment days now occurring twice a week. She also held a clinic in Ilasa village where over 80 people were waiting for her services. She made home visits to the patients that the home based care volunteers had found, and her work has become exceedingly more important as a component to bringing quality health care to the community.

Mdabulo Hospital

We have received some very generous donations recently that will enable us to continue construction at the Mdabulo Hospital. This month we started construction on the first three rooms of our L-shaped functioning wing of the hospital. We plan to finish these three rooms completely first, and then continue working on other rooms going forward. The rooms will be two doctor’s consultancy rooms, and one x-ray room. If construction continues without any unexpected delays we expect to be done with these three rooms by the end of January. These three rooms will be constructed with funds from a Rotary club from Hong Kong. Then we will be using funds collected this year from a fundraiser completed from March-August when four friends of ours hiked the Appalachian Trail to raise funds for the hospital. Their funds will hopefully be enough to complete the next three rooms of the facility- a medical equipment store, a dental operations room, and pre-surgery waiting/preparation room. Finally, this month we received a donation from a fundraiser hosted by Gord Bredyk in Canada that will give us enough funds to build and hopefully complete at least one of our surgical theaters, and surgical prep rooms for the surgeons and hospital staff. This project will leave a lasting mark on the community giving the community the quality health care it needs to stay healthy and care for all of its children.

EDUCATION

Luhunga Primary School graduation

The NGO was honoured this month with an invitation for Geoff Knight and Jenny Peck to be the honoured guests at the primary school graduation ceremony for Luhunga primary school! As guests we gave a speech in Kiswahili expressing our gratitude about the honour, and we congratulated the graduates, and the parents for getting to this level of education. We took the opportunity to mention the importance of good health for the parents and guardians, and encouraged all to educate themselves about the harms of HIV. We concluded saying this is just the beginning of education for these students, and we encouraged all to come together to help the children of this community to get educated.

Igoda Community Hall

Conferences

There were two conferences held this month at the Igoda Community Hall. At the beginning of the month, Peace Corps volunteer Meredith Pinto hosted a girl’s conference where girls from the secondary schools learned about women’s rights, were educated about HIV, and participated in activities that encouraged gender equality. On the 20th and 21st, Anthony Kipangula, the district Lutheran pastor, together with his wife and a team of professional facilitators gave a marriage seminar at the community hall. The seminar taught over 30 couples from the surrounding villages about the importance of communication, and poignantly discussed the different cultural customs that may be harming marriages here based on negative interpretations. The team brought HIV tests, and each couple was invited to test for HIV, and a variety of other items were discussed, by Tanzanians for Tanzanians, about improving the quality of marriage in this culture. These conferences mark the continuation of the community hall being used for educational purposes. We are excited that the community hall is being used by the community as an educational resource for the community to teach itself about issues important to the area.

VOLUNTEERS

This month we saw the return of our favourite Canadian ladies, Anne Pearson and Ruth James from African Book Box Society. They are with us until the end of next month, and have brought a bevy of books and educational resources with them again, as well as their time and efforts volunteering at our village schools. They were honoured at the Igoda primary school graduation on the 25th, as the school wanted to give special thanks for all of their contributions to the community.
October was a busy month with visitors, as a group from an organization called Carpe Diem sent 13 short-term volunteers who took part in some ‘service-learning’ and had an indelible impact made upon them. One volunteer has made a personal financial contribution to the community outreach program already, and others are planning fundraisers for when they return home. We are pleased with our first experience with groups of volunteers even if we had some initial reservations.
Annie Gibbs visited us for the third year in a row again this year as her visit coincided with Dr. Leena’s visit to Mufindi. Annie brought her physiotherapy skills again, and worked as well with Hezron, a 13-year old boy with cerebral palsy at the children’s village who has received treatment from Annie upon her visits each year for the past three years now. An exciting advance in Hezron’s treatment occurred as we discovered a rehabilitation center nearby that Hezron would be able to attend to get intensive treatment. Annie has helped teach the staff here some exercises and proper management of Hezron, and her contributions these past three years in the villages as well have been tremendous.

submitted by Geoff Knight

September 2011

Pictured: Pouridge (Uji) time at the Children's Village! The new day-care style schedule gives the children a nice routine and structure to their day.

