Heavy rains but great spirits!

(Delayed Blog entry from last Friday)

The heavy rains that commenced on Thursday, disrupting both electrical power and internet access, did not dampen the spirits of our group as we provided our final reports and recommendations to the various community leaders. The creche team met with members of the Early Childhood Development team and provided the results of our work over the past two weeks, including what we observed to be current best practices in place within various crèche facilities and recommendations for both short and long term planning that will support the ongoing development of the children of Munsieville. Our Paraffin safety and data collection reports were finalized as we look forward to a continued partnership with the Paraffin Safety Association. We have also devised and left for Munsieville a Paraffin safety tip sheet – a simple reference which will increase awareness of the hazards and treatment relative to the use of Paraffin in the shacks. Four members of our team – Robert, Donna, Julia and Mary, had the great fortune to meet and chat with “Mama Gloria” – the sister of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She was warm and welcoming and the conversation delightful.
As we will bid farewell to Munsieville on Saturday evening , we leave confident knowing that we have enacted the GSK mission by empowering the people of Munsieville to “do more, feel better and live longer.”

by Mary Bannan

Our last day!

(Delayed blog entry from last Friday!)

So its farewell from the Health Clinic Team!

Today was our last official day in the Munsiville clinic. Earlier in the week, we shared our findings and recommendations with the clinic managers and these were well received. The findings were subsequently shared with the rest of the Munsiville clinic staff and our impression is that they were appreciative of our feedback. Indeed as a result of our feedback we have already noticed some changes in the way the clinic operates and in staff behaviours.

As a sign of their appreciation, yesterday we were even presented with some gifts from the staff! (See picture below!) We were each given a pair of traditional African sandals, which we are very grateful for. These gifts are the perfect souvenir of the work that we have done in Munsiville and will be a great way of reminding us of our time here.

This morning we visited the clinic for the final time. As our parting gift, we obtained a white board, which we think will help improve 2-way communication between the managers and the staff. To ensure that the board would be used straight away, one of The Thoughtful Path volunteers kindly fixed the whiteboard on the common room wall meaning it is now ready for use. We also developed posters that have been placed throughout the clinic, the purposes of these are to help improve infection control and encourage behavioral change and better occupational health practices.

The rest of our day was spent compiling and completing our final report this includes a list of the accomplishments that we achieved during our visit.
Our hope is that the findings and recommendations of our report will be fully owned by the staff and managers of the Munsiville clinic and that most importantly that the ‘Bridge’ we have built with ‘The Thoughtful Path’ is built further and flourishes in the coming years.

Happy Feet

On our last day in the Munsieville clinic the staff presented the clinical team with a gift of beautiful handmade African shoes. We were moved by their warmth and generosity.

Friday!

Hello UK & US colleagues....the storm has knocked out internet access from Munsieville, we'll be posting more as soon as we can... Barbara and I have accompanied Alyson from the Pulse project to the GSK site office in South Africa and are posting from here. 
Happy Friday

Thursday in Munsieville: Storm and lights out!

Tim and Candy shifted this week from being part of the crèche/shack safety team to the assigned objective of focus on the health and safety of the staff and stakeholders of The Thoughtful Path.  First, we spent time observing and listening to understand key issues and challenges.   Next, we met with Paul Brookes, Director of The Thoughtful Path, and Betty Nkoana, Project Manager, to discuss feedback about our key observations.  We summarized recommendations for impacting the health of the TTP team .  Tim delivered a coaching session to increase awareness of sustainable good health and resilience practices.  Alyson Krucher, GSK Pulse Volunteer, held a leadership training workshop attended by Leadership Academy candidates,  House of  Young Ambassadors and other TTP stakeholders.  We prepared a presentation and delivered this as part of the leadership training agenda. We asked the leaders to be aware of their health practices as they influence the community.   Paul spoke to the group about the challenges of being a real leader.    We’ll be working tomorrow with a large crèche on fire drill training.  Barbara and Mary went to The Victim & Empowerment Center this morning, which is housed in the Police Office.  This is a community resource for children and adults who have suffered abuse.  Barbara and Mary shared immediate feedback and observations with the staff.  They reinforced the connection with the Children’s Embassy.  The Embassy function as a safe environment where children can come for support for any issues.    We all came back from the days activities to a big storm of lightening and rain which took out the power (and internet access for Thurs night and Friday morning).  We ended the day with a candlelight dinner with the great team of people who run the Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge where we are staying.
Tim Wighton and Candy Bertini

Day with "paraffin Joe" and best class creche

Today has been our last day visiting the crèches and the shacks as we are now focusing on writing up our findings and reports to present to Project Hope.

