This is it...

Mostly with sadness I realize that I have to leave Kenya soon. More and more I find myself thinking that I will miss certain things here, even walking down the street or buying ground nuts from my favourite lady by the gas station. Buy fresh fruit at 8 in the morning after walking home from the gym...

Time has gone too quickly, and I am not ready to leave. 

During this short period of time, I have grown- grown to appreciate and acknowledge more the privileges I have, grown to love this little place called Shianda, grown to appreciate little comforts. I have become more open-minded but also learned to stand up for myself more. I have learned to ask for help and recognize better when I need time off. I have met incredible people who I will have a deep connection and friendship for the rest of my life!

 

During my deployment I managed to work on different projects. I spent some time working in Shianda health centre, I gave trainings to young mothers about breastfeeding, safe environment for child, infant nutrition, recognizing a sick child. I trained community health extension workers as first aid trainers, so they would have the skills to train others. They also assisted me in my biggest project- training 300 community health volunteers (CHVs) in basic first aid. I organised a fundraiser to get the means to do this project, to offer tea, lunch and training materials for the participants. I trained about 300 CHV in 14 days in 12 different dispenseries and health centres. It was a very consuming project, but every day during my trainings I saw the interest and need for knowledge. The determination and dedication to learn. I am very proud of this project and truly believe it is of great value to the beneficiaries. 

 

Overall, I have loved my deployment here in Kenya. Not every moment has been easy, there has been setbacks, frustrations, stress, sadness, anger, annoyance. But there have also been incredible moments, successes, a lot-a a lot of laughter, deep connections and friendships. It has been an extraordinary journey which I will appreciate for the rest of my life!

All of my 14 amazing groups, who I trained in basic first aid!

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!

Three weeks in a blink of an eye…

 

Karibu dear reader! My name is Hanna Helena and I arrived in Western Kenya to a village called Shianda a little more than three weeks ago. I am a nurse by profession and my role is to work on community health awareness as well as support local health centres and dispensaries for the next three months I am spending here.

 

You hear a lot that time flies here. And that is does (partly probably because it gets dark as early as 7 PM 😆)... Part of me can’t even process that I have been here for that amount of time already. I have only received the warmest of welcomes and since day one I have felt comfortable- like home.

 

During the weeks here I have had the opportunity to meet many great people from the communities, work at Shianda health centre and learn more about this place and the people. Approximately the first month here I have spent and continue to spend on what we call the needs assessment. This is a way for me to learn and find out how my expertise can be most valuable here. Thus far I have already found important causes and topics that I want to work on.  More on that in the next posts! Though not all the work might go the way I am used to or the way I would like- but there is always a learning curve in all we do in life. And my lesson here is to let it flow- all good things take time and come in their due course. 

 

 

 

Though I put great emphasis on my work here, it is still very important to take time for myself and offload some of the stress that for sure has and will accumulate. For example, this weekend I had the chance to visit Kakamega rainforest. An amazing place near to us that offered so many amazing experiences from grandiose views onto the rift wally to many monkey sightings and amazing flora.