busy during the days, which is a very nice change.
Since
the last time I posted, I have been working on a variety of different projects,
so I thought I would line them out for you all.
I.
Improve
the water – this project consisted of taking a survey of our current water
sources and seeing how we can improve them. The health inspectors of Savusavu
came out and assisted with the inspection and gave us some advice on ways we
can improve them. One of the things that we have been thinking about is adding
another water source to our village. We currently have two, and they dry up,
get clogged, etc. every so often. This third water source is quite a distance
away, and four councilmen and myself hiked to this source. Boy was it bush
whacking to the extreme! A picture below can depict just a glimpse of how in the
bush this place really was.
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| The council men and I hiking to the new potential source |
II.
Healthy
Island Program – This project has become my main project and goal to
complete. This is a program that the Ministry of Health (MOH) uses to encourage
communities to be healthier. It has a step-by-step process to make sure that a
community can be successful. I have completed the evaluation and compiling
phases, and now am working with my village to develop an action plan on issues
that should be addressed. The ultimate goal is establish healthy programs
within the community and re-evaluate in a little over a year.
III.
Community
Health Workers – The MOH has asked each village to have a Community Health
Worker (CHW) because not every village has immediate access to a nursing
station or health centre. These CHW assist their community by having knowledge
of basic first aid, and basic medical care. They essentially are allowed to do
bandages and hand out Advil. What I am doing is giving educational tools to my
CHWs so that they have a deeper knowledge about a variety of health topics. I
am also creating programs for them to do on their own that do not need the
presence of a nurse, or myself.
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| Teaching Fijian Hand Washing Song |
IV.
Clean
Kioa Island – Being on an outer island, rubbish (trash) becomes and issue
almost every day. There are no dumps like there are in the states, which can
become a problem! This project has had many steps, and began with just going
around and picking up trash myself and inspecting homes of my village. While I
did these inspections, I educated and suggested to people that they should have
three bags in their kitchen; one for tins, one for plastics, and one for
rubbish. I also gave them some information about different diseases that come
from poor rubbish sanitation. It took many weeks for people to really start
cleaning, but I am starting to see a great improvement in how peoples home
look. The next step is creating pits for each district of the community so we
can burn the rubbish. It’s not the best form of environmentally friendly
cleaning, but there are limited options being on the outer islands. The tins we
will bury and the plastics we will save and use for future projects to come.
 |
| Trying to get rid of the water inside the tires |
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| Talking about Dengue Fever with the school kids |
V.
Dengue
Free Kioa – Here in Fiji, Dengue Fever is at an all time high. A little bit
about Dengue Fever can be found at this link ®
(http://www.cdc.gov/dengue/) The
mosquitoes that can carry Dengue Fever breed in fresh water pools. So anywhere
where a fresh pool of water is present, those mosquitoes can lay their eggs
there. The most common places are; coconut shells, water basins, bucket bathes,
and tin cans. With the help of our regional Health Inspectors office, we
initiated a Dengue Clean Up Campaign. This campaign consisted of us going from
house to house and inspecting their yards and house for potential Dengue risk areas.
We found a many around, but people are starting to clean up those areas and I
have seen an improvement in the areas that were at risk.
 |
| "Wash you hands before eat!" |
VI. School
Visit – Twice a year, the Ministry of Health sectors the primary and
secondary schools that they are in charge of. The school health team consists
of two nurses, a peer educator, dentists, a dental hygienist, a doctor, and a
Peace Corps Volunteer if they have one. My district consists of 3 primary schools, two of the schools are Fijian and then one school is Tuvaluan. The school on my island speak very good English, where as the two other schools do not speak English very well at all. My job in the school visit was to teach
proper hand washing. I first talked with the kids about why we wash our hands
and all the facts about germs and such. I then showed them how germs spread by
placing baby powder on their hands and having them shake each other’s hands.
They were able to see the process of how quickly germs spread, and how if one
person doesn’t wash their hands after going poop they are now covered in that
persons poop. After we played the game, I taught them a song (one in English, one in Fijian) to remember when
we wash our hands. They can sing this song two times through and it is about
the 20 seconds that they need to wash their hands. It was by far my favorite
part of my service thus far. Being around the kids was the first time that I
was really able to be myself and just let myself be me. Being around the kids
reminded me of HH and I just felt right in my element. I am now trying to get
more involved in the school so that I can have this feeling more often.
It’s only been 5
months, but I do feel like I have been working and not just sitting around too
much. Sitting around and doing nothing is not something that I do well, and I
don’t plan on doing that!
As per always - here are the links to the photos :-)
Fetaui!