We have seen various standards of crèches and eye opening ways in which people live in the shacks of Munsieville.

The one thing we will take away is how welcoming and helpful the people have been.

We have found a real desire for those living in the shacks to improve the quality of their lives particularly in the way they have embraced the paraffin safety message that we have been delivered.

We have been so impressed by the volunteers associated with Project Hope who give their free time to act as guides and interpreters ensuring that our health  and safety messages have been accepted by everyone we spoke to.

We have had to work hard with those in the community who come from outside of South Africa particularly those from Mozambique. This meant we had to work on a different approach to  gain their trust and allow us into their homes to deliver these important messages.

Joe  Baleka  from the Paraffin Safety Association, joined us for our tour of the shacks and was really impressed    by the work the H&S team had undertaken and the way that we were delivering the key safety messages  about paraffin.  

No words needed.....

We will be joining Joe at the Children’s Embassy tomorrow at 1pm to deliver a paraffin safety presentation to the whole of Munsieville community where we will be doing demonstrations and providing information and resources to the community.

Robert’s role tomorrow is to drive around Munsieville with Star, our helper,  with a loud hailer to advertise this event  ( who said he needed a loud hailer!!!!)

The crèche team visited the best in example on how a crèche should work. This crèche really showed how to promote children’s health and well- being  and the team could really see the tremendous difference in the way the children responded. This crèche was a Government funded and we are hoping that this will be the first of many in this area.

Today we came across a simple practical means to make life safer; one is a candle in a mayonaise jar with sand which will give 30% more efficient candles and more energy and if tipped over the sand will extinguish the flame. The second one is the solar light bulb, Donna Lefevre already showed on this blog. Today Ernie and Johannes from Munsieville constructed the first prototype solar soda bottle light bulb with guidance from Scoop and Donna.

Safe candle

Solar soda bottle light bulb

Robert Manson & Barbara Graham

Today We Connected

Today the clinical team met with the clinic manager to review our observations and suggestions. We were concerned about how our suggestions would be perceived, but we were pleasantly surprised . We shared what we saw as strengths and opportunities for improvement. The suggestions appeared to be well received and we hope that some of our suggestions will be put into action. We focused on partnering with Project hope, patient and staff safety, and increased efficiency. Today we took
a big step towards improving the quality of the medical service the people of Munsieville receive.

Neighborhood Connections are Strengthened

Home Pariffin container unlabelled- common practice

Today is our 8th day. We began our day early with a group exercise class on the lawn led by Leroy a local fitness instructor . After breakfast we headed into Munsieville to meet our interpreters , Anna and Star.Accompanying us today are 2 special young adults ,Palesa and Articia ,students representing the Munsieville Youth Voice Journalism Academy. Palesa and Articia will be writing articles about our community visits. Star led Robert, Donna G. , Julia and Palesa to Mayibuye to visit and assess 2 creche daycares. Anna led Barbara, Mary and Articia to the Buffer area shacks to continue door to door pariffin safety education .We bring firsthand knowledge of the impressive kindness and dedication of our local volunteer interpreter guides as we work side to side with them. Our daycare facility assessments result in specific recommmendations paired with neighborhood face to face pariffin safety instruction assist this unique community in protecting their vunerable children .
The clinic team checked in with the clinic staff today before heading onto the HIV/AIDS rally run by the local taxi drivers association who have a union type role in the area. There were stalls from the health authority distributing health information, stickers and condoms to promote safety with HIV, testing and education around the stigma associated wiht HIV and TB. Their health education pamphlets were really informative. The stalls were complimented by other information around social help, debt and good parenting. Looks like Betty and Paul from Project Hope have linked up with a good resource for information resources for parents.
the taxi's started a convoy around the town with HIV counsellors waving and singing out of the windows and horns blowing - a great way to drum up interest around the township.
Then as is the usual way for Munsieville events, speeches to the crowd and VIPs, followed by prayer, song and dance and of course...........food - fried chicken and cabbage being cooked in huge coldron's over open fires stirred with the biggest wooden spoon I ever saw!
The key message is every day is world aids day

Jeanette Ryan

Standby we are making solar bulbs for shacks tomorrow....