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

This month a program has started at the Children’s Village that will revolutionize the way the children go through their daily lives. A pre-school or daycare system has been started that has given everyone at the children’s village a daily schedule of events to follow. The children will benefit from having an early education program to follow, with a routine, and guidelines leading them through each day. The program is being introduced here to keep the children of younger ages (pre-school aged) more active and to get them early experience with education. The house guardians are enjoying the program as well as it gives them a structure as well. Everyone knows what is expected of them each day, and everyone seems to be taking on their roles perfectly.
It has worked out well that two of the house guardians have certificates to teach at the lower levels of primary school, so they make the perfect ‘head-teachers’ for this program. Each teacher has another guardian as a helper and so the ratio of student to guardian never exceeds 1:5 in 1 to 2 year olds, or 1:7 in 3-4 year olds. The children will benefit from this direct care, and they will be even better prepared for school when they reach the age of going to Igoda primary school for kindergarten and standard 1.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Milk Powder Program

September 7th was a busy day at the children’s village as 22 mothers visited to collect their monthly allotment of milk powder. This month we wanted to tell the story of one child on the program to highlight the good work this program is accomplishing. One baby on the program comes from the village of Ikaning’ombe, and has recently lost her mother due to HIV. The baby has been named Shamira and is enrolled in the milk formula program. The baby’s aunt, an 18 year old recent secondary school graduate named Dorcus has been assigned by the family to now care for the child. This month Dorcus and Shamira are at the children’s village learning proper child care, and how to raise an infant on the milk formula. This family has really impressed us, as they all have shown respect to the workers at the children’s village, as well as they have contributed as much as they can to upbringing of this infant child. Each milk powder day the guardian of the child receiving milk is required to bring the child’s clinic card so we may see if the child’s health is improving. After just two weeks on this milk program Shamira’s weight has shot up from a very dangerous low of 1.98kilos to a healthier 2.26! We are excited to see how this family will progress through the program in the coming months.

EDUCATION

Igoda Community Hall

This month saw the return of a popular event at the Igoda Community Hall- Oral history day. This month’s history day was the first to include elderly men and women who shared stories from the past, and explained about the history of this area of Mufindi, and the Wahehe people. Students from Luhunga Secondary School together with students from Madisi Secondary School attended the event, and the students had great questions prepared. Students were asked to submit their questions ahead of the event, and our events coordinator Titus Nyunza played emcee getting the questions answered by the elders. Everyone on hand seemed to enjoy this educational experience.

VOLUNTEERS

This month we bid farewell to volunteer Justin Dominguez who has been with the NGO for almost a year, and has just returned home to continue his studies. With his background as an emergency medical technician he was very helpful not only following up with Dr. Leena’s longer-term patients, but also when any health issues arose with the children from the children’s village. Justin helped us accomplish quite a bit as he became part of the management by the time he ended his stint with us. He was instrumental in securing a grant from a Dutch organization for over 17,000Euros that will enable us to build our final orphans’ home. His contributions will be missed. He has gone back to Texas, and has plans to possibly attain a medical degree and would like to return one day to assist the Mdabulo Hospital project or home based care program.

August 2011

Pictured: August's Women's rights seminar at the Igoda Community Hall. The hall has been host to a bevy of events that have helped the community educate itself about the issues most important to them.

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

Edison is a three-year-old child that came to the children’s village after Dr. Leena Pasanen discovered him on a village visit early this year. Edison was severely malnourished and was unable to walk even at the age of 3. Since arriving at the children’s village he has been completing exercises to help him develop and he has been wearing shoes that assist him in walking and standing. Today Edison is walking, running, and is getting stronger everyday. We are very excited about his progress, and feeling that his development will continue at a very encouraging rate. Edison will eventually return to his family when the doctors and local government both agree it is time to return.
Construction of House #2 (the fifth house) is continuing well. This month all plastering was completed and a lot of the carpentry work was finished. Doors, window shutters, cupboards, and most of the beds have all been completed. The next steps on this project are the floor, and the pebble dashing of the exterior. Our goal is to have this house completed by the end of next month. At that time we hope our proposal to a Dutch foundation will have been successful and we can immediately start work on the 6th and final house!
The garden at the children’s village is continuing really well, and has expanded to twice its size this year. Since it is dry season, the children currently enjoy fresh vegetables from the garden three times a week. Soon the children will have vegetables every day as garden expansion has taken place and a system installed whereby there will always be vegetables for the children each day. The caretakers of the garden are various members of the community found through the community outreach program. One is a Father of four children at the orphanage, another is a Mother who is having domestic difficulties in her home, and another is a woman from our chicken banda income-generating project. We are happy to find employment for these inspiring people, as well a source for good nutrition for the children here. This has turned into a very successful project all around.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Home Based Care

Volunteers Meredith Pinto and Justin Dominguez followed up this month with some of the home based care volunteers and visited them in their villages to see first hand the work they are doing. Meredith and Justin visited the villages of Ikanga, Kidete, and Ilasa. In those villages they visited the homes of the sickest patients that each of the home based care volunteers have been visiting. This will mean that upon Dr. Leena Pasanen’s next visit we will have a good idea about the types of patients she might see. All the volunteers are doing great job after their training, and it appears that overall health care in the area will be improved by this program.

