I'm always interested in doing community outreach. Just the thrill of going out to these remote villages, meeting the people, and sharing health information with them feels productive and interactive. So, I set off with a health team and we handpicked a community within my district that has the highest rate of malnutrition. Bulingin, is the community that we visited, it was distant and isolated. Right when I stepped foot in the community, people came from all corners of the village, so that they could see the "Nansala" (white person). We encouraged all the mothers to gather around and attend our health discussion and also have their children that are under 5 years of age to be weighed and vaccinated. Ghana is trying really hard in keeping up with the Millenium Development Goals, especially MDG 4, which is in the fight to reduce children under 5 mortality by two-thirds by 2015.
I have never before seen so many malnourished children in my life! Majority of the children were standing around with huge swollen bellies with tiny upper arm circumferences, which is the huge indicator of being malnourished. We encouraged the women to weigh their children with a scale that is hung off the limb of a tree and the child is placed in a homemade flour sack. For the mother's participation, we handed out the children's clothes that were donated to me by friends and family in the U.S. Children were also vaccinated for Polio, Measles, and TB. We held a health discussion about proper nutrition and diseases that are prevalent in our region and also encouraged the women to ask any questions.
In the end, the women were so happy and appreciative that they wished me farewell with their local singing and dancing. I hope you enjoy the pictures and video!
