“Go expecting to learn and you will find the story”

I have started to read Rhidian Brook’s excellent and insightful book, More Than The Eyes Can See, which charts his families nine month journey visiting and living with communities around the world who have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. It also highlights The Salvation Army’s response to the pandemic in these communities.  I have read this book before, some time ago. Now it takes on new meaning as I am back in Africa and have been fortunate to meet many of the people from Zambia (previously) and Kenya (now) whose work and commitment are highlighted throughout the book.   I also had the privilege of hosting the author for a day or two during his visit to Chikankata.

When starting out on this adventure Rhidian Brooks was given this advice;

 “Go expecting to learn and you will find the story”

Today we visited a community, expecting to learn and we found a story.  We started off with a simple community conversation about community health issues at 10.00 with this group of people.

By 12 noon, the group had grown to this group of people.

No prompting, no organising, no cajoling – people had heard that there was a meeting about health and wanted to come and tell their story. They trickled in until we had to re-arrange the seating. By the end of the gathering, we even had pupils from the nearby schools, the headman and the Area Chief. This gave a strong message in itself.

As we talked together, people told their stories;

• A women who died because she took ill during the night and could not travel
• A young child who had died of a snake bite and was too late in getting to the hospital
• A women who had lost her baby while delivering.

It was humbling and we were getting the message. Then a member of the Salvation Army’s women’s group asked if they could perform a sketch for us. It showed some of the ways they address health issues in the communities around them but also highlights some the issues they faced;

• ·        People attending witch doctors
• ·        Lack of understanding and knowledge in the community
• ·        Girls getting pregnant too early
• ·        The time wasted going to the nearest clinic
• ·        No medicine in the clinic
•        Only a few people in the community trained in health issues and they were                     overstretched
• ·         Travel to clinics too expensive – too ill to walk
• ·         In some case people die before they get to a medical facility

The Witch Doctor

They adapted the sketch to show Heidie and I opening their new clinic at the end!!

Maiani, like so many other places, has touched our hearts - mainly because the community has an energy and resilience about it, as well as a commitment to each other. They are not just looking for others to solve their problems or demanding money as the answer. They have identified that their health is their issues and that they have strengths within their community that they can utilise.

A Traditional Birth Attendant

It was clear from the sketch and the conversations that some of the main problems are malaria, HIV/AIDS, problems with pregnancies, pneumonia and high infant mortality. These are basic primary health care issues.  I remember reading somewhere (I think in a paper written by Dean and Eirwen Pallant) that a primary health care approach, which integrates community health response at the community level, can only improve health and save lives. It is much prevention as it is cure. Well the community and SA Corps had clearly got that!

At present, people of this particular area have to walk between 20-40km to reach the nearest Clinic. This was a problem to them so they look for the solution from within. They had arranged for some training of Traditional Birth Attendants (albeit only 12 to serve a population of 12,000 people – although obviously only a percentage with be child- bearing women), been liaising with their local Ministry of Health and had set about building a clinic, right next to the local Corps - a Salvation Army Clinic.  However, during the (what had now become a) meeting, the Corps Officer reminded us that this Clinic is not being built by The Salvation Army for The Salvation Army. It is being built by the community for the community and to the glory of God!

 Initially, Heidie was asked to visit and to see if we could assist in helping them develop,  provide more training for the Birth Attendants, assist in starting a Community Health Workers programme and perhaps help to finish the Clinic Project. When we arrived last month (today was our third visit) I was truly amazed to see how far things had gone and when you consider this is a rural area, with people who struggle to make ends meet, this is a remarkable achievement.  We were told how the droughts over the last year or two, had slowed down the project as it had impacted on people’s economic situation.  We were motivated to help and will try and work with the community (and the Ministry of Health) to see if we can complete and staff the Clinic. The community health initiatives, interventions and training are being planned to started straight away

There’s a long way to go but we are journeying together!

FOOTNOTE: Booth’s In Darkest England and the Way Out  was, amongst other things, a written counter response to the classic book of the time In Darkest Africa (Henry Morton Stanley). As Brooks highlights, Booth was trying to point out that you don’t have to go that far – to Africa – to find the poverty and suffering when it is right here in your community!