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