Expect the unexpected!

 There was a breakthrough after a month or so of being here when suddenly all the work-related things fell into place. In a moment’s notice there was suddenly so much to do and so much to organise.

 

Me, Martina and Eugenie started working with a young mothers’ group. These are about 58 school-age young girls, who are pregnant or have a chilf. My work with them mainly was a training where we learned about breastfeeding, correct techniques and latching, problems with breastfeeding, infant and child nutrition, safe sleep and environment for children and how to recognise a sick child.

 

We are also doing sex-education workshops in schools, first of which took place on the 11^th of October. We thought two students in each class about puberty, menstruation, contraceptives, relationships, consent etc so they would be prepared to pass on the knowledge to their fellow students.

 

My main project though is doing first aid trainings. Firstly, I train community health extension workers as first aid trainers. 

This training should have been held last week. We managed to do the first day of training, but the second day had to be postponed for one reason or another. I can’t say that I was not disappointed or sad. I even shed some tears because I had worked very hard at preparing for this. And if a training gets cancelled for reasons that are out of your control, it is very frustrating!

Nevertheless, we managed to have a successful second day on the 12^th of October and finish strong.

 

 

The more grandiose plan is to train community health volunteers (CHV) at the end of October and beginning of November. There are about 300 of them. For that I am currently running a fundraiser, as our budget is not big enough to cover such amount of people. This will be a big project that will require a training nearly every day two weeks straight. But will be worth it! Because CHVs are such an important part of the healthcare system here and they would really benefit from the knowledge of basic first aid.

 

But…As I have learned during my time here so far- expect the unexpected! Things might not go according to plan. Plans can be turned upside down and there is nothing you can do about it. And it will be hard, sad, maddening, stressing… It can be the lowest of the lows. But you will move on from it, try again and hope for the best next time!