While visiting our colleagues in Africa in June, we had the privilege of honoring two leaders who have served over thirty years as volunteer community health workers! In the photo you can see Chama Chola (left) from the DRC Wasaidizi group and Gabriel Muposhi (right) from the Luapula, Zambia Kafwa group. These special volunteers were among the first health workers our co-founder, Sherri Kirkpatrick (center), trained in this area and they have faithfully served ever since. Seeing her mother’s dedication to the community, Chama’s daughter has also joined the Wasaidizi as a second-generation health worker!

Sadly, however, our friend Gabriel passed away a few weeks ago. Gabriel had a kind and gentle disposition and he was highly respected in the community for his dedication to uplifting the women, children, and families around him. He was also a proud Kafwa volunteer, and enjoyed opportunities to learn (you can see him proudly holding a health worker training certificate, pictured below). Gabriel was lovingly honored by his family, friends, fellow Kafwa, and HealthEd Connect colleagues from afar. We were thankful to have the opportunity to recognize his years of dedicated service publicly while we were together in June. While we are deeply saddened to have lost a friend and fellow community advocate like Gabriel, we are grateful for our dedicated health worker colleagues like him who have mentored younger health workers and empowered community members.

Gabriel Muposhi

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It’s nearly time to go back to school! Our community health worker friends in Rai, Nepal know how important it is to be well-prepared for classes, which is why they requested support to provide school supplies to vulnerable children in the area. Coordinator Pinkey Malla makes the trip out to the mountain village and prepares the supplies alongside the health workers. They alternate types of supplies each year, providing stationary and writing supplies or bookbags and larger items students may need. This annual event means that every student in the community can come to school prepared for a successful year! 

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!