Well, we have returned from Malawi. It was an amazing journey, and I think my eyes are opened a little wider. It's unreal that you can hop on a plane and transport yourself into another world. One of the most challenging elements of my trip was to grasp the fact that despite the untouched natural beauty that surrounded me, I could not escape the raw and difficult reality of the Malawian people's situation.
I want to introduce everyone to Valerie Taormina, key UTBT team employee, advisor, mentor, and my good friend. You will be hearing a lot more about Valerie in the coming months as she has been an extremely integral part in UTBT advancements. Valerie and I worked together to complete a full Needs Assessment of the Namaso Bay School and Village.
Valerie and I found out very quickly that the Namaso Bay School itself is more like a community center for the entire village. Out of the 452 students, there are over 300 orphans (either one or both of the child's parents have passed away, mainly due to HIV/AIDS). We completed a full biographical background on all of the students and took each of their photographs. The majority of the students are very inspired and would like to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, and nurses. It is the issue of paying the costs (an entire year of secondary school only costs around $60 USD) to Secondary School that prevents them from reaching these dreams. In last year's Standard 8 class, 33 of the 36 students passed their Malawi National Board Examinations. However, only two (one of which we sponsored) students were able to actually attend Secondary School.
One of the major issues is that the Namaso Bay Village is extremely isolated, barricaded from surrounding villages and cities by mountains. There is no means of transportation to the nearest hospital and the vast majority of the people of the village have never seen a doctor and do not know what a medical record is.
We were lucky enough to have Stanford Pediatric physician, Dr. Daniel Imler, set up clinic in the village. Dr. Dan has done copious work overseas in the field of community and International Medicine. He and Sally Greenwald, my long-time friend and prospective medical student, completed a physical check-up of each student, compiling the beginnings of a general health record index for the Namaso Bay School. The team also treated some of the sickest members of the village. During this two-week long Medical Needs Assessment, though everyone that we were physically capable of treating was treated, it seemed that each new problem we thought we were beginning to conquer opened a whole new batch of issues.
The people of the Namaso Bay community are suffering from a wide range of diseases, including the most advanced Stage 4 HIV/AIDS, Malaria, abdominal distention due to worms, TB, Typhoid Fever, Cholera, Scabies, Schistosomiasis, infected abscesses, and everything in between. The solutions to most of these problems are not complicated, but only need the proper treatments and resources. When there is no means of transportation or funds to see a doctor, it is impossible to seek help. Our goal is to install a system to help the people of Namaso Bay help themselves.
We decided in the first days of our trip that we would like to offer the village the opportunity to get tested and learn their HIV/AIDS status. After working with Edgar Namtapa, the primary teacher at the school who was able to translate from English to Chichewa (the native tribal dialect of Namaso Bay) for us, we discovered that the villagers were all eager and excited to be tested and have their children tested. This was refreshing to hear and actually quite surprising since it is often the case in African countries that people do not even want to know their status as stigmatization is an issue and people assume that if they have HIV, they are going to die.
We held numerous meetings with the Mangochi District Health Officials and then finally the Malawian Minister of Health in order to get the government to agree to the testing campaign. The HIV/AIDS Directors and Coordinators along with education and health officials were shocked when we brought to their attention the fact that the village is so secluded and isolated from any sort of health dispensary or resources.
Even if an individual wanted to get tested or collect his or her ARV (Anti-Retro Viral) medications, he or she would have to travel a long distance (approximately 11 miles) in the blistering sun without even being certain that the local hospital was stocked with his or her appropriate treatments. We hope to set up a program that will allow one person in the village to collect everyone's consented medications using a bicycle taxi/emergency transportation system.
The testing campaign was a success. We used HIV rapid test kits and retested those whose blood was reactive. Children and their parents came out to get tested and receive pre and post counseling on their status. Some people were very concerned, but also thankful that they now had the awareness of his or her status and access to the government-funded ARV (Anti-Retro Viral) treatments available when an individual's AIDS reaches Stage 3 or Stage 4. For patients at Stage 2 and Stage 1, laboratory tests are carried out to ascertain their CD4 count. If the count is lower than 200, the patient is put on treatment.
The entire village was smiling after a 25-year old mother who had not left her dirt floor for months due to AIDS was up and about cooking and cleaning after finally gaining access to her much-needed ARV's.
We will be working hard in the next few months planning fundraisers, setting up the sponsorship program ($250 sponsors everything a child needs to attend school and survive for an entire year- donations can be made at http://www.utbt.org/donate.html), and a volunteer program. More details to come! I will keep you posted as the website transforms to incorporate our new projects and initiatives.
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