Introduction

This document is a progress report in relation to the work done and proposed in relation to the malaria control project at Don Bosco School (DBS) Didia.

BACKGROUND

There are four key strands to the control of malaria at DBS. These are:

Education
Spraying and treating key areas
The proper use of nets and netting
Malaria treatment

This report considers these four areas both in terms of work done to date and also future work. Read the rest of this entry »

The day starts with a blast of Ghanaian Hip life, bounced off two radios. The sound goes right through my hammock and I know it’s soon time to wake up. The rhythmic “shush, shush” or the broom, dragged over the sandy floor lets me know that one of the small boys is up. I open my eyes and it’s still dark outside, the moon clearly visible. Two dark faces appear at the edge of my mosquito net “Sir, fishing!” They exclaim with excitement, clearly looking forward to taking a visitor on the boats. I swing my legs out of my hammock, throw on a shirt and we’re off walking towards the beach. I have with me a bottle of water, some flip flops and that’s all for the next few hours. Read the rest of this entry »

After going to Dodi Island for two days to assess the needs of people there, I returned to Amedzofe to assist Wisdom Ekissi in writing a new proposal for the Dodi Island School. The main aim of this proposal was to complete the plastering and painting on the school (the school cosmetics) and to fill it with desks, chairs and cupboards.

One of the primary concerns that I became aware of was the lack of knowledge about Dodi Island. I set out to create a survey in which to ask the people of the island in order to acquire more information in ways to best address their needs.

On my first trip to the island I stayed with Akorsu Sammy. He hosted me for two days and provided me with food and transport to the island. On my second and week long trip I stayed with Mama Ata and her family. She similarly provided me with food and accommodation for the seven days of my stay. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: Regretfully the photos are a little small – we are trying to acquire some larger sizes

Imagine, this is Kismayo Football stadium in late 1992. The ground was cleared and cleaned by Sean and myself with our own hands just days before this event. People passing by were loughing at us and were saying “are these guys carzy? people… are starving and they are clearing play-ground. while in the stadum, a fight broke out in two clans and we were shawered with bullets all around. A big blast exploded near us and seen ourselfes lying on ground. Luckily, we wer saved. This didn’t deject us and the fight of the two clans ended within the day.

Next day, we continued our work and completed our cleaning campaign of the statdium. Just imagine, within few days, the seen was this; full of people and fun. Four teams (under 15) from nearst displaced camps competed Foot-ball and 100M runs in both boys and girls. Gifts were given for encouregement even those beaten. The moryans (gunmen) were part of the spectators and funs with no shootings.

Environment changed so swiftly and unexpectedly. We, the organizers (Sean & myself) even couldn’t beleive the dramatic changes that was going! Look how Sean was giving out gifts and people were sourounding with no problem or chaos, and I was enjoiying taking pictures for documentation and history. Look with me now after 20 years. History reads itself. by Abdi Farah Nur.

Very many thanks to Abdi-Farah Nur for this excellent report – and photos of course

Blog day 3

This morning we headed out to the Sean Devereux Community Education Project (SDCEP) in Brewerville – about 30 minutes drive from the city centre through the market area which was, as always, a mass of people, cars, motorbikes and piles of stinking rubbish. It’s hard work driving in this town – having to negotiate bodies, cars, bikes and wheelbarrows laden with old clothes that the locals buy and sell.
We had a look at the classrooms and facilities – the girls were doing tailoring, the older ones were doing maths and English and the little ones, some of whom don’t look old enough for school, were learning their ABCs. The new completed auditorium is used as classrooms during the day with the room being divided into 5 areas using woven palm screens – how they can concentrate in those conditions is beyond me but they do…the children sit so quietly and patiently and they really are learning. In the Internet Café students were researching on Google (and sneakily checking their Facebook pages) on PCs sent on the container. The speed of the connection was excellent – better than we get at home sometimes.
We walked to the area where the market garden women were working. They had planted cabbages and sweetcorn from seeds sent on the container and were harvesting cucumbers and okra. They were so appreciative of the help that they receive from the Fund.
Next stop was the old refugee area in FOA (the site of the old Friends of America radio station). Little seems to have changed since the war here, people are still living in huts made of woven palm, old tarpaulins and some were made out of old World Food Programme cans. To survive here you have to be resourceful. The huts all had numbers painted on the side so that they can be identified for the feeding programme which is still ongoing. 43% of Liberian children still suffer from malnutrition.
Just outside the refugee area we saw the footbridge that SDCEP had built using old iron from the radio station site and wooden planks. It crossed a swampy creek but seemed to lead nowhere. It transpired that 5 of the students from SDCEP lived in the bush area beyond the swamp. They walk for an hour each day to go to school and, in the rainy season, they had to take their clothes off and swim across the creek.