Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Health Celebration and Scholar Celebration

This past weekend was busy!

We had a health celebration in Sakina where we taught people how to wash their hands, passed out hand sanitizer and toothbrushes, shared ideas, did trash pick up, and passed out oranges. It was really fun and I think people in the community got really engaged. We are going to start doing this every Saturday morning.

We also have a group of volunteers who are going to start helping more regularly with the Saturday morning volunteering.

We also had a scholar celebration for the scholar families. We unveiled the "resource room" which is located in an extra room at the Maturo household. The scholars now have a quiet place to study and be immersed in a positive environment. Since most of them live in one room with their family which is used as a kitchen, bedroom, and sitting room, and most schools don't have a library, giving our scholars a place to study is one of the best gifts we can give them. I have been taking them to the bookstore to pick out a couple of books so they can start a library.

They are very excited and I think the room is a tangible way to emphasize the importance of education, both for the students and their parents.

I am leaving Sakina on Friday and will really miss everyone here.

vocab word of the day:
vitabu - book

Monday, August 3, 2009

Health Assessment Wrap Up

We have finished out the health assessment strong!

Last week we had a focus group with an NGO called UEDA (Urban Environmental Development Association) which works with solid waste management in Sakina. It was extremely informative!

We also had a focus group with potential community health workers. This was an amazing group of people and I think they are the key to building a strong foundation for Sustain Foundation in Sakina. This was the first focus group in which we even had some people interrupting each other because everyone wanted to talk! It was very dynamic and inspiring to see Sakina residents getting fired up about health.

We met with all of the scholar parents and did non-random surveys.

Up next: hopefully a small health celebration to kick off Sustain Foundation's health program!