Youth from the football club in Mulundu, Zambia.

This Saturday is International Youth Day! We celebrate the young people around us and recognize the importance of “bringing youth issues to the attention of the international community and celebrating the potential of youth as partners in today’s global society.” (UN)

In Zambia, our community health workers and school colleagues do an amazing job of celebrating youth and partnering with them in exciting ways! At the community center in Mulundu, Kafwa members organize both educational and recreational activities for the children nearby. Some come during the day to learn the basics of literacy and math, and others participate in the football (soccer) program they host at the center! Many of these children helped dig up roots and level the ground where the football field is now, fully invested in creating a space that they now enjoy.

At our three sister schools, environmental conservation clubs, choirs, and traditional dance groups have formed, giving students new ways to get involved! The youth in the conservation club are learning to protect the natural world around them, and students in the dance groups are learning traditional dances from around the country. The teachers volunteering to lead these clubs are excited that important habits and skills are being enjoyed and continued into the next generation.

Our community health worker colleagues in all four countries where we work advocate and facilitate programs for the health and well-being of children. We are proud of the youth that we see learning and growing in programs led by the community health workers and uplifted by supporters like you!

We learn our ABC’s and parts of the body (like head, shoulders. knees and toes) through song and dance as children because it makes it fun and easy to remember. This teaching style still works when we become adults!

For example, in the beginning grades at our sister schools, students learn that each letter of the alphabet has its own sound and dance. You can see their song below! Our little friends, though shy, seem to be having no trouble remembering each letter, sound, and action. This will make it easier to remember as they continue to build on this information and learn to read and write!

Similarly, the Sinkhani in Malawi and the Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) from the Malawi government use easy and repeating songs to teach mothers about the importance of immunizations or child spacing. These are important lessons that could easily be forgotten if taught in a lecture-style, but hard to lose once it’s stuck in your head or stored in your muscle memory. We love to see learners of all ages using tools that will help to make their futures brighter!

Our first “Training of the Trainers” was a success! HealthEd Connect is at an exciting point in preparing the next generation of trainers to facilitate our volunteer community health worker (CHW) curriculum. The best part is the selected trainers are indigenous to the country and culture in which our CHW programs are located. Twelve participated in the Training program – six Malawi Sinkhani CHW leaders, and six nurse scholars from Malawi and Zambia connected with our CHW programs – to learn and practice the training topics before facilitating lessons the following day with 52 Sinkhani volunteers who had traveled from various regions for several days of learning and community-building.

It was incredible to watch the newly trained facilitators lead the Sinkhani CHW training and address questions in their own language and context. Three of the nurse facilitators are even daughters of CHW volunteers!

We’ll be sharing more in upcoming weekly updates about these exciting days of training in Malawi, and site visits with our CHW teams and sister schools in Zambia. For now, we’re sharing with you two videos, linked below, of Vinjeru Banda and Jean Jere, both nurse facilitators and daughters of Sinkhani volunteers from Malawi, leading songs during the Sinkhani training. Songs are not only a fun part of the group gathering; songs are used as educational tools. We’ll share more about that in next week’s update!

Mapalo YPM courtyard before paving

Mapalo YPM courtyard after paving

At the Mapalo Young Peace Makers School, a happy new addition is nearly done! During rainy season each year, teachers can find their classrooms covered with muddy footprints as students make their way in from the courtyard. But now, thanks to a newly paved courtyard, this issue will be much improved! The school has also been newly landscaped, thanks to volunteer work by the teachers, community members, and the PCSC (parent/caregiver association). The PCSC board chair, Mr. Polycarpo, led by example, often coming to the school for hours after his own work day to help move pavers for the landscaping, and making himself available in any way to help with the effort.

With the second school term just beginning, we are thrilled that everyone’s hard work paid off to complete this task while the students were on break. The students were feeling happy and proud when they returned to see their “new” looking school!

Meet some of the volunteers in this video from Mapalo head teacher, Emmanuel Mumba.

Teachers at Kasompe Community School of Peace, dressed in school uniforms

We’re so proud of our teachers who lead by example! Upon coming back for the first day of second term, the teachers at Kasompe Community School of Peace in Zambia “switched places” with their students! Head teacher Loveness wrote about this day, explaining: “We had a 'back to school activity' in which teachers were to come in school uniforms and students in [teacher] clothes. The activity was to motivate & encourage them to be in school and achieve their goal. We wanted to remind them that we were at one time students. It was really wonderful.”

We’re proud to partner with teachers and community health workers who lead with empathy, dignity, and compassion, leading students with care!

Check your inbox! We’re starting a quarterly HealthEd Connect Newsletter! With the highlights from the last few months, we’re excited to share uplifting stories and news with you. As an organization, sometimes our emails get sorted into “promotions” or other filtered inboxes, so you may find us there. Adding us to your contact list or marking us as “important” can help make sure you don’t miss a thing!

If you aren’t on our email list, you can reach out at info@healthedconnect.org to be added. We’re excited to share with you!

We are just a few days away from traveling to Zambia and Malawi! We’ll be visiting with our colleagues from the Lupula, Zambia province and the DRC right away, eager to hear how the new community centers and garden programs are going. Then, we’ll travel back into the Copperbelt of Zambia to see how the schools are getting along with the new improvements that have been made over the last year. The bulk of our trip, however, will be spent in Malawi for the first Training of the Trainers!

Nursing students and Sinkhani health worker leaders will be taught by Dr. Sherri Kirkpatrick and Dr. Jeff Manuel in the special HealthEd Connect way that gets everyone on the same level, acknowledges each person as an expert in their community, and builds up confidence and skills in each community health worker. These new trainers will then be the hosts of a community health worker training for all 54 Sinkhani volunteers, so they can put their new skills into practice. Stay tuned for photos, stories, and updates that will be shared after visiting with our partners!

Luapula Kafwa Coordinator, Jane Chibwe, has planted her roots deep in her community. As leader of a trusted and respected group of women and men, Jane has shown her skill in community development, utilizing teamwork to build the Mulundu Community Center! Now that the center itself has been built, new projects are underway at the site, and community members of all ages continue to be passionately involved as vast gardens, latrines, water projects, and a soccer field take shape!

In order to make room for the soccer field so local children could organize teams, plant roots and stumps needed to be removed so the land could be flattened as much as possible. Community volunteers cleared the field by hand (no small task!). After removing the roots, it would have been simple to push them to the side, forgotten on the property. But Jane and her team saw an opportunity to make this useful, and turned the stumps into charcoal! Charcoal is used in the village daily for cooking, using a small brazier. Now they can keep this charcoal for use at the center, cooking porridge for the children who come for educational programs, and for mothers and families who visit the center for health programs to take home if they need it. We’re thankful to partner with leaders who show such resourcefulness and compassion for their community!