This is an email that I sent to a donor group. It is a basic summary of what I am doing as well as the thank you letter and I just figured I would post it for the basic update information.
Dear NMPCA,
Thank you so much for your generous donation of supplies and your monetary donation! The village was so excited about it and it was much appreciated. Once I arrived in village, I showed the donated supplies to my teacher Fode and he and I set up a meeting with the village chief. He in turn told all the elders and the health committee leaders. The following Friday afternoon we had a ceremony in his special meeting hut. We laid all the goods out in the middle of the room and we all sat around the edges. Each elder went around saying how thrilled they are that people care and have not forgotten about the maternity, like the last doctor did when he disappeared. The village chief thanked the NMPCA and Americans in general for all the nonprofit work that has been done in this town. The donation included everything that we needed as far as nonprescription items go. Already I have directed a few mothers to the maternity to have the doctor give them bandages and antibiotic ointment for burns and infected cuts on their children. With the $50 donation, I have bought a few mosquito nets that we give to pregnant women who come to prenatal consultations. I am working on finding a constant source of mosquito nets right now, as they are $5 each and this is too pensive.
However, the maternity is still facing challenges. Our doctor left about the time I arrived and we still have not found a new one. I have left the search up to the village, and they say that they are on the trail of some good motivated doctors in Bamako who may come out. I am more interested personally in the search for now matrons and midwives. We had a few but I have never met them. My teacher Fode told me a few weeks ago that he fired them because they were never working and there was no point in paying them. So now the hunt for a new matrone is on, and this one is more promising than finding a doctor. There is one in my market town 4 kilometers away who may move out here. Village initiated discussions have begun. We currently have one basic illiterate midwife but she is very old and one is not enough. Especially since she cannot do prenatal consultations or register births. Currently, the doctor in training and I have done a few prenatal consultations but I am trying to discourage this, because first of all I don’t have training and second of all, no one will be here to do it when I leave so it is not sustainable. This elderly mid wife is really great though and sometimes she invites me to deliver babies with her. Unfortunately the last one that we delivered was a still born. It was disturbing to find that the cause of death was declared as lack of prenatal care and poor birth spacing, which really tells me that I desperately need to figure out this prenatal consultation situation. I have started talking to my teacher Fode about what it would take to send a girl from m village to matron midwife training in our regional capital 25 kilometers away though this idea is just in the beginning stages now and I don’t know if it is actually possible.
Since then, I have received funding from USAID on a project to help fight malaria. Malaria season has just now begun with the early rains. I received funding to build 30 soak pits in my village in the first round and then I estimate I can do about 10 to 12 more with left over funds. Soak pits are holes dug behind the bathroom which collect the waste water. The bathrooms are similar to out-houses but they are spare mud buildings. Usually, this water drains out the back into a giant puddle. Mosquitoes and germs breed in these pools of dirty water, and sometimes children can be seen playing in or near them and animals drink the water. Soak pits are a solution to this. We dig a hole one to three meters deep and fill it with head sized porous volcanic rock. Then we extend a pipe from the back of the bathroom to the hole. Next we build cement slabs with rebar inside which we place on top and then seal the sides with cement. It looks better, decreases malaria, and eliminates these pools of standing bathroom runoff water which carry disease and parasites.
In addition, we are still doing frequent baby weighing and formations on oral rehydration drinks. I plan to start talking to my friends about condom use, birth spacing, and birth control options after my vacation this month. Peace Corps offers kits for this with demonstration aids. Once I have a routine down, I will then move onto bigger groups and class rooms where I will teach general health topics.
Thank you again for you support and interest in Tegue Coro. They are very aware of your efforts and are excited to see Greg again next time he visits. I will keep you updated as our search for maternity staff continues and how work is progressing with the multiple projects going on. My parents and sister visit me this week and we will all go to my village together, so a big celebration has been planned and we will do more work on the soak pits and do a baby weighing. I hope all is well in America and I look forward to sending the next update!
Best,
Emily Albert
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