Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Today was school health outreach. The aim of school health is to educate children about basic health and hygiene as well as performing 'head to toe' checks on the children.
After a demonstration on how to brush your teeth properly we went straight into checkups. My first job was to be on the wounds bay. My job was to clean the cuts and scrapes the children had. Most children seems to have some sort of wound. I imagine this is due to the sort of terrain Ghana is set in and the type of play children engage in. It's not computers or television but outdoor play. Playing in the mud and stones and everything really. The wounds were often pretty infected. Again this is due to the wounds and aftercare the children get. Without us the care they get is usually none.
Afterwards, we moved onto the primary school. The children are younger and so the communication on health was shortened and in Ewe - the local language. After a quick talk we went into the checkups.
This time my job was to perform the head to toe checkups. We were looking for tooth decay, ring worm, exzema and other problems. They were generally more scared being younger. One child had never seen a white person before. For a little toddler, that must have been pretty scary! Although a job which doesn't require much skill I felt I was doing an importany job. If i missed a ring worm, exczema or didn't ask if they had a toothbrush then they may not receive care for a very long time.
I learnt about ring worm today. It is a common skin infection caused by a fungus. The infection lives on keratin and forms spores to enable it's survival. Infection can be passed on through direct skin to skin contact and sharing items such as towels. Most children seem to have it.
My biggest achievment today was pointing out to Isaac, the nurse, that a girl I saw looked ill. Her tummy resembled what looked like girl I had previously saw in OPD who had malaria. Turns out she also had a temperature. They gave her malaria treatment and I felt I helped her.
Afterwards, we went to Kendwa village.This is a village which weaves bags, cloths and clothes. The weaving is called kente and is well regarded within Ghana. The Government even wears it! I brought a bag. It was £5 english pounds. That is classed as very expensive in Ghana. I love my new bag. A lot of hard work has gone into it.
We all went to see Christian today who is ill. Some of us chipped in to buy him a wove scarf from the village. He seemed happy about it but he is not well. I'm hoping he gets better. After a while most people left but me, Becki and Sam stayed. 2 hours past visiting times an angry man bursts in exclaiming the conference is over. He was annoyed we stayed too long but it made me laugh at the way he burst in. I'm glad we stayed though. It must be pretty scary being ill, in a foreign country, in a foreign hospital, extreme language barriers nowhere near British standard. I'm hoping he gets better soon.
In the evening, well night time we went to the bar New York. Me and Alex are now in a dancing band. Everyone was dancing very nicely so i am glad there is someone as bad a dancer as me (sorry Alex). Were quite in sync in terms of dancing actually. Totally going global!
- comments