As a health volunteer, most of my work takes place in or around my health center, or CSCOM. We do animations, which are educational talks or informational, hands-on learning sessions, about pertinent health topics like hand washing, mother and child health, weaning practices, anti-malarial practices, and nutrition. We spend every Thursday doing vaccinations, and I do my part weighing the babies, keeping track of their weights on a chart that indicates the general nutrition of the baby. The CSCOM is where women come for prenatal consultations, for births, and for help with health problems they or their children may encounter postnatal.
The CSCOM is also where people of the 26 surrounding villages come for their own vaccinations, for treatment of all assortment of ailments, for prescriptions, emergencies, and social hour should school be in session.
When asked as a village what Niasso wanted me to help them with, they voted unanimously that a maternity was wanted. A maternity is specifically a birthing center. When I asked about the current birthing situation at the CSCOM, I was informed that after a birth, the mothers must shuffle across the courtyard to the recovery room, blood dripping down their legs, their faces screwed up in a grimace of pain. Anyone sitting in the courtyard that doubles as the waiting room is privy to the happenings of the women who come in for prenatal consultations and births, which they said quite accurately is not clean, does not respect their privacy and just “is not beautiful.”
While beauty is not a real concern, what is alarming is the rate at which mothers are sent home early after giving birth to free beds for other mothers or for people needing to use beds in the recovery room for other treatment. When the mothers are only held for 6 hours after delivery, they need this critical time to rest and recover before going home to return to chores left undone before the approach of birth. Also concerning is the rate at which new born infants are exposed to any germs or bacteria that come into the CSCOM on patients being treated for TB, flu, infections, or the common cold. Furthermore, when Thursday roles around and women come from the surrounding villages by foot for vaccinations and baby weighing, there is not enough space to hold everyone, meaning that many mothers chose to return home as opposed to standing out in the sun and heat until a space frees up. Not only is the women’s health at risk in the current situation, they lose valuable opportunity for learning about health topics covered on vaccination days that would help them to better provide for their families and themselves.
In that vein, I am asking for your help. Currently, my project is on the Peace Corps website, listed under my last name. Please follow this link to donate to the building of a new maternity and women’s center in my village. I know many of you have already helped me in other projects or though your support for me and my time here, but any little thing that you can give can help. This is a big project, but would make a difference infinitely larger. My sincerest thank you for your help.
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