VIRGIN BLOGGERS! - First Day of our Last Week:-(

Today the Creche team gathered to coordinate and finalise our health and safety initiative. This is primarily aimed at educating residents about the hazards associated with paraffin use in the domestic environment. The hope is that this will help mitigate the alarming number of children that are each year harmed by ingesting paraffin and also those who sustain burns through accidents.

Shack area in Munsieville

We have learnt that in at least 2 areas within Munsieville, paraffin is the main source of fuel for both cooking and lighting. In addition in all of the homes we visited today, the maintenance of appliances was appalling. None of the households had safety containers to transport and store the paraffin, all were using 2 litre soft drink plastic bottles! The resident's first aid knowledge was lacking also, for instance all when asked what to do if their child accidentally ingested paraffin, responded that they would give milk and induce vomiting. However this is not correct, in fact the correct action is to seek medical attention.

As a result we spent the rest of the afternoon developing a poster outlining key paraffin safety and first aid messages. These posters will be available to all the creches and homes in Munsieville, through the Childrens' Embassy.



Paraffin stove



We have also drafted a paraffin safety education leaflet. This if for the key stakeholders (The Thoughtful Path's local volunteers) who will be sustaining this initiative when we depart. This is being done with input from Joe from the Paraffin Safety Association. The plan is that in the medium term Joe will liase with The Thoughtful Path and external bodies to source bottles with proper safety caps that can be used solely for the purchase and use of paraffin.



Waiting room of the clinic

 The Clinic team today continued to provide support and gather information at the local medical clinic in Munsieville. We spent most of our time, shadowing various staff (including the visiting doctor, some of the nurses as well as the adminstrative and reception staff). The purpose of today was to gather further information on the current systems and to get a better understanding of what can be improved.

Overall our sense is that the Clinic operates well and provides quite good clinical care under very difficult circumstances. The key challenge are the constraints of space. The Clinic was built about 10 years ago, at that time the population of Munsieville was half of its current 30 000 and also the number of primary care services offerred were limited. However over the years, the population has almost doubled and the services delivered are now much wider. As a result the building no longer meets current medical needs, although a portacabin is expected, the staff have been waiting for it for 2 years and for now there is now ETA.



Jeanette working at the clinic



We are especially interested in looking at how the current Clinic systems and processes can be improved so that the work is more effectively managed and also so that the patients' experience is improved. As a result, we have identified a number of improvments and some solutions that we think could be adopted. Our next step is to meet with the Clinic's leadership team to feedback our findings and offer our assistance so that some 'quick wins' can be embedded.

Tomorrow, we are going to participate in a HIV prevention day which is being sponsored by the Taxi Drivers association for Munsieville. Our aim is to establish what health promotional activiites are happening locally and identify ways of better collaboration between the Munsiville clinic and its' neighbours.



Donna Graham & Arif Jiwany

Cultural experience

After a very busy and productive week, our educational and cultural weekend began with

a visit to the World Heritage “Cradle of Humankind” information centre where we were we toured the

world renowned Sterkfontein Caves. This is the site where the famous pre-human skull was discovered dating back 2.3 million years ago. After lunch we visited the Elephant Sanctuary where we learned about the elephant’s anatomy and then we had the opportunity to feed, take them for a walk and ride these magnificent animals. On the way home we drove over the Hartbeespoort Dam and finished the evening back at the Heritage  Lodge, where Bryn prepared a “Potjiekos”, traditional South African stew on an outdoor fire.

