The Health Care Teams

This year there were three groups

Margaret lead a group of four or five from Kissy, many of whom had attended last year's sessions. Jeremiah Cole, the Head Teacher at the New Era School, is seated on the right of the group.

Sarah Frost lead half the contingent from Wellington which numbered about a dozen people. Sam assisted with this group.

Richard and Susie looked after the other group from Wellington. Each group had people from the same area of the village as far as possible.

Topics

Following our policy of talking over the topics that the group wished to discuss, the subjects covered included Malnutrition, especially as it affected children, and the importance of clean water. Many children suffer from dehydration and our contact at the Children's Hospital in Freetown, Dr. Fred Martineau, had told us the communities needed to know when to take a child to hospital, as many were taken too late for treatment to be effective.

This stems in part from ignorance, but also from a fear of being unable to pay the fees. Health care is now free for children up to five, lactating mothers and pregnant women. The government has also given nets to families to protect them from mosquito bites. (Typing this makes me remember that I need to take my malaria tablet for the day, Malarone!) There has been some misuse of the mosquito nets, however. Some families have been selling them in the market. Others have used them to catch fish!

Another fascinating topics has been latrines. The World Health Organisation requires a pit latrine, basically a hole in the ground, to be sited at least 20 meters from a dwelling or a water course. This is clearly impossible in a compact urban area. An answer would be a brick latrine built up above the ground, for which we had some illustrations that caused great interest.

Water Problems

Richard and Susie were taken by their team to look at water use in the community.

The water supply in Wellington that comes through a pipe with two garden hoses attached. The locals use the water for drinking, without boiling it. Sometimes it is filtered through a cloth.

Also in Wellington the two pictures of the same spot show the dirty quality of the water and its use for washing clothes and people, as well as being carried away for drinking.

Little brown hut at the side of the house is a pit latrine built very close to the water course.

Nutrition

One of the teams put on a good display to show the make-up of a balanced diet.

Fish, Mango, banana, kasava root and kasavo leaves were assembled. and then arranged in the shape of a house.

carbohydrates are the energy foods, the foundations to make you strong,

the proteins are the walls or the bricks to help you grow and heal,

the vitamins and minerals are the roof, the protection against disease.

Thanks to Susie Marshall for many of these photos and for the explanations.