Masompenya: From their own Eyes, in their own words
Featuring Chongwe District Community-Based Volunteers
This is part two of a two-part series highlighting the Masompenya initiative launched by the 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellow cohort in Zambia. See here for part one.
IREEN NYANGU: Community-Based Volunteer, Chainda Clinic
“It’s not easy to go by foot giving drugs to all of the community. But because of the distance and because they don’t like getting medicine, many children shy away from going to the clinic. Here the CBV is giving the children medicine in the community.”
DEMIANO CHUNGA: Community-Based Volunteer, Chainda Clinic
“Distance has been a challenge in this community. As a CBV I brought my community together to help improve the road. This helped them access my services and improved the community.”
ANNIE PENSULO: Community-Based Volunteer, Kampekete Clinic
“Two days after delivering medication and health information to a family whose child had diarrhea, I went back to follow up and found him well and playing in the field. It brings me joy and satisfaction when, as a CBV, my work leads to good health and well-being.”
EMMANUEL MAFULAUZI: Environmental Health Technologist, Kampekete Clinic
“These elder women are coming from the field. Farming is hard work. Despite their age, the work these women do is encouraging. When individuals participate in farming they help to improve the nutritional status of the community members.”
RHODAS MUKUTU: Community-Based Volunteer, Kanakantapa Clinic
“This is a photo of condom distribution for family planning [and HIV prevention]. We give them to men and women of all ages.”
ALEX MULENGA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kanakantapa Clinic
“A patient is being taken to a health centre on a bicycle ambulance. Not having enough money is a problem for both CBVs and the health facilities we help. Sometimes there isn’t enough money for an ambulance but also for us to live our daily lives. We are grateful that we at least have this simple bicycle ambulance.”
“I find it difficult to travel to the health centre to collect enough drugs because I don’t have transport. And sometimes I get busy with my domestic work since I don’t get any salary to help my family. I can work hard if I am getting at least something like a stipend to support [my] family.”
DORIS NAMUKULWA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kanakantapa Clinic
“These children will be given deworming medication. Because the health centre is very far for this woman to take her children, I am moving door-to-door to help parents like her. It would be helpful for CBVs to have a reliable form of transportation, such as a bicycle.”
CHRISTOPHER CHISALA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kanakantapa Clinic
“I went door-to-door to discuss exclusive breastfeeding and the benefit to the baby, especially to prevent illness like diarrhea. This mother is exclusively breastfeeding her two-week old baby.”
HILDAH MALISAWA: Community-Based Volunteer, Chainda Clinic
“This woman is bedridden and can’t get to a health centre. She relies on CBVs to access care. It’s painful when I walk away offering only advice to her and others. Not because I don’t know what to do, but because I don’t have the equipment and tools to do it. It hurts walking away knowing exactly what needs to be done.”
DISMAS MWALUKWANDA: Community-Based Volunteer, Chainda Clinic
“The community is gathering for a funeral. This person died from malaria.”
EVERISTO MOYO: Community-Based Volunteer, Kampekete Clinic
“A woman fetches water from a shallow well, the same well that three quarters of the people in the community use. The water has a lot of worms in it so we advise people to boil the water for drinking but many people in the community still fall sick with diarrhea cases.”
WINNIE MWALUBINGA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kampekete Clinic
“In this photo, a CBV is sensitizing the community on the prevention of malaria and what to do if someone has malaria. This is a challenge because people do not know what causes malaria or how to prevent it. As a result, they use traditional medicine which delays seeking healthcare. As a CBV, I want people to know more about malaria and to save more lives. After they’ve learned, people become healthy and they are happy. As you can see, this lady is dancing.”
HUMPHREY CHILESHE: Environmental Health Technologist, Chainda Clinic
“This is a mother helping her family feed. One of our duties is to ensure children are well nourished and to prevent stunted growth among children under five. All women are taught the importance of nutrition by CBVs. Healthy children make me feel happy as I foresee a bright future for my community and the nation.”
JUSTIN KAKOMA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kanakantapa Clinic
“This woman is drawing water from an unprotected well. In the community there are a lot of people using unsafe water points. As a CBV, I walk long distances to educate them on how to make water safe for drinking. These situations also affect my life, as I don’t have enough resources to use in the community (e.g. chlorine).”
NOMMY ZIMBA: Community-Based Volunteer, Chainda Clinic
“Even though she is old, this woman is standing with a hoe and cleaning the surroundings. She understands that if the environment around her house is clean it will prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.”
RABSON CHUYA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kampekete Clinic
“One day when I was going around the community I found a woman carrying a sick child. We were 9km from the health centre so I helped the woman to carry the child by foot. The community feels good about the job that we are doing. We need to continue treating patients in the community.”
RHODA LUBEMBA: Community-Based Volunteer, Kampekete Clinic
“Distance is a big problem in my community. We have to walk about 6km each time to reach the health centre. It would help the community and CBVs if we had transportation to get there.”
LEAH SHAPI: Environmental Health Technologist, Kanakantapa Clinic
“A boy carries a bucket to fetch water.”
This is part two of a two-part series highlighting the Masompenya initiative launched by the 2016–2017 Global Health Corps fellow cohort in Zambia. See here for part one.
Acknowledgements: The 2016–2017 class of GHC fellows wish to express sincere gratitude to those who donated to this project (in particular, our friends, family members, and colleagues). Special thanks to Dr. Msiska, Dr. Simiantanga, and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Zambia for your partnership with GHC Zambia and your support for Masompenya. Mitolo, your help arranging this event and organizing the CBVs and EHTs was immeasurable, and we are immensely grateful. To the CBVs, for your hard work every day making sure the most vulnerable are seen with eyes wide open — zikomo, natotela, luitumezi, twalumba, thank you.
