Child Health Week

Twice a year--usually in June and November--the Ministry of Health sponsors Child Health Week.  During this time the children under 5 years of age are weighed, immunized, and given a Vit A supplement and a deworming pill.  All but the last two are also carried out at the monthly under five clinics.  However, I think because of the free Vit A and deworming pills, we see children who are rarely seen.  It is common to serve 80 children in a day at each village.  The Mpepo RHC has 11 outposts so we need 3 teams of workers per day to complete the work in a week. 

Although I normally avoid direct service because it takes me away from development work and training, I always participate in Child Health Week if Peace Corps does not schedule a meeting during this time.  It is a time to see the level of child malnutrition (47%--mostly stunting from lack of protein).  It is a time for me to observe and train the child health volunteers on techniques, like zero the weighing scale with the bag hanging on it.  It is a time to correct the age calculation and weight plots in the child health card.  It is a time for the mothers to see that I am tangibly working!  They laugh at my pronunciation but they get a bit of advice on feeding their children peanuts, beans and eggs. I am in my comfort zone with the screaming mob of toddlers and their frazzled mothers.  It reminds me of WIC and the need to address child nutrition worldwide.  I am so frustrated that I can't communicate better in Bemba but the staff who translate for me are also learning what to tell the mothers about feeding their children or taking them to the clinic for sick care.

While the clinic staff have motorcycles to ride, I leave early to bike (jinga) back and forth to the health posts.  This past week, I had Peace Corps visitors on Monday and Tuesday so I worked at the home base clinic those days which is much more boring.  I didn't rack up the biked miles which I usually do during CHW.