So what exactly do I do over here in my tiny African village? There are several different types of volunteers: agriculture, small enterprise, teaching, and health. I am a health volunteer, so I work on health related activities in my community.
In Senegal health volunteers have three different sectors we work in: water and sanitation, malaria, and nutrition. As secondary projects we can also work on health in pregnancy and youth and gender.
Water and Sanitation
In Senegal, especially in rural areas, there is little to no running water. This mean no showers, no flushable toilets, and no sinks. Granted, cities tend to have these amenities more, but a village is lucky if they have a "robinet" or faucet. In villages these are used primarily for drinking water, since they are harder to contaminate. In my village we only have wells. Women are responsible for pulling water for cooking, dishes, laundry, drinking, and every family members shower. Some wells dry up seasonally, some are not safe to drink out of, and they can be far away from compounds.
Safe drinking water is a concern, as contaminated water can cause diarrhea. Now, I know diarrhea is kind of a joke, but people, especially children, actually die from diarrhea every year. (WHO says there were 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoeal cases last year, with 760,000 children under 5 dying in 2013 alone). These diseases can also be spread because people don't wash their hands, and those who do don't often use soap or another cleaning agent. That means people don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom, dealing with animals, before cooking, before eating (most women eat with their hands), etc.
Volunteers help battle these problems, by building wells, well covers (to reduce contamination), and teaching people why we need to wash our hands and about the consequences of not having proper sanitation techniques.
Malaria
In 2012 there were approximately 207 billion cases of malaria, resulting in approximately 627,000 deaths. The good news is that increased education, access to medicine, and promotion of insecticide treated bednets saved 3.3 million lives since 2000. (for more information see http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/world-malaria-report-20131211/en/).
Malaria is a huge issue in Africa, and has seen a lot of attention from governments and NGOs alike, and what's really cool for me as a PC Senegal volunteer is that Senegal is on the forefront of a lot of the work being done. In association with USAID, the Senegalese government is in the second phase of a universal bednet distribution, which aims to get every single person in Senegal to sleep under a bed net every night, all year. This would ultimately slow the spread of the disease, which is mostly spread at night.
Volunteers participate in government funded events (remember the net distribution), but mostly do a lot of teaching and myth busting. We spread what treatments are available at the health posts, how much they cost, as well as how the disease is spread and how they can stop the spread of disease. April is International Malaria month, so look for some future posts about what we're doing here in Kolda!
Nutrition
Access to a healthy variety of foods can be a challenge in Senegal. Students are not taught the food pyramid or other nutrition facts, and what they learn is mostly from home. Sugary foods, even more than most places, are favored.
Volunteers help bring gardens to communities, teach nutrition facts and good practices, and teach mothers how to properly feed and wean infants to ensure a healthy growth pattern.
So that's a summary of what health volunteers in Senegal do! I'll be posting some of my projects as well, and any further questions can be sent to my email!
Jam tan,
Kim
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