HEALTH CARE

Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic

The CTC is running very smoothly these days with over 1000 patients regularly attending the ‘CTC days’ at the facility. The building functions each day, seeing patients on regular follow up twice a week. A great system is in place these days improving patient flow and making the facility run more efficiently. The CD4 machine is in regular-use and the lab attendant, Catherine Mbata, is doing a great job not just with the CD4 machine, but also with all lab testing at the entire hospital. Plans are to have the laboratory in the Care and Treatment Clinic act as the laboratory for the entire health facility. Catherine will help make this transition happen.

EDUCATION

Igoda Community Hall

This month Titus Nyunza and Treda Pius were at it again planning a great event at the Igoda Community Hall. The community hall hosted a women’s rights seminar this month that helped to educate women in the area about what they are entitled to in the village. The seminar also opened a valuable discussion in the village about how gender equality can be reached through cooperation and education. Men and women from the various surrounding villages attended the event that was hosted by our home-based care volunteers, and several other special guests. We are encouraged by the use of the Community Hall as an educational resource that the villages are using to educate themselves on topics that are pertinent to their everyday lives.

Submitted by Geoff Knight

July 2011

Pictured: Mdabulo Care and Treatment Clinic (CTC) Home to comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment for this rural area in Mufindi District, and now the headquarters of the home based care program.


CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

Construction of house number 2 (the fifth house at the Children’s Village) had a slight delay this month as we were on a desperate search for sand. The right sand is needed to continue in our plastering efforts, and after it was found we were able to continue with the cement walls of the interior of the home. We’re excited that this project is only a month or two away from completion, and we should have children staying in the house very shortly. This is the second to last house that will be constructed, as plans have always been to build six homes around our valley. Plans have already begun for getting the village involved in alleviating the pressure of caring for orphaned and vulnerable children. We anticipate the completion of the homes to coincide with a healthier more educated community in the surrounding villages that will be more capable of caring for its own children in the village. This month we had a visit from Loe Koppejan who is from a Dutch foundation. We are hoping that our proposal for funds for a construction of the last house will be accepted by his foundation. If we are successful, all housing construction will be complete.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Home Based Care

The number of patients visited by our home based care volunteers has risen dramatically in one month. The first month’s total was 112, and this month they are now seeing 215 patients in the village. This month volunteers will be instructed to help the Care and Treatment Clinic (CTC) at Mdabulo. The goal will be for the volunteers to follow up on patients that have missed appointments at the CTC, and to encourage these patients to continue treatment. The volunteers will try to find these patients, discover why they have stopped following up on their treatment, and then educate them on the dangers of discontinuing treatment. Finally, the volunteers will highlight the benefits of coming back to treatment, and continuing a lifelong treatment plan.
A generous donation came this month from some visitors at the lodge. The Kraniak family, Rick Laurie, and Ty, donated and delivered 10 bicycles to the home based care program. This enables all volunteers to do their jobs more efficiently. The home based care program will greatly benefit from this donation as volunteers will be able to visit more patients, and will be able to hold more meetings.
Milk Formula Program
35 families are enrolled in our milk formula program. HIV positive mothers help prevent transmission of HIV to their children by using milk formula after the child reaches the age of 6 months. The NGO has supported these mothers by funding the costs of this milk formula. This month the program changed whereby the mothers are set to arrive on the same day each month. Prior to this month the Mothers were arriving on separate individual days creating a lot of work for NGO staff. This new system mimics the CTC day program at Mdabulo, so the mothers are already familiar with the system, and the program now runs far more efficiently.

