Last week we asked for your help to raise funds to provide soap to all 56 of the communities where our volunteer health worker partners serve as a key preventative measure against the spread of coronavirus. Your response was incredible! We feel very grateful to report that we raised $6,605 for soap!

We have sent funds to our partner sites and representatives have shared their deep appreciation for your support. Just to note a few: Pinkey, from Nepal responded: “Thank you so much for donation to buy soap for Nepalese community. Thank you for great heart though we all are facing this critical situation.” Mumba, head teacher at Mapalo Community School of Peace, shared: “We are very grateful for this timely support you have rendered to all of us, the school and Kafwa. I want to thank you most sincerely for the gesture on behalf of everyone!”

Providing soap, along with credible health information about coronavirus, helps empower our health worker partners and schools to feel more prepared in facing this challenge.

What measures are we taking for COVID-19?

HealthEd Connect is continuing to do what we do best: connecting people with evidence-based health information through community education.

We have been sharing credible information from the CDC and WHO with our volunteer health worker partners and community schools. Concentrating on the most critical information to make resources easier to disseminate in their communities and beyond.

We're asking for your help to ensure that the communities we serve have the resources needed to help mitigate spread of the virus. Health workers are reminding everyone they meet about proper hand washing and other measures to reduce the spread of germs. However, many cannot afford to buy soap.

Please help us raise $7,000 to buy soap for all the communities we serve. Our volunteer health worker partners serve 56 communities in Zambia, Malawi, D.R. Congo, and Nepal. We anticipate a long-term response for COVID-19. These funds will allow the health workers to purchase soap for all of the communities now and for months to come.

Donate today to provide soap to the communities we serve.

For "Purpose of Gift," select "Community Health Worker Programs." All contributions allocated to CHW Programs this month will go to supply soap to the communities where our health worker partners serve.

We received an exciting update from our Sinkhani health worker representative, Jere, about a meeting with the village chiefs who donated the land to build the new community center in Malawi. He shared:

“18 Chiefs and all Sinkhani Volunteers from Mzimba attended the meeting. The agenda of the meeting was letting them know that building is now completed, and again all chiefs and their people should be the eyes at the building of looking how is taken care of, so that no one should be found to destroy the building neither stealing things that are found in the building. All Chiefs welcomed the Agenda and agreed one another that they will make sure that everything is in place and well taken care… it will start to be used for as Under Five Clinic. We also told them that the building and the whole plot is now call Sinkhani Community Center. The activities that will be done at the Sinkhani Community Center are as Kazomba under five clinic, Women and Youth Advocacy. The Chiefs agreed with us that every Development that will come at Community center is welcome and they are all ready to take part.”

You know that feeling…when you’ve worked hard, done your best, and it shows! Feels great, right?! That’s how the head teachers are feeling at each of our community schools, because ALL…that’s right…100% of the 7th grade students passed their exams! We’re so happy for all of the students and their hard work! And so impressed with the way the teachers have prepared the 7thgraders for this important milestone.

In Zambia, the school year matches the calendar year, January to December, with government testing at the end of the year. The most important test-taking years are at the end of grade 7 (to move up to grade 8), grade 9 (to move up to grade 10), and grade 12 (to graduate). Our three community school partners in the Copperbelt of Zambia offer grades K–7 for the most vulnerable children who otherwise would not be able to attend school. With support in the classroom – learning to read, write, and do math – as well as outside the classroom with grief support programs, girls achievement program, and clubs – children are empowered with the skills and social/emotional support they need to succeed.

We congratulate each one of the 7th graders (165 students) on their accomplishment! And we commend the teachers and volunteer health workers who have supported and prepared the students to reach for their goals.

With heightened concerns about the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, health worker volunteer partner Sangeeta Poudel sprang into action to share evidence-based information from the CDC and other reputable sources about known causes and prevention methods. She held health “camps” in two locations in her area of Biratnagar, Nepal. The camps covered topics including coronavirus prevention, how to treat other respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and asthma, and the importance of hand washing to prevent diarrhea and spread of disease. Sangeeta also used her expertise as a professional nurse to check blood pressure and consult on other matters addressed by attendees.

Empowering the community with awareness and evidence-based health information. This makes a very positive impact in community health!

Wasaidizi health workers in DRC

Our friends and co-workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continue to bring great ministry and health to their communities.

Josephine Kipampe, the Wasaidizi health worker supervisor, recently reported on 3 people who received their assistance.

Kabwe Mwansa, an 85-year-old woman, was abandoned by her family because they suspected her of being a witch. She became very ill so the Wasaidizi took her to the hospital and acquired the needed treatment.

In the village of Mwaba, a 26 year-old woman. Marie Ilunga, went into labor on the path when she was walking back from her farm. She was with her husband who ran to the center to call Wasaidizi Kinunka to help his wife. Kinunka took a delivery kit and ran fast to help the woman deliver the baby on the path. Kinunka then took the mother and the baby to the health center for care.

In the village of Kiba, Chama Chola treated a 45-year-old man, Mulenda John, who was severely burned from hot water. Chama treated him with guava leaf antiseptic for 10 days and then treated him with triple antibiotic ointment. The wound is now drying and healed. His wife sends great thanks to HealthEd Connect for providing the ointment.

All in a day's work in the Congo...

Another successful year! The Girls Achievement Program (GAP) scholars returned last month to Young Peace Makers School (YPM) to celebrate their most recent success. Another year completed in their journey toward a high school diploma.

When the girls graduated from the 7th grade, they received a HealthEd Connect scholarship for five years of high school. A reality most had never dreamed of. Now they envision careers in medicine, teaching, and accounting. We are so proud of their achievements! You go Girls!

What would you do for a piece of chicken? Or a link of sausage? These kids get up early in the morning and line up at the cook shack before the meal is even prepared. Why? For many of them, this is the only meat they will taste all year.

Food just to fill the tummy is the often un-met goal. The porridge received at school is frequently the only meal for the day. This is especially true this year with Zambia experiencing a drought and crops drying up. Even the famed Victoria Falls has only a trickle of water. This special meal and day is the annual Christmas celebration the children in the schools have come to anticipate with eagerness and joy. The head master, Emmanuel Mumba reported that, "The program was characterized with the following activities; singing, poetry's, sketches and story telling. In all these presentations the importance of education and healthy living were the main ideas depicted. We had a positive involvement of the "Parents committee" ,board management and Kafwa in the preparations of the meals! There was rice, nsima, sausage's', vegetables,chickens and shake and sip(maheu) as meals.

Oh, yes. Please note the other treasured item they received. A large bottle of maheu, a sweetened yogurt drink, that the children are proudly displaying in the picture. Every child enjoys a decadent sweet.