Ebola. It’s on everyone’s mind. And though Senegal has only
had one case, people here have heard about the spread of the disease and are
very much aware of the dangers it can cause. So it seemed like the perfect time
to do some education around how to prevent ebola with a special emphasis on
handwashing and the critical times you should wash your hands.
Two other volunteers, Dario and Katie, and I partnered with
a local NGO to conduct a small tour of 4 villages and put on talks about ebola
prevention. Fortunately for us, Dario is actually based out of our regional
capital and is our liaison to the NGO Africare during his service. So with the
help of Dario’s wonderful counterpart, Omar Ba, our tour got up and running.
On the first day, the group visited 2 villages while I
stayed in my village to inform people of the event. I walked around with one of
my community health workers and visited every compound in our village, 36 in
total, to make sure people knew about the visit.
The next day, I nervously awaited the arrival of our presenter.
I was secretly terrified that no one would show up since this was the first
event I had put on at my site. But as soon as the Africare car pulled in, even
if people had forgotten, they started to gather just out of the excitement of a
car and visitors from Tamba.
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| Men gathered for the event |
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| Women gathered for the event |
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| My counterpart (far left) and his supervisor (seated middle) |
Omar put on a great presentation that really got the people
in my village engaged. We had over 70 attendees pretty equally split between
men and women! There was an intense moment where Omar called me in front of
everyone to explain the steps to proper handwashing and to do a demonstration.
I struggled through the answers in Pulaar, but my village was enthusiastically
helping me along by correcting my grammar as we went haha.
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| Omar kicking off the presentation |
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| Workin the crowd |
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| A woman in my village giving a handwashing demo |
It was a great time and people seemed really receptive to
health education activities! After the event, Dario submitted some of the
pictures and a brief synopsis of our event to the Peace Corps Senegal office,
and look who made the cover page! (Click link below to see article)
http://peacecorpssenegal.org/2014/10/17/pcv-ebola-prevention-w-a-s-h-training-reaches-400-in-tamba/
All in all, we reached over 400 people in 4 villages in just
2 days. It was a truly collaborative event that was just another reminder of
why being a Peace Corps volunteer is so great.
Thanks for reading. Peace & love,
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