HEALTH CARE

Mdabulo CTC

This month we had the pleasure of the presence of short-term volunteer Holly Harding from the UK. Among other projects, Holly helped at the Mdabulo CTC. She worked on getting the facility running in a more efficient, more user-friendly manner. She helped organize the files of over 1000 patients that are registered at the facility. This created a better flow to the facility on “CTC days” where patients come for treatment of HIV.
The facility has been running really well since its opening in October. The CD4 machine has been the vital instrument of the facility and has enabled the CTC to offer comprehensive treatment of the disease. The 1000 reagents purchased in March are still going strong with just about half of them remaining. The NGO is actively writing grants and proposals for more reagents to keep this treatment going.
EDUCATION
Luhunga Library
Volunteer Holly Harding also helped this month in organizing and setting up the Luhunga Library for use. The library is now ready to be a learning resource for the school. This past month, Leudi has been bringing in all
the students in the school to teach them the rules of the library and
how to find the books they need. The program is starting very slowly, as the concept of a library is quite new for most of the students. For
now, the students are allowed to come and visit the library
during their off-periods, and are able to use any of the resources in the library during their visit. Slowly but surely more services will be provided through the library, but in the beginning stages students are being taught simply how to use a library. The library is also being used as a quiet place for students to study their subjects.

Igoda Community Hall

Titus Nyunza and Treda Pius organized an event on their own this month at the Igoda Community Hall that focused on proper nutrition for children. More than 90 people from 10 villages came to learn how to improve their family's lives through improved nutrition. Community leader Kibuga Fute volunteered his time and gave a speech on the topic, and he helped to educate his fellow villagers. It was a great event, and we are proud of the job Treda, and Titus have done!

June 2011 Monthly Report

Pictured: An Igoda Primary school student takes part in 'Children of Africa Day' on June 16th, 2011. (Picture by Justin Dominguez)

CHILDREN’S VILLAGE

All schools were on holiday this month, which meant that children at the Children’s Village received extra tutoring at home. Three older students from the surrounding area who have all finished A-levels, along with a lead-teacher who had completed teacher’s college training all came to help teach the children extra lessons during the break. Each child was taught a full day’s worth of curriculum based on the Tanzanian syllabi. We are estimating that this extra concentration on studies during the break will help the children excel in the school. After the children return to school, we plan on having extra lessons at night for the children as the added help with difficult lessons will be a much appreciated assistance.
Construction on House number 2 (the fifth house) has continued as we have the necessary timber to go on. All of the brickwork is complete and the roof has been set in place. Next will come the wall plastering and cement floor. We are excited to have this project continuing again. This is the second last house that will be constructed, so we are nearly finished with housing at the children’s village complex.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH:

Home Based Care

The home based care program has started really well this month. A total of 112 patients have been visited in the village. Patients include those who are HIV positive, or have Tuberculosis, or other infectious diseases. First aid is also dispensed as well as education about good health practices. As the program continues more and more patients will be visited and the burden on health facilities like those in Mdabulo and Ibwanzi will be alleviated. Another added advantage that this program brings is having more eyes and ears in the village that will help with Dr. Lenna Pasanen’s program. Upon her next visit, we will have volunteers in each village who will be able to take us to the homes of the patients who are most in need of medical assistance.

EDUCATION

Luhunga Library

Construction of the Luhunga Library is nearly complete. The underground water tank has been dug and cemented in place, and the stand for an above ground, pressure granting tank has been completed. All of the interior walls have been painted, and all of the shelves have been stained and varnished. Books from the go-down from the UK have been brought to the site, along with books purchased by our Canadian friends from African Book Box. All tables and chairs have been put in place, and this building is nearly ready to be in use.
Leudi has been named the librarian and care-taker of the Luhunga Library. Leudi has been very busy this month arranging and cataloguing each of the books. He has been taking lessons on computer use for the past three months with volunteer Justin Dominguez. After all of the books are organized and the system is in place Leudi may be able to start teaching computer skills.
Igoda Community Hall
June 16th, marks children of Africa day, and this year we had a great event at the community hall to commemorate the day. Volunteer Meredith Pinto organized this year’s event along with coordinators Titus Nyunza, and stand-in Christina Mvinge (Mama Rehema) who has done a great job in place in Treda Pius (Mama Ivan) who is currently on maternity leave. The event at the community hall was both educational and entertaining. A portion of the show was meant to raise awareness of children’s rights in the village, and to discuss solutions to problems facing children. The show also had a celebratory feel to it as everyone celebrated children’s contribution to society. A number of plays were prepared and performed by local schools, and several choirs came and gave performances of songs all related to some aspect of life for children in Africa. The guest of honour for the event was Filipo Mgovano, the ward executive officer for Luhunga ward. He gave an inspired speech about the parent’s role in acknowledging the value of children and encouraged parents to be aware of their part in raising responsible, respectable, productive members of society. Mgovano went on to say that this is what we must strive for if we are to see positive changes to our society. The event was attended by over 450 people, and everyone enjoyed their time as part of a great event at the Igoda community hall.

Submitted by Geoff Knight