We are collecting reasonably good but unwanted bikes to send out to Benin ! One of our projects is a school in rural Dogba; students can walk up to ten miles each morning to reach school, and the same home in the evening, so we have over 25 bikes now to send out for the students who have to walk the furthest.
Fortunately there is a tractor plus plough going out in a shipping container for Dogba, and we are filling the space around the tractor with bikes ! The container when it gets there will become the lockable garage for the tractor.
Bikes are the answer in rural Africa to transport problems; as in Zambia where, with a trailer attached, they become bicycle ambulances !
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Saturday, 2 June 2012
News at long last !
I've finally heard that Milly is getting the counselling she so desperately needed. I'm so relieved .... I was beginning to think my hopes for this child were coming to nothing. I also understand there are now five students learning carpentry at the workshop, which is good. More are needed !
Meanwhile, I'm still working in the HATW office. Last week one of our volunteers returned from six weeks in rural Zambia. She is a retired health visitor, so was helping and assessing needs in that capacity. Two of the many things that she reported on was about the HIV situation in Zambia, and the dreadful conditions in a remand prison she visited.
HIV/AIDS tests are free in Zambia, as are the ARV drugs. BUT .... as in many parts of Africa just to be seen to be tested carries a stigma with it. The headman told her that if he was tested ... so what ? He knew he wouldn't be able to take regular tests, for the test centres are in the towns, and rural people don't have the means or the money to get to the town to be tested. The clinics or hospitals can only test ten people per day, so people arrive soon after dawn to be in the queue ...and if you arrive late and are number eleven in the queue, you don't get tested ! The other problem is that ARV drugs, to work properly with maximum efficacy, have to be taken at 12 hourly intervals, with food. People don't have food ... many families only eat once every couple of days, and if they do have food, they have to be tested regularly to monitor their doses, so with limited money, do they use it for food or for transport ? Then they run out of tablets which can bring the infection back in a more resistant form. Its a mine-field.
Then there was the remand prison ... with three rooms each about 15 ft square. Two were for male prisoners, one for women and juveniles (under 16). Each room was empty of furniture, and had a long-drop (toilet hole) in one corner. Did I say empty ? The two mens rooms had about 120 men in them ... 60 per room. No space to lie down; it was only possible to sit upright or stand. Within three days, a new prisoner would have caught chest infections .... and because of the close proximity of sexually active and frustrated men, the younger prisoners (if they went in without HIV) would have it by the time they left. Some of the prisoners were on remand six months or more, waiting for their trial date.
I've said it before .... but when I hear of both of these situations in Zambia, I could weep. And its the same in just about every African country. Whatever can we do in our charity, with small groups of volunteers just scratching the surface ? But we have to do it ..........
Click here to read an article about the situation in this part of Zambia ....
http://www.hatw.org.uk/default.asp?section=4&id=156
Meanwhile, I'm still working in the HATW office. Last week one of our volunteers returned from six weeks in rural Zambia. She is a retired health visitor, so was helping and assessing needs in that capacity. Two of the many things that she reported on was about the HIV situation in Zambia, and the dreadful conditions in a remand prison she visited.
HIV/AIDS tests are free in Zambia, as are the ARV drugs. BUT .... as in many parts of Africa just to be seen to be tested carries a stigma with it. The headman told her that if he was tested ... so what ? He knew he wouldn't be able to take regular tests, for the test centres are in the towns, and rural people don't have the means or the money to get to the town to be tested. The clinics or hospitals can only test ten people per day, so people arrive soon after dawn to be in the queue ...and if you arrive late and are number eleven in the queue, you don't get tested ! The other problem is that ARV drugs, to work properly with maximum efficacy, have to be taken at 12 hourly intervals, with food. People don't have food ... many families only eat once every couple of days, and if they do have food, they have to be tested regularly to monitor their doses, so with limited money, do they use it for food or for transport ? Then they run out of tablets which can bring the infection back in a more resistant form. Its a mine-field.
Then there was the remand prison ... with three rooms each about 15 ft square. Two were for male prisoners, one for women and juveniles (under 16). Each room was empty of furniture, and had a long-drop (toilet hole) in one corner. Did I say empty ? The two mens rooms had about 120 men in them ... 60 per room. No space to lie down; it was only possible to sit upright or stand. Within three days, a new prisoner would have caught chest infections .... and because of the close proximity of sexually active and frustrated men, the younger prisoners (if they went in without HIV) would have it by the time they left. Some of the prisoners were on remand six months or more, waiting for their trial date.
I've said it before .... but when I hear of both of these situations in Zambia, I could weep. And its the same in just about every African country. Whatever can we do in our charity, with small groups of volunteers just scratching the surface ? But we have to do it ..........
Click here to read an article about the situation in this part of Zambia ....
http://www.hatw.org.uk/default.asp?section=4&id=156
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