Today, Sunday, our guides for the weekend, Russell and Deon arranged a visit to Soweto (South West Township) including a look around the Regina Mundi, the church of the Black Madonna where the apartheid movement is said to have first begun. We then had a tour of the Credo Mutwa Cultural Village where a famous Zulu Shaman trains students. Next we went on to the Mandela House and Hector Pieterson Museum. We finished our journey home with a “Back to the 80’s sing-a-long” (Cat’s choir). Keep checking our blogs daily for an up-to-date report of what the team is doing in Munsieville!

Barbara Graham and Patti Penkunas

Laduuuma...!

Today, December 2, 2011, marked a milestone in Project Hope/UK history - the opening of the Munsieville Thoughtful Path's Children's Embassy, which triggered a real twinkle of hope in the eyes of the children and entire community this Christmas time.  We began the day assisting with final preparations and decorating of the embassy prior to welcoming esteemed guests and local dignataries for the opening ceremonies, where we were led in sprited African song and prayer.  The center was unveiled to the entusiastic delight of all who were present. Following the ceremony,  mayhem (a.k.a. disorganized chaos!) ensued as the annual Tshepo festival kicked off, where hundreds of stars that were made by students and GSK employees across the globe were displayed.  Hundreds of Munsieville children were treated to an action packed afternoon that included a bouncy castle, face painting, music and dance, a baloonist, and, the highlight of the afternoon, a visit from world renowned football (that's soccer for you US folks) player Lucas Radebe! Our own superstar goalies, Robert Manson and Arif Jiwany, defended the goal well against the talented and extremely excitable children.  A visiting Stripey demonstrated extraordinary skill as he tested and overcame the prowess of our gsk goalies.  The children enjoyed hot dogs and Lucozade (with 1000 hotdogs prepared by our own team!), and were treated to energy bars and gift bags.
The call from the children at the end of the day was "Laduuuma...!" - we're doing it!

Jeanette Ryan and Mary Bannan

Munsieville : Paraffin Safety

The Health and Safety Team spent the day visiting the section of Munsieville referred to as " The Shacks". An area of immense poverty. The team focused on Health and Safety issues, particularly around the use of paraffin and it's safety implications.
It has been determined that at least 90% of the Shack housing in South Africa uses Paraffin for energy/cooking. The misuse of Paraffin causes over 2,500 deaths in South Africa each year.
Many of the Mothers that we spoke to today stated they had experienced shack fires due to Paraffin. Additionally several had children who had suffered Paraffin poisoning through ingestion. The main reason for this is that the Adults use used plastic bottles for containing Paraffin, which are stored on the ground assessable to toddlers.
During the visits the Team provided on fire safety and first aid, as many had a real lack of awareness to the hazards of Paraffin.
The Team will continue to investigate practical and appropriate improvements and work to empower the community to identify sustainable solutions.
by Tim Wighton and Robert Manson

Our first visit to the creches of Munsieville

Dumela
(already picking up the local lingo)
Started our third day with a meeting with the fabulous Betty who is a never ending font of information and after great deliberation in GSK style with flip charts /objectives/ outcomes etc we hit the road to visit the creches of Munsieville which we have heard so much about over the last few months.
Split into pairs( those of you can work out there is also a group of three) off we followed Betty to the various destinations to be let loose on the 'Mamas"
I had obviously got the better deal working with Tim, we had two very open and honest hosts happy to show us around, very proud of their children.
One certainly came up as creme de la creme or 5 star.
Miranda's crech was the shining example of what you can do, and seeing the hard work and effort she and her ladies had put in made us very happy that we had the opportunity to speak with her and hear how passionate she was for her children in her care.
At the the end of the day meeting we realise just how lucky we had both been as the our other team members , Julia, Robert, Donna, Candy and Mary witnessed the less then appropriate creches where not only lack of funds but motivation and drive to improve seems to be the biggest barriers to make the necessary changes for the better.
This has only made us more determind to carry on and see what really are the root problems and how we can encourage things to change to support exactly what Project Hope, UK wants for the children of Munsieville, allowing them to grow into healthy, productive adults when they receive the right encouragement, mentoring and technical support. The next two days will be extremely busy as preparations are in full flow for the opening of the Childrens Embassy, watch this space on how it is coming along and the opening ceremony on Friday 2nd December.

