So something many of you may be
wondering is what exactly I am supposed to be doing in Senegal. Well,
honestly, that is still a questionable/varying response but I will
try to give you an answer. Additionally, much of what I say now will
change once I get to village and talk to people about what they think
to be most pressing issues are. But Ill give you a short run down.
First off, for the first 3 months in
village I will mainly be working on my language skills. But after I
become more confident with my Jaxanke and French (the teachers and
doctor do not speak Jaxanke as they are from other regions in
Senegal), I will start my work as a Health Educator. This work will
most likely involve running some workshops at the health post about
nutrition, sanitation, gardening exclusive breastfeeding and child
health. In addition, I will probably help run and organize biweekly
baby weighing and vaccinations.
 |
| This is the maternity ward at the larger town 1 km from my village. I will get to do a lot of work here as well |
While I am by no means an expert at any
of this, a lot this information is extremely basic and may seem
obvious to us but people here are not aware of. Like washing hands
with soap, even after going to the bathroom and wiping without toilet
paper. I'll save you from the gory details but lets just say it is
not the most hygienic thing one could do.
Two other big issues that I will work
on tackling are diarrhea related deaths and malaria. Diarrhea kills
millions of Africans a year because of drinking dirty water and then
continuing to drink the bad water after being ill. Peace Corps has
informed us that this can be solved merely by drinking 'Oral
Rehydration Solution' which consists of clean water, salt and sugar.
The other main health issue that Peace
Corps Senegal is trying to tackle is malaria. Malaria is the leading
cause of infant death in Senegal. PC Senegal in conjunction with
other PC offices around Africa have formed a 'Stomp out Malaria'
initiative, trying to eliminate malaria related deaths in Africa
within the next few years. http://stompoutmalaria.org/
My role in this will be to distribute
mosquito nets (and makes sure they are being correctly used), talk
about malaria and early diagnosis and encourage people to visit
health posts once they become ill.
A common misconception is that people
here have no idea what malaria is. People here are very aware of
malaria and that it is a disease spread by infected mosquitoes but
they assume that every illness they have is malaria. This means that
whenever someone has a fever, feels ill or has stomach sickness, they
automatically state that they have malaria. While this has some very
real, negative consequences, I do not feel like I have been here long
enough to make a valid statement about what these effects are so stay
posted. Ill keep you up to date.
With all of that said, I have been
bitten up a store so far. If one just looks at my ankles and feet it
looks like I have chicken pox and that sit there and watch while
mosquitoes bite me. So, my question so far is how can I tell people
to use mosquito nets, make neem cream and not sit out past 9 o'clock
when visually, it appears that I need to take my own advice?
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