That Health Volunteer Workflow

Due to pressure from the old man (My brother) I figured I would let everyone know what I have been up to for this past month! We had been instructed post pre-service training to focus mostly on observation and integration, which I had been doing and know I will be for the entire two years that I’ll be a volunteer here in Mariental. We were also to complete a community needs assessment prior to Re-connect to help us in determining what projects to start up and follow through on. My Needs assessment is almost done (thank the Gods) and has helped me a little more to understand stakeholders around Mariental that will be able to assist me in my projects. I feel like I’ve got a few health workers in the Ministry of Youth to assist me in activities for learners in Life Skills classes with a focus on HIV/AIDS awareness. I‘ve been chatting with the social worker for Ministry of Gender in possible project he would like to include me in as well as the current issues facing the clients he has. Mostly thought I have been working with the two social workers that are at the hospital here in Mariental. So far, I have co-facilitated (Teenagers Against Drugs, Alcohol, and HIV) TADAH sessions at two secondary schools and one combined school, travelled to the nearby town of Maltahohe to help my counterpart with a Substance Abuse and Prevention Awareness Campaign.

TADAH has been the most fun to teach to learners at the secondary schools! I never thought I would enjoy teaching or even being a guest speaker in class, but the times I was able to teach in the Life Skill classes have been nothing but enjoyable! The first week of TADAH lessons were at Mariental High school and the lesson was HIV/AIDS Awareness. We were only able to teach the grade 8-10 learners once and the 11^th and 12^th graders twice. For the first lesson my counterpart went through a PowerPoint on HIV/AIDS and lectured on the basics of the virus/syndrome. I followed up that portion of the lesson with an activity for the learners to review the modes of transmission. I made 4 doors with the four liquids in the body that can contain HIV: Blood, Semen, Vaginal Secretions, and Breast Milk. I also made numerous keys of modes of transmission: Accidents, Rough Dry Sex, Oral Sex, Breast Feeding, Anal Sex, Vaginal Sex. Learners were separated into 6 groups and each group was given a key. They were instructed to discuss which door(s) their key would unlock and were also instructed to choose one learner from the group to present a summary of their discussion. After discussion, learners were told to decide which key was considered to be high risk or low risk. The third portion to the lesson was a lecture on STIs, which also included photos of people with different STIs. Although these were slides were super graphic I felt like these learners needed to see what could happen if they don’t practice safe sex and if they happen to get an STI to understand the importance of getting checked immediately so they don’t have the same fate that those on the pictures had. For the learners in 11^th and 12^th grade we had them perform a skit about a intergenerational sexual relationship and had post discussion with them on the dangers of intergenerational sex, condom negotiation, and the importance of providing peer support to fellow learners who may have gotten involved with an older man/woman. I plan on having more lessons with Mariental High School in the third term.

In the town of Maltahohe my counterpart and I travelled and stayed for an entire week. On the first Monday we were there, we met with many workplaces including Ministry of Works, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Grounds and Transportation, Hotels around Maltahohe, and the Health Center. In all of these workplaces we informed staff of the upcoming detoxification program and how to get help through Ministry of Health and Social Services. We also shared resources on how to help work peers who are abusing alcohol and/or other substances. On Tuesday we had a road show in front of one of the general stores in Maltahohe to talk to passers-by on substance abuse and prevention. We also had a lot of reading material on substance abuse prevention and contact information for detoxification in the capital of Windhoek at the rehabilitation clinics there. Wednesday we visited the shabeens (Bars) to talk to the shabeen owners on cutting business hours so that customers are not drinking from 7:00am-7:00pm everyday. The customers that we spoke to talked to us about how the home brews are only 1 Namibian dollar (equivalent of $0.10) per jar. Although the homebrew only contains about 3% alcohol, drinking it for 12 hours gets the locals really drunk. There was also discussion from the shabeen owners on the issue of having mothers bringing their children to these shabeens or even having their children purchase the home brews for them. Many shabeen owners have had to scold these mothers out. On Thursday we had a community commemoration where the community nurses, commanding officer, district social worker, and chief social worker spoke on the issue of Substance abuse in Maltahohe and the Hardap Region. Friday was our presentation with the learners in Maltahohe. We presented in two schools on underage substance abuse and prevention. We were able to have the head community worker at Ministry of Youth to come and present to the learners. He is well known in the Maltahohe school system because he used to teach there. It was a successful week in Maltahohe and we plan on going back for a follow-up. I enjoyed talking to so many locals during the road show and get a better idea of the reasons that alcohol abuse is such an issue in Namibia. Most of the people that I spoke with were unemployed and felt that alcohol helped them to deal with the disappointment they feel of not having a job. We made sure to get the contact information of everyone we spoke with to touch base with them to make sure they take advantage of the services available for them.

Chit-Chatting at the road show

Counterpart workin' it at road show

Our awesome display at the road show

Home Brew first on left is wit bier (white beer) and second on right is tombo

One of the shabeen owners

Meeting with community in location during shabeen visit

Frontal view of one of the shabeens

Honorable speakers during our community commemoration

The audience during the start of our commemoration 

The Maltahohe dance crew were awesome, such talented learners!

Lecture with the learners

Re-Connect is coming up in two weeks and I’ll be meeting up with my group in Okahandja (where this journey began) for a workshop on Project Design and Management. I’ll be attending the workshop with one of my counterparts to plan out one of the projects that I will be doing! Excited for the coming months because I will really be able to get into planning for my next two years!!  Along with the workshop we are reporting our findings from the Community Needs Assessment and everything else we have been up to at site. Yay for reunions!