Outreach to Nyameboame

Nicole and myself had the amazing opportunity to go on an "outreach day" to the small village of Nyameboame to weigh and vaccinate young children ages 0-5. Nyameboame (which translates to "God help me" in English) is about 20 minutes outside of Enchi (the town we were residing in at the time). The outreach nurses visit Nyameboame once a month to keep up to date on vaccinations and ensure adequate weight gain of the children.

I had the opportunity to be at the 'weighing station' where a scale (resembling produce scales back home) was hung from a door frame. Moms provided their own slings and would hang their child, and I would then record the weight. Each mom provided me with their child's health record book (which they are expected to keep safe at home). Nicole was ensuring the children's records were up to date, and kept track of trends in regards to weight and amount of attendees. Specifically, Nicole was determining which children were of normal weight - unfortunately, all of the children were moderately to severely underweight.

The children were shy, but so adorable. Many school aged children were waiting outside the clinic the entire time we were in there as they wanted to know our names and say hello (this is common here - we feel like celebrities!) The moms were then provided with a 'health promotion talk' regarding child nutrition. One of the women attending the clinic was considered their leader, so she was speaking on behalf of the mothers and would pose and answer questions to the nurses in English. She would then relay the information back to the women in Twi (the local language). It was nice to see this kind of advocacy on behalf of the women in the village.

During the clinic, Philomena asked the women in attendance why there were no men present. The answer was that it is not that they did not want to attend, but that they were working in the farms .in preparation for the following day's Market.

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We then checked the child's immunization records and proceeded to assist the outreach nurses in preparing the vaccinations. We were taught the technique and landmarks of child vaccinations - the nurses are very experienced and knowledgeable.  We definitely learned a lot!

Overall, we both thoroughly enjoyed our experience, and it was a nice change from the routine of the clinic in Enchi!

Samaya and Nicole.

Amonie Outreach Clinic

Myself and Christina had the opportunity to go to a Amonie, one of the Presbyterian Health Clinic's outreach centres that was located in the center of multiple villages. The location's accessibility allowed for easier access to those in the surrounding villages. We learned that the staff at this clinic are quite dedicated to their work as they do not take breaks, they work 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  Their days off are few and far between and not scheduled into a "rotation".  They arrange rides into town when able and when they can be absent from the clinic.  We found the staff members to be devoted and caring towards their patients and they were eager to teach and help us learn about their mission at the clinic. This is something we rarely see at home! The clinic was quite small but had six different sections of expertise. The six sections included casualty, maternity, dispensary (aka pharmacy), two gender specific lay in rooms, records,and consult.

Once a month the clinic hosts a Child Welfare Clinic and we were fortunate enough to be arriving on this day. At the clinic babies are weighed and the information is documented and monitored on a growth and development chart, as well as routine vaccinations. On our outreach day 139 babes with mothers arrived at this very small clinic for their checkups. We will admit that we felt quite overwhelmed with the noise, heat, and confined space, but we pushed through it! Christina was in charge of weights and documentation. We rather liked this station as the scale looks like one you may find in a produce section back home. While Christina assessed weights and growth Kyla helped to review vaccination history, documented history of vaccines for use of statistics, and confirmed vaccine scheduling. After these two stations we were both able to assist with the baby vaccinations. Once vaccinations were finished everyone was able to go home.   We pushed through from 0900-1400 and it was nice to hear that the clinic was done early that day as they had the extra help.

Something that caught our attention, at both clinics we have been to so far, is that family planning is offered.    Ladies are educated on birth control options and given a choice on whether or not this is something they would like to take part in. The clinic works very hard to try to include the husbands as well. They have seen success with this approach as birth rates have decreased. This is still a work in progress as it can often be difficult to incorporate the husbands into care or they deny the wife access to this care. The hope is with more education to both males and females there will be a further understanding to the importance of family planning. Overall we had a wonderful learning experience and are very pleased with the work that is being done. We are looking forward to the next adventure!
Kyla and Christina

We're alive and well!!

Yes we are alive and well!  Internet access was challenging in Enchi.  We had an amazing 10 days filled with beautiful and challenging experiences. The Presbyterian Health Clinic exemplifies how to provide care with limited resources. We were able to work with the staff right in the clinic, and we also had the experience of doing community outreach visits. The level of service and dedication of the staff is humbling. Philomena is a model of caring leadership. 

We endured our 8 hr bus ride from Kumasi today and are now in Tamale. We will share pictures and more details when we get internet access. 

The girls are doing well.

Jeanette

A Teacher's Perspective

I wanted to add to the earlier post and share that we have prepared these girls well.  They couldn't help but notice the similarities between the stories we heard in the slave castle in Elmina today and our own history with the Aboriginal people in Canada.  The many hours we spent in the classroom with Eric Mitchell and Chris Marchand working through the Aboriginal Health Modules certainly helped our understanding today.

 It was a difficult day...we had heavy hearts, but our guide Richard, and our colleague Vida helped us put it into perspective.  Vida brings the voice of the women of Ghana and she taught our guide a bit of history today.  We are so fortunate to walk this journey with her.

Jeanette

Accra

After a long 23 hours in London and a 2 hour delay on the plane, we finally arrived to Accra Ghana! Vida and her sister Philomena welcomed us at the airport. It was nice to be welcomed by our Ghanaian friends. On our first day we toured the city and got ourselves sorted. We were and still are very hot and very sticky from the heat and humidity, but that doesn't stop us from having a good time! The power went out on us a couple times but luckily not for long. Today we took a "2" hour bus ride, which ended up being 4.5 hours to the slave castles. It was very educational for us and heart aching to hear the history. But we are very thankful for the opportunity. As our tour guide said "it's okay to be sad because its just history and we need to know it to learn from it". That will stick with us forever! After the castles we had traditional food like banku and fufu in ground nut soup with fresh tilapia. We ate it with our hands and it went over with varying opinions. We can't forget about the bathrooms... We had the good, the bad, and the ugly. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer and toilet paper. A couple of us were forced to go in the bush as there was no bathroom. Unfortunately it was in front some villagers (kids). We are thankful they may not see us again. This is our last night at our hotel with air conditioning before we leave for Enchi at 6 am sharp with Philomena. Goodbye Accra and hello Enchi!

We're on our Way!!!

We've had the most amazing experience, and we're not even in Africa!
We all flew out of Kelowna this afternoon and were treated like royalty.  Pat, our Air Canada ticket agent put all our bags through.  Yes all 10 of them....5 of them overweight....and 2 VERY overweight (those were mine).  She printed our boarding passes right through to Accra, and our luggage will meet us there. We don't have to pack those bags through ANY airports.  We don't have to clear security, we don't really have to do anything other than show up for our flights!  Life is good.

Pat is indeed an angel.  We're going to bring her something back from Ghana.

Here we are at Vancouver airport, just waiting for the flight to London.

Jeanette and the Ghana Girls 2014.

Packing time!

A few days ago we got together with the Zambia group and packed our bags full of donations! Thank you to everyone who donated, we are very grateful. There was so much stuff that the left overs were donated to the women's shelter. We are getting very excited to leave!
-Jeanette, Christina, Nicole, Samaya, and Kyla