Health Day - Senega

First we had a briefing at our hotel about Children and Mothers’ Health in Senegal. 

Briefings can be boring....

Sad Fact: 1 child in 11 does not survive to the age of 5. And women who don't get proper treatment at birth sometimes die during delivery. 

Another sad Fact: only 20% of kids get medical care in SenegalL

It took 2 hours to get to our first stop. While we were driving I could see wooden huts and people in tattered clothes. This is a really poor area and I felt bad for the children. Terrible.

Here is an example of a thatched hut and a typical "home". 

We went to a health center, a place which helps deliver babies, gives vaccinations and helps prevent malnutrition. It is small, smelly and hot. It didn’t really look clean; there was trash on the floor.

I got to hold a baby while he got a polio vaccine in his mouth and a shot in his leg. He started crying when I held him, which made me feel responsible for making him cry. It was cool to hold a baby while he was being cared for, but kind of stressful.

Then, we went to an even more remote village to see a smaller health center. The second one had fewer rooms and seemed poorer.  

We were greeted by so many children it was sweet. They were all singing a song with the words “Our friends have finally come” (not exact words). The kids had skin diseases and many didn’t have shoes. Their clothes were dirty and old like they wear the same clothes every day. But they were smiling and had bright faces.

We watched some of the people in our group weigh babies to see if they had malnutrition.

Fun Fact: The only way to tell if a baby has malnutrition is to weigh and measure him.

We had lunch and then returned to the remote village. They performed a play about the importance of hand washing (with SOAP), and I got picked to wash my hands in front of everyone. Right after I washed my hands, everyone celebrated with music and dancing. It was pretty fun and exciting!

As soon as humanly possible we were hanging up mosquito nets. Of course we had to learn how to hang them up.  Mosquito nets are to protect from mosquitos that carry malaria. If you get Malaria you can die or get very sick . We put one in a house which was as small as a room. It had a bed, some cabinets and that’s it. It was nothing like I’ve ever scene before. Smaller than any apartment I’ve ever seen.

The most fun was dancing with the villagers. I felt  intimidated at first, but then I felt more courageous because everyone was clapping.

The hardest thing for me to see was all the kids in their ragged clothes and their faces covered with flies.

If I could tell my friends back home one thing I learned today, it would be how lucky we are to have big homes, families and food.

See you tomorrow!!!