Jesus Loves the Children

On this beautiful Monday morning in Malawi, I sit in my house, which now feels like a home with the disbelief that I have only been in Chipoka for one month. Exactly one month today actually. It feels to me like I have been here longer, only because of the strong relationships that I feel like I have made already, and the deep emotions I have for this place. It truly is beginning to feel like home.

This past week was a busy one for me, but also very exciting and full of new experiences. On Tuesday I attended my first out-reach under five clinic with a few of the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSA’s). This out-reach is targeting mothers and children under five years of age, consisting of growth monitoring and dispersion of vaccinations. This was the first time I was really able to comprehend the amount of people who live in the rural villages surrounding me, and the need for out-reach clinics conducted by the HSA’s at my HC each and every week. The village we went to on Tuesday was called Mtuwangoma and was an 11km (about 7 miles for all you non-metric folk) bike ride through back-country Africa from our HC. As you can imagine this would not be a short walk for someone who was sick, or a mother carrying her baby who needs vaccinations, etc…only emphasizing the need for the out-reach clinic.

By having the 9 under-five out-reach clinics every month our HC is able to reach as many women and under five children as possible. These children clinics are placed in areas between villages, so all 27 villages in the catchment area of the Chipoka HC can be reached once a month, conducting grow monitoring (by weighing the child) and recording and giving the vaccines necessary. Because there cannot be a HC in each one of these rural villages (there is simply not enough people to run them or money to fund them) the out-reach clinics make is possible to still protect children and mothers from certain diseases they may otherwise contract if the mother was made to walk the far distance to the HC every month for their child’s check-up.

So after biking 45 minutes through the heart of Malawi, up and down, and back up again on a dirt trail we arrived (if I bike like this everyday my legs are going to be huge). Although we had arrived, someone who had never been there before would never know so; that someone being me. I was partially expecting, or maybe more hoping, to find some sort of small building, maybe even a few benches, filled with mothers and their children ready for the day. However, I was wrong, but not necessarily surprised, when there was indeed no “physical clinic,” but just a HUGE baobab tree with a table and two chairs placed beneath it, surrounded by a group of amayis and their babies, sitting on the ground in the shade the tree provided.

When the group of women saw that I was with Henry, a familiar face, as one of the HSA’s for this village, there was a lot of chatter and giggles, as I’m sure they were just as curious about me as I was about what the morning would bring being with them. The morning started with a prayer, and then went into a health talk about the six main food groups, the importance of sanitation, and ended with how it is now cold season so keep your babies warm to prevent them from pneumonia. A total of four HSA’s (plus me) attended this under-five clinic, and together they make it work.

After the health talk I had the privilege of introducing myself in Chichewa. Nothing too much, I just gave my name and background, and that I would be living in Chipoka for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The women LOVED and deeply appreciated my attempt to speak in their native language. At the end I told them that I am learning Chichewa little by little and they all laughed, and then clapped with encouragement. I couldn’t have kept a smile from forming on my face if I’d wanted to. I immediately felt like they had accepted me as one of their own, and my body filled with excitement for the next two years that I have been blessed to work with these individuals. I’ve learned if I push myself to go outside of my comfort zone, making myself vulnerable, but for good reason (aka speaking in a foreign language in front of a group of people I am just meeting) the reward is abundant, and brings forth a feeling of hope and accomplishment for the little successes of life.

Moving forward, with the health talks, my introduction, and the amayi’s welcome song to me finished, growth monitoring and vaccinations began. First let me include that in Malawi every person who is born receives a medical passport. There are a few different types of passports; one for children under five, one for women, and a general one. In order to be seen at a health facility you must bring this card for recording. On Tuesday, when I helped with the growth monitoring part of the clinic I became very familiar with the passport for a child under five. In the middle of the booklet there is a graph where you can record and chart the weight of the child, showing if the child is under-weight or on the right track. Each month, for five years, the child is weighed and the weight is recorded in this book. Then when the child reaches five years of age, they are issued another passport.

How children are weighed here in Malawi might not be what you expect. First picture a fruit/vegetable scale hanging in a grocery store, but now picture it hanging from a tree, with a child wrapped in a chitenje (piece of fabric, used for everything in Malawi) dangling from it. Also picture the child screaming or crying and kicking frantically because they are probably scared they are going to fall, because they watched the kid in front of them who did fall, hit the ground hard (to clarify not every child falls, but I have seen it happen, and I doubt it feels good). My job was to read the weight and record it on the graph of the medical passport. This job becomes difficult when you can’t read the scale because the child’s moving around in panic. However, even though it was my first time to do this, I did manage, and all of the children were weighed.

From being weighed the mother goes with the child to the next station where they are recorded either as a child under one or age one to five in big recording books that the hospital keeps. If the child is under one they are also given necessary vaccines and their weight and the vaccines are recorded. The mother’s passport is also checked to see if they have received all five doses of tetanus, and this is recorded as well. It may not be on a computer like it’s done in the States, but recording is being done, which is so important in terms of data collection.

Recording and having the medical passport is also a way to make sure that a child is not malnourished besides just by looking at them. If a child is consistently under-weight then they are referred to the supplemental feeding program that the HC runs on Friday mornings. This program has the means to teach mothers how to get their child more nutrients, and gives out supplement foods to the mothers of these children, which are high in protein and filled with vitamins.

As you can see from what I have written my HC is trying its best to reach people who need to be reached, who may have otherwise suffered from preventable conditions. There is still so much more to be accomplished, but from what I have learned a lot has improved in recent years, and hopefully will continue to improve while I am here to share my knowledge and time. Experiencing an out-reach clinic for the first time gave me a taste of how I am going to be able to conduct the projects I want to focus on in these rural villages, and only increased my motivation. Biking 11km to serve as a clinic in the shade of a baobab tree, helping tons of children, and seeing the continuous need of the community members is a reminder as to why I am here in the first place.

#peacecorps