Robin will be working with local clinics to provide education so that those who are assisting during labor will have the knowledge they need to help prevent trauma to the mother and protect the health of the baby. She will also lay the groundwork for future missions in midwifery training to increase the number of qualified midwives available to expectant mothers.
Robin sends us her first impressions of Pampaidas and the progress being made there:
Day 1 -
Hi!
I finally arrived in Nigeria yesterday at 11 am. We had a 3 1/2 hr drive to Zaria, where the Pampaidas Millenium Project offices are located. I checked into a hotel for 2 nights. The accomodations are meager but sufficient. Water was off until this morning and electricity is sporadic. The 24 hr internet cafe was locked up. But the office has wireless, so I will be able to keep in touch with those in the States!
I was given an overview of the Millenium Village project this morning, watched a documentary of the project and met with the various directors.
There are roughly 5,000 people in Pampaidas village. Seventy percent of the village are below the poverty level (live on < $1 US/day) The areas being addressed over this 5 year project are
1. Education- the children are educated from grades 1-6. They are working at ensuring the girls, as well as boys, attend school. Each child is given a backpack with books, paper and pencils. School furniture was obtained and they are completing the building of a school kitchen. Each child is guaranteed one meal a day at school.
Goal: to sensitize parents on the need of school enrollments
2. Health- they now have 2 operating clinics. Last week the clinics saw 221/158 patients. Total antenatal care was 15/24 with 4/8 new OB patients. .
a. Outpatient consultations- provide basic PHC (Public Health Care ) services to all villagers; treatment of common diseases; provide short-term in-patient care.
b. Antenatal care - to provide routine prenatal monitoring including interventions such as deworming, IPT Iron/folate and vitamin A supplementations.
c. Child welfare clinic where basic immunizations, growth monitoring, Vit. A supplements are provided. Deworming and treatment of common nutrition/infection related illnesses are treated.
d. Outreach activities- provision of proximity interventions that target families in their homes, build trust and ownership throughout the communities, and address cultural beliefs and socio-economic and behavioral barriers to care.
I will tour the village and clinics tomorrow and meet with the clinic staff to formulate the needs/teaching plan. I am excited to get started.
3.. Gender and Community Mobilization- to mobilize the community (men and women) for farmer field day and to mobilize community clusters for training in agriculture and business development.
4. Water and Sanitation- 23 wells have been dug and capped to provide clean water with easy access, Latrines are being built.
5. Agricultural Business development and environment- on-going improvement and training on agriculture and business; develop receipts for repayments of loans; Improve on grains banking; increase fish farming activity and business; encourage home gardening to improve nutrition; start stocking agro input supply centerwithin cluster.
6. Infrastructure- receive materials for completion of work on poultry houses and agro processing centers.
As you can see, a lot is happening here in the Millenium Village Project. I am excited to be a part of helping this village to become healthier, more educated and sustainable. I will try to send frequent updates
Peace on Earth Begins with Birth!
Blessings!
Robin
Day 2 -
My body is still on US time so sleep is quite elusive. When the electricity is up, I read. Currently I am reading Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It is about an American who decided to build a school in the mountains of Pakistan. It is amazing what people can do when they put others before their own comfort. When the electricity is down, I have been listening to my IPod- music or audiobooks.
Last night I had my first full “splash bath”. You fill a bucket with water (cold), use a bowl to splash water on yourself, soap up, and then splash to rinse. It felt good to cool off. Much better than the Baby wipe bath the day before! When finished, you mop the bathroom floor of all the water you splashed!
For breakfast, I had bread with peanut butter. I remembered to take my weekly Malaria Prophylaxis today. Several mosquitoes have already dined on me, so I don’t want to take any chances!
Last night I plugged my phone in at the office to recharge. When I walked in this morning, they turned the generator on. I heard a POP! And saw flames shooting out of my adapter/converter. That is now fried. The phone is OK but didn’t charge. I brought 2 adapters so I was able to get the phone charged. Glad I brought two. I may have to get another locally!
Today we were at MV2 doing prenatal care. I worked with Hadassah, the midwife. Unfortunately, she said the BP cuff didn’t work. Dr. Oje had the Doppler at the other clinic, so while we waited for him, I did the weights, tummy checks, and improved my skills with the fetoscope. Dating is difficult as women do not use calendars as we know them and most today had no idea how far along they were. Babies come when they come. So the pregnancy wheels I made will be of little use. We just measure the belly and see if there are appropriate changes in size and weight between visits.
I taught Dr. Oje how to use the Doppler. It is just an $80 model off E-Bay but it works well. He was amazed when we found heart tones on a 14 week fetus.. Yesterday he wore and changed gloves between each woman. I have just used hand sanitizer between patients as we only do external exams. I will bring extra for the clinics next time. Gloves seem to be a bit much just for measurements!
We had one girl, about 15 or 16 years old here with her first pregnancy. They explained that she is of Low IQ, as is her husband. She was very anxious, but we were able to get her calmed down and check the baby.
There is a lot of anemia due to the poor nutritious quality of the diets. The primary stable is maize (corn) They grind it up and make a cereal or paste. All the women are given iron supplements and also folate (B vitamin). I saw several women with Vit B deficiency. They develop cracks in the corners of their lips.
They admitted a young child to the ward who was having a seizure. They gave her IV medications to stop the seizure. The doctor felt it was a febrile seizure as a result of malaria. I said a short prayer for her.
The staff are teaching me short phrases “senu de zwa” means Welcome; “Na Gode” is Thank you,” "Ina quana” is good morning and “Sa hanjuma” means See you later. I hope to add a phrase or two each day. At my age, I can only retain small amounts with lots of repetition. I am learning so much from them. I hope when we formally start classes, they will learn from me.
We will have a meeting with the health workers tomorrow to set up a class schedule that won’t interfere with the clinic work. Today, the doctor, midwife and I were a very efficient team. Between 11 and 1:30, we saw around 30 women. The midwife documented while the doctor and I did the exam. Team work is great. I will also poll them to see how they want to proceed with the classes. I think we will start with prenatal and move on from there. If a delivery comes in, we will immediately do “on-the-job training.”
Time to go to my room and relax a bit. I hope all is well back in the States.
From Nigeria,
Robin
We look forward to hearing more from Robin as we receive her reports from the field! If you would like to make a donation to help mothers in poverty and support our medical missions in Africa, visit our web site at www.physiciansforpeace.org.
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