Productive day for clinical team

Today the clinical team, Jeanette, Patti, Arif and I had a very productive day. We each had the opportunity to spend the morning with a nurse in the clinic. Jeanette experienced the TB/HIV/family planning area. Patti saw the child immunization area. Arif explored the primary care area as well as spending time with the administrative assistants and nursing assistant. I was with Danny in the chronic disease management area. The clinic was very crowded and we estimate about 200 patients are seen per day. We saw 30-40 patients in each area between 9:00 and 12:30. The clinic opens around 8:00 and the patients begin lining up outside to be seen around 6:30 am. There is no physician present on Wednesdays and the professional nurses (4 years training) function very similarly to nurse practitioners. They take a focused history, do a focused exam, diagnose, and dispense medications according to national guidelines. We were very impressed by their knowledge, dedication, and abilities. There is clearly a lack of space and resources . They have little time to spend with each patient, but do a great job with the time they have. We identified some areas for improvement, for example in efficient use of administrative staff and nursing assistants, infection control, and health promotion/patient education. We are excited about the relationships we formed today and look forward to learning from the nurses we met today, as well as hopefully making some useful suggestions.

A safe fire in Munsieville

Day 2
What a start 7am, meeting in the garden overlooking the most maginifcent scenery when LeRoy our arerobic instructor arrives.
No breaking in gently as there is obviously a need to build up our stamina now rather than later.
We all survived only to be told next class is same place, same time thursday morning
After our well earned breakfast we met Jo from the Pariffin Safety Association who came to speak to us about the safe use of household energy, followed by a practical demonstration ...more about that later.
Statitics he shared were frightening, 3600 shack fires this year so far, 280 deaths mostly vunerable under 5 year olds with countless horrfic injuries sustained.

He is a man passionate about getting his safety message across. Giving them the information needed , identifying the dangers and the changes needed to make their shacks safer places for all.
He realy made us think about this huge problem starting with the purchasing of cheap pariffin which may not be safe to start with, storing it in unsuitable pop bottles with no child safety lids and using stoves which are old and unsuitable for the task in hand.
We then got our first glimpse of the Munsieville shacks as we drove in as a convoy to the spot Joe was going to set up his dangerous pariffin appliances to show just how much fumes and smoke these can produce. Scarey stuff ,even a rat ran out and away through the crowd to escape.
We must have been a parculiar sight as slowly we were surrounded by the curious residents
( mostly dressed in the bright orange and blue uniforms of the Community Work Partnerships who are assigned to clean up the rubbish ( Garbage) which is visiable all around us).
It gave us the chance to chat with these good people and advertise the Health Fair this Friday.

We then travelled over to the Childrens Embassy which will also be formally opened on Friday and after a quick lunch the hard work began. Between us we finished off a little walled garden area and Robert and Adrian literally got dug in as they dug and prepared an area for a tree at the front of the academy. Sounds easy but the soil is not great with mostly stones and they have the blisters to prove it.
Seeing Munsievile up close today makes you think....how do people especially children survive in an environment quite alien to most of us on this assignment?
There is very little in the way of commidities , from where we stood we see a single water standpipe at the top of a hill by the side of the road, a few fruit and vegetable stalls on the corners and children with no shoes amusing themselves using the red coloured clay stones to draw a few pictures on the road yet, still lots of smiling faces interested in why we are here in their township.
Tomorrow we will be split into our assigned groups and I will be off to visit the actual creches and speak to the Mamas and see where Project Hope has made a difference and where we may be able to sow a few seeds of change which will help make life better for those we will eventually leave behind.

