Hand washing, such a simple solution

The AvTech girls and I had a fun photo shoot in order to develop educational material for the ETCHE drops! With our next few drops being targeted towards water and sanitation issues, the girls modeled a hand-washing demo as well as several applicable scenarios. Lydia did a lovely job showing us how to properly wash the top and bottom of our hands, while Juliet's demonstration is intended to remind observers to wash in-between their fingers and Emmanuella displayed money as a reminder to wash hands after handling currency. None of them wanted to get close to the potty for the after-toilet reminder and held their noses in protest! =) All in all, we had a lot of fun thinking up different scenarios and I can't wait to see how the posters turn out!

Fueling the machine.... quite literally.

Preparing for a drop run is quite interesting.  The flight team are getting the plane ready, the Health Education team getting the drops ready... then you need to get more bags (and different sizes, we are hoping to try some A3 drops soon too)... then there is the fuel for the aircraft - which is not available locally - fuel sourcing is always a half day affair - empty the steel drums, load them in the truck, hope that when you get to the station the fuel is there, then bring it back - fuel cleanliness as important as community hygiene!  We dust off the top of the drums prior to filling, check the drum seals and re-check and re-dust-off before unloading.  Fuel is then filtered into  20l drums, then filtered into the plane, then the plane has finger filters, in-line filters, gascolators (water separators with a filter screen) and pump filters before that fuel reaches the cylinders.  Contamination is easy to get, and so the team is working non-stop to beat the environmental challenges of reaching the communities with other environmental challenges in a timely, reliable, repeatable and sustainable manner. 

Like in a ballet, there are many involved, the sound, lighting, orchestra, scenery movers, prompters, conductor and more, all made perfect by the presence of the audience - all made possible by the so called 'Angels' who fund the development of the production until it can stand on its own 'two-shows-daily'; likewise we have our little Tower radio operators, aircraft engineers, pilots, catering, grounds staff (runway mowing and safety areas), marker board making (yes we make our own marker boards for the runway, and replace them regularly), health ed team, telephone team, accounts, communities in need, all funded by 'Angels' such as you, until we can fly on our own two wings, multiple missions per week.

We are not there yet, but with your help we are closer to a self-sustaining aviation based health outreach solution - one that has 'contamination control' and the associated health benefits at its very heart!

IF you would like to sponsor a village drop please visit:  http://www.medicineonthemove.org/index.php/projects/etche

Working together to make it all happen

Submitted by Michaela Sholes

A few days ago, the girls gave a motivational talk about AvTech and aviation to a Girls' Camp in Accra. The group was so inspired by what they heard, that they then asked if they could make a visit from Accra to the airfield to see the girls in action. As you can see, they were in high spirits when they arrived onsite and Juliet did a fantastic job leading them to a Safety in Aviation demonstration. Each of the girls worked together to instruct the group about checks when flying, F.O.D, and the different types of aircraft. Patricia led the group in a F.O.D. walk so the kids could practice identifying items that do not belong on the runway. The girls also helped Ben give a health talk on Schistosomiasis and taught the hand-washing song to encourage healthy practices.

Experiences like these remind us of how important each piece of this organization is...WAASPS provided the planes that the kids enjoy learning about, AvTech provided motivation to others through the encouragement of their own training, and the AvTech girls are given a health-based perspective through training from MoM that is then able to be passed on to others. We all work together to achieve mutual goals and each day, we have the opportunity to make an impact.

First Responder training

Submitted by Michaela Sholes

Melissa and I thoroughly enjoyed working with the girls and Patricia on our Rural Community Health Education First Responder (RCHEFR) course this past week! Modeled after the WMI/NOLS course, the girls received intensive training in the Patient Assessment System, Wound Management, Splinting, and a number of other Illness/Injury identification issues. Many thanks to Melissa for helping write up the curriculum to include practical and written quizzes, as well as develop detailed handouts. We had a great time running scenarios (and scaring poor Patricia with our well-acted illness/injuries) and having group discussions. The girls seem to be enjoying their newfound skill sets as they have been religiously checking each visitor’s BP, heart and respiratory rate! I am so excited for them to be able to begin using these new skills when they go into rural communities along the lake!

Ho do you affectively interview someone?

The girls learned about research interviewing techniques today and did very well during their practice interviews. We had a great discussion about ethics in research and all of them did a great job of being “pleasantly professional.” I love having group discussions with them and seeing the way they think about things! They all did very well with balancing eye contact and not staring each other down while waiting for their “participant” to answer. After demonstrating an interview for them, I gave the girls an opportunity to practice by interviewing each other using sample questions from a youth risk and behavior survey I worked on a few years back. Tomorrow, we will talk about reliability and how that is important when considering interviewing participants in another language and translation issues!