HELP Lugazi 2012: Project Spotlights - Vaccination Days and Najjembe Health Day

We have now been in Lugazi, Uganda for almost 6 weeks. The 2^nd wavers have arrived and are adjusting quite well to the different environment of this beautiful place we now call home. The 1^st wavers leave on Wednesday. :( It will be sad to see them go. They have contributed much to the many projects and we will miss their help.

But we are excited to have the newcomers. They are interested in starting some new projects along with jumping on the projects we have going on. It will be good.

Sorry we have not kept our blog updated. We will work harder at keeping y'all updated!

Since the last post, we have had many projects going and also some projects that have finished. We are going to spotlight the projects that have finished in the last couple weeks.

Lugazi Children

Vaccination Days:

The Vaccination Days Project was a national campaign. HELP-International volunteers collaborated with the Mukono Health Center, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the Kawolo Hospital to volunteer at different posts. Volunteers gave out Polio vaccination, vitamin A drops, and de-worming pills. They were also asked to record names, tally children treated, help hold children during vaccinations, and keep treated and untreated children separated. Kristen, who works as an EMT back home, has been trained in injections, and given them in the States, worked with local nurses to administer measles and DPT vaccinations. Kristen gave out 668 measles vaccinations and 6 DPT vaccinations as well as helping with other vaccinations and drops. All together volunteers gave 817 polio drops, 795 vitamin A drops, and 820 de-worming pills Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That’s a total of 3106 treatments! Go team!

Giving the children Measles, Polio, and Vitamin A

Kristen giving Measles Vaccinations

Najjembe Health Day:

Kristen and Olivia have been working with the Najjembe Sub-County Council for a couple weeks to figure out the biggest needs in Najjembe and put together a project before Olivia leaves. A week and a half before Olivia left, a date was set. One week, one big project, one deserving community, and two teams who were willing to work really hard to make it all happen. The Sub-County Council (team) went out on foot, sent out bodas, and made community announcements about the health day. They spent hours making sure that people from the community new that it was going to happen. They also made sure that we had a venue (the Najjembe Health Center). The HELP-International team went on a safari for three days (severely limiting our time) and then spent all day Monday and Tuesday making posters, writing curriculums, going to Jinja to buy deworming pills, buying mosquito nets in Kampala, getting materials for a tippy tap (hand-washing station), and planning the whole day with Eddie. 880 deworming pills, 100 treated mosquito nets, 8 posters, 1 tippy tap, 2 malaria lessons, 2 Proud to be a Girl lessons, 1 sanitation class, 1 dental hygiene class, 1 hand-washing class, and 22 HELP-International volunteers later the day was a huge success!

Marissa and Sarah teaching Malaria Prevention