In rural Tanzania, people have little access to a place where they can purchase everyday household items and foodstuffs. Most villages have small shops where they can find salt, soap, and other little things, but many areas rely heavily on the traveling markets that set up show in the village every few weeks. In my village, Sepuka, our market days happen twice a month and people travel up to a half day by foot, donkey, or bike for access to everything from new dishes and fruits/vegetables, to beds, bikes, and livestock. A rough estimate by the Ward District Council in my village puts an average market day attendance at around 1,000 people. The market in Sepuka Ward is the largest in the area and provides more selection than any other small market.
The village government approached me In June of last year with concerns about the health and well being of community members, especially those traveling to the market and those living in the surrounding area. Due to the lack of public latrines in the market area, villagers who attend the bi-monthly market openly relieve themselves in the surrounding area resulting in the contamination of a nearby uncovered water source and the spread of dangerous illnesses.
So we got down and dirty to try to clean up the market and provide the people with a much needed basic amenity...toilets.
The village government helped me to put together a Project Development Committee consisting of one man and one woman from each of the three sub-villages the market directly serves. Together with this group of six selfless individuals, a village government official, a nun, and the health extension officer from the village, we designed a project that would provide the market area with two, four-stalled pit latrines and help educate the community about communicable disease and the importance of proper sanitation. We wrote a PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) Grant and with the village contributing 25% of the total cost, we finally broke ground for the construction of the pit latrines in April of this year. (By the way, condensing 7 months of work into one sentence doesn't really do it justice, but for your sake I'll spare you the gruesome details.)
The construction of the latrines has progressed swimmingly. The two 10'x5' and 12' deep holes were dug within the first 10 days and as of yesterday the holes have been lined with cement blocks, covered with a cement slab/flooring, and the walls are going up. We hosted a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene seminar last Saturday where the health extension officer, the Medical Officer from our village health clinic, and myself taught committee members the ins and outs of the importance of proper sanitation, communicable disease, and water contamination. But the learning doesn't stop there! After practicing some peer education skills, I've asked the committee to go forth and talk with their peers about how to protect themselves and prevent illness that destroys so many families. It is incredible that simple adherence to using a proper pit latrine or hand washing can literally save lives but it's true...42% of the children who die before they are five years old are in sub-Sahara Africa*. Their main killer? Infections and disease: many that can be prevented by basic education and tangible behavior change.
Along with building toilets an training these peer educators, I've also been working with our health clinic's 'mobile clinic' that travels to five remote villages each month to provide monthly weighing and routine vaccines to children under five, birth control, and prenatal check-ups to communitites lacking health facilities. This mobile clinic and I have a slightly unhealthy love-hate relationship that'll put the latest chick-flick to shame, but here are some picture of our latest mobile clinic in a village called Kaugeri...
No matter how long and bumpy the drive out to the middle of absolutely nowhere is...disregarding the fact that 50% of the time we return in the middle of the night starving and thirsty...forget how uncomfortable it is to translate a sentence through 2 people to tell someone they've tested positive for HIV...it's worth it if we can provide a young mother with birth control pills that will allow her to gain some footing before having yet another baby...or if we can give a three month old baby a vaccine that will give them a fighting chance against an otherwise deadly infection. I always come back with some story that made the trip worth it, reminding me of why I joined Peace Corps.
I decided some time ago that I wasn't quite finished here and applied to extend with Peace Corps for a third year. A few weeks ago I was offered an extension position beyond my wildest dreams and just couldn't turn it down. After finishing up in Sepuka in the end of July and taking a month of Home Leave to travel back to the states, I'll be starting as a Program Assistant with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in Mwanza, Tanzania. Most of my work will be focused on working with adolescents living with HIV/AIDS through the program's Teen Club and I'll have the opportunity to expand on what this incredible program is doing all across sub-Sahara Africa (specifically in Botswana and Lesoto) and adapt it for Tanzania as well as work in outreach and peer education. For more information on the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative and Teen Club check out these links...
Teen Club - http://tanzaniateenclub.wordpress.com/
Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative - http://www.bipai.org/
That's all for now, thanks for checking in on what's going on with me lately!
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