A Day in the Life of a Global Health Intern (Part 2) - Biryogo Health Center Day 3

Today was an amazing day!! I felt like a real public health official! We began the day by presenting our IPC observations and solutions with the IPC coordinator, Cecille and the Health Center director, Veronica. Suzanna, Elise and I presented our findings in the nutrition and vaccination area. They seemed to take our feedback very well. There were a few misunderstandings that took a little while to talk out but I think those were mainly due to gaps in translation. We were talking about how nurses should never recap their needles and they ran out and got sharps boxes and showed us how to assemble them. We knew they used sharps boxes and they did a great job at it! It took us a while to calm them down and explain that we weren’t talking about their sharps box use. They were extremely gracious in taking our criticism and very happy we were there to help them out. Some of the issues we observed, such as drying hands, required more money and weren’t very possible for them to fix. So we sat there and brainstormed with them on how they could dry their hands in a sanitary way. We suggested that each nurse and lab tech get their own reusable towel to carry around (not ideal but better than using a community towel) or to simply air dry their hands (but that isn’t really an option when they are in a hurry). After our meeting we were waiting for instructions on what to do next and our local guide, Ivan told us he had a surprise for us. We had no idea what to expect! I was a little nervous because we were in a poorer neighborhood and he was leading us outside behind the clinic. Suddenly we heard a group of schoolchildren running towards us laughing and screaming. There was probably about 60 kids coming towards us! They nearly tackled us with the biggest hugs! It was the cutest thing! Just when I thought things couldn’t get better their teachers began drumming and they performed a bunch of songs for us. It was adorable. I couldn’t stop smiling. I actually almost cried it was so cute! After enjoying our surprise we got back to work. We went outside to find a group of community health workers waiting for us to take each group on home visits with them. I was SO excited. Suzanna and I got paired with a community health worker named Amenea. So community health workers are community elected volunteers who work hand in hand with the health center and ministry of health to educate their community on pressing health issues and to attend to any acute health needs someone within their zone might have. Amenea was in charge of about 70 families and she visited each one every other week! During home visits she would do anything from checking up on the family, weighing the children to check for malnourishment, educating the family on TB or malaria, or advising couples on family planning. In our fist visit we visited a family she had been visiting for 4 years. They explained to us that Amenea was like their guardian angel and they felt like they could call her for anything. They said that she changed their life. Without the community health workers many of the members in the community wouldn’t know when to go to the hospital, go to antenatal visits or properly feed their children to avoid malnourishment. The second family we visited had two younger children who ran up to Amenea like she was an aunt. She explained to us that she kept a close eye on the children especially to make sure they were healthy. She laughed and pointed to the younger child Allen because he was definitely well fed and said “I don’t have to worry about him!”.  Amenea told us that she was only dealing with two cases of malnutrition in her area, which is pretty amazing considering how poor this neighborhood was. We then discussed everything community healthworkers are responsible for and what they can do. They are given these huge wooden boxes full of first aid supplies, basic medication, and rapid malaria tests. These community health workers are AMAZING. They really are like guardian angels! I loved this experience because I felt like I was really applying my public health knowledge and making a direct difference in peoples lives. It’s amazing how far simple education can go! The community healthcare worker model is so genius. It is amazing that these people are so dedicated when they don’t get paid for anything they do! We asked Amenea why she agreed to be a community health worker and she said she does it because she cares about her community and wants to see everyone healthy and happy. She is so amazing. 

Later in the day we discussed the topics we would be presenting to the medical staff on Saturday and then we were done for the day. For dinner we went to this relaly good and fancy Chinese restaurant called Bamboo. Who knew we would find great Chinese food in Africa?!