Arrival Day 1 & 2

Day 1, Arrival: On Monday evening a welcome dinner at the Sterkfontein
Heritage lodge provided introductions to
the arriving team and some of Munsieville’s most prominent citizens. The presence of all three councilors of
Munsieville demonstrated their support of The Thoughtful Path Program.
The evening program
was well led by Betty Nkoana and Paul Brooks and included community leaders and
other guests. Munsieville talent was on display! A contemporary African dance group demonstrated
their fitness level with an impressive choreographed dance program. Elaine Nkoana played a beautiful classical
piece on the flute.
On Tuesday, we started the day with a great lesson on paraffin
(kerosene) safety from Joe who is with the Paraffin Safety Association. Many Munsieville residents use paraffin as a
primary energy source. We were
introduced to members of the Community Work Program (CWP).
One team visited the Munsieville clinic and met with some of
the staff. We learned about the exciting
plans for the new addition which will be placed adjacent to the existing
structure in December.
Another team went into Munsieville where Joe did a
demonstration of how to build a fire that is more efficient, burns longer and
has less fumes. Learning about the fires
became more exciting when an uninvited guest ran through the group- a little
mouse! We went to the children’s
resource center and worked a bit on the foundation of the Heart Garden. Robert
actually got a few blisters from digging to prepare for a tree planting. This is rumored to be his first actual encounter with work.

Candy Bertini and Patti Penkunas

Departure

This is our final day in London before we are on our way to Munsieville South Africa. Last minute plans and details of our visit were discussed at our meet and greet last evening, while celebrating American Thanksgiving.
Today we meet for breakfast and last minute preparations before leaving for Heathrow. Our flight will leave for tonight for travel to Johannesburg, arriving Monday morning, were we will go as a group to the Heritage Lodge, just outside Munsieville proper.
We share the feelings of excitement and enthusiasm with the rest of the team for successful journey and outcomes!
It is hard to believe that the time has finally arrived.
We are ready, please stay tuned!!!
Patti Penkunas & Tim Wighton

Dumela!!
Patti Penkunas and Candy Bertini have arrived safely in UK on Friday morning, Nov 25,and are ting...We learned from Betty's good messaging that ting is Tswana for 'fine'  Weather looks great here and forecasts look good for Munsieville.  We are looking forward to meeting up with the group tomorrow and to meeting the good people of Munsieville.

Preparing for departure

My cousin, Jodi, made me a beautiful card with the following prayer . This sums up my wishes for all of us as we depart on our journey.

Travelers prayer

Direct my steps and provide me peace throughout this trip.
Let those I encounter on my trip
be blessed by my words and actions.
Let my hands be filled with your work
and may I be filled with your grace
and kind words for others.
May I be a light unto those around me
as I go away from home.

Learning to Make Solar Light Bulbs

One of our possible actions in Munsieville is to introduce the idea of solar soda bottle light bulbs and teach people how to make them. My brother Mark, unlike me, knows his way around a tool box. He kindly agreed to help me learn how to make them. We looked at some videos and read some instructions on line. Mark already had large metal cutters, an awl (which I had never heard of before), a hammer, measuring tools, and markers. We purchased small metal cutters, tin, and caulking. We saved some clear 2 Liter soda bottles. Cutting the tin was a little harder than I expected. (Still, I’m not sure why Mark is laughing at me - what is so funny about my technique?) It took some figuring and calculating to decide how large to make the two circles (a small circle that you cut out and a large circle that you cut slits in to hold the bottle in place). We learned that the small circle should have about a 3 inch diameter and the large circle a 4 1/2 inch diameter. We debated on whether to caulk both sides or not, but decided more caulk was better when it is going on a roof that you don’t want to leak. We also agreed that cutting the metal is definitely not a project for children- the metal was very sharp and a little jagged where it was cut. However, the children could collect and prepare the soda bottles, such as removing the paper, cleaning them, sanding them and adding water and bleach. Mark would not allow me to practice cutting a hole in his roof, so I will have to learn that technique on the job.

Mark, thank you so much for helping me!!!

The next hurdle will be how to obtain the tools and supplies. Mark needs his large metal cutters and it would probably cost as much to ship my small ones as it would to purchase them when we get there. We will also need to obtain tin and caulking. I assume we can find soda bottles to recycle. Does any on have any thoughts or ideas???

We'll Get By With a Little Help From Our Friends

Hello Friends. One thing I have already learned from this project, prior to even embarking on our trip, is that our coworkers, family, and friends are amazingly kind, generous, supportive, and resourceful. Below are some examples of this.

· My husband, Bob, listens to my endless chatter about Munsieville with patience and interest.