Medical, pre-medical and nursing students use their skills to help the local community. Even pre-health students without clinical skills are able to make significant contributions to this end, yielding tangible benefits to communities that are lesser privileged.
The possibilities are many and limited only by time and will!
Dental Health and Education in Pen: Jessica Moraes & Sarah Morris, Nursing Students, Australia
Jessica and Sarah attended the Rural and Public Health rotation in January 2008. After helping the host NGO with the annual health check up for children, they realized that dental health is a huge issue in the rural and tribal villages. They decided to undertake a project in three villages in February, 2008 and implemented their dental hygiene education program. The number of children assessed as part of the program was 90. Basic dental health education was conducted with the children to make tooth brushing more accessible. Each child was presented with a toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste to share; this remains in the community kitchen to prevent the spread of infection (due to sharing the brushes). Each toothbrush is named so as the children only use their own, another means of infection control. The brushes are to be replaced throughout the year (where necessary and a totally new supply in May, August and December). Students raised money themselves to fund the first year of the project cost.
Sanitation and Hygiene Evaluation, Kamshet Orphange: Maiya Bacareza, Pre-Med, USA, Lourdes Gunaratnam, Pre-Med Canada, Jia Yi, Undergrad, USA
Exerpts from their report.
"General lack of funding and resources has made it difficult to provide the best care and environment for the children at this orphanage. During the week of August 4th, 2008, five children were hospitalized, seeking medical attention for Malaria and Typhoid Fever. The children have since recovered. However, the incidence revealed an urgent need to evaluate and improve the sanitary conditions of the school."
The three students together conducted a thorough study and evaluation. Their report has formed the basis of follow projects and actions by future volunteers.
Health and Hygiene Education for Kamshet Orphanage:Joshua Johnson, USA and Sharon Luong, Australia
Young children are particularly at risk of infection and disease from poor sanitation, poor hygiene and dirty water. The lack of sanitary conditions and practices at the Kamshet orphanage was already evaluated by previous volunteers. Joshua and Sharron conducted a health and hygiene training / workshop for around 50 children of Kamshet Orphange. The objective of the workshop was to help children understand and consider making small lifestyle changes to reduce disease and infection.
They also bought cleaning supplies and made educational posters for the children’s classrooms.
IEC (information, education, communication) material for HIV/AIDS educationHalli Olsen, Public Health Student, USA
Halli worked for a local NGO in Pen and realized that though the outreach social workers need to cover issues relating to condom use as a protective measure against spread of HIV AIDS, there are not enough educational / IEC material available to support their work. The rural areas being conservative about sex education sometimes make their task difficult. Realizing this, Halli made a brochure for their Aids/HIV prevention department. She prepared materials on proper use of condoms and Aids/HIV education to be used by their staff in their outreach program.
Village Nutrition Survey:Nathan Warren and Carly Hagen, USA
They surveyed six villages, including Karambeli, Javali, Ghote, Jaituchiwadi, Hedoshi, and Kumbhivali, to record and analyze the food intake of sponsored children in one day. They traveled with the mobile health van to each village to speak with community kitchen mothers, school teachers, and families to determine the amount of food served to children throughout the day. The medical officer and a social worker assisted by translating conversations regarding nutrition. They also discussed water sources and quality, potential sources of infection, milk availability, and financial variability with the medical officer. When possible, they observed food serving amounts in homes and community kitchens. The report was submitted to the local NGO to help them design and modify their strategic interventions in the area, especially the community kitchen (supplementary nutrition program for sponsored kids).
Strategies to prevent Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA):Leah Roberts, Nursing Student, Australia
In children, IDA is associated with impaired physical and mental development. This means children with IDA have impaired concentration in school, and may not able to fight infection as effectively so they become ill more often. In adulthood, IDA also reduces their productivity and capacity to work. This makes preventing iron deficiency an important initiative for NGOs who strive to improve the health status and social wellbeing of the sponsor children and their families. Through this report, Leah came with small, cost effective steps and suggestions that could go a long way in helping the situation. The report was prepared as an aid for the social workers of the host NGO. The social workers can help prevent iron deficiency and improve the iron status of the children, their families, and wider community, by teaching them how to increase the amount of iron in their diet, how to avoid foods that inhibit iron absorption, and how to choose foods that enhance iron absorption. The excellent report is a great way to help guide the staff on this issue and incorporate it into their long term health strategy.
Personal hygiene and care: Liane Croft: Pre med student, Australia
After working with the host NGO and doing children's health check-ups for one month Liane noticed many problems, the majority of which were related to the problem with hygiene. Poor personal hygiene leads to many illnesses such as bad dental care, the easier spread of coughs and colds, skin rashes and also many other common illnesses. Liane took this up as a project and created a document where she analyzed the major issues with personal hygiene and came up with simple strategies/ suggestions with the belief that if these simple strategies are employed by social workers and hygiene awareness camps are run then these simple but cost draining illnesses would be seen a lot less. They are also illnesses which can lead to much more severe illnesses and give the child a better healthier life.
Health check up for the sponsorship children: 5 Australian Medical and Nursing Students
The host NGO conducts an annual health checkup of nearly 3500 sponsored children in the rural and tribal villages. The Australian volunteers did an incredible job in conducting health checkups for such a large number of kids, fairly independently and with minimal guidance. Their support was highly recognized and appreciated by the overworked medical staff of the NGO.
Slum children health check up camp: Dr Reena Chada and Dr Luan Chen, Residents, USA
On receiving a request from an NGO working in the largest slum of Mumbai (also that of Asia!), Dr Reena and Dr Luan readily agreed to help conduct health checkups of the slum school children. While Dr Reena conducted general checkup, Dr Luan concentrated on eye checkup. They did a splendid job and the NGO reported a total of 500 children receiving health check up between various doctors on one single day. The efforts of both the doctors were highly appreciated and the organization also honoured them in a ceremony later in the day.
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