Githunguri/ UoN Family Assessments

Friday, May 13th
Location: Githunguri

Today, we would be meeting up with fourth year University of Nairobi Med students.  We left early around 7:30 so we could meet them in a location where we would follow their bus afterwards.  We drove for about an half hour then we met up with their bus and drove for another hour or so.  We passed with horses, women carrying grass on their backs in bundles, and school children in their uniforms.  Soon the big blue bus halted and Professor Wang'ombe stopped and informed our professor that he needed three students.  Everyone was nervous.  Apparently we would be paired up two UoN students to one of us.  Then, tghe bus just drove off and proceeded up the hills.  I wonder how the first three felt.  Once again we repeated the routine a couple more students hopped out and were assigned students to observe. I got off after the fourth stop.  The students I was assigned to were Ibrahim and Faith.   Once we walked into the village which is a rural area we met with their guide who is from the area.  The area is a Kikuyu populated so if they were not able to translate the guide would in the native tongue.
While we walked they explained the that they were doing an health assessment as they would come back to the community for health intervention.  The intervention would be in form of a health clinic that would target the needs that the survey found.  The survey was created by all the students.  They gave me a copy and I realized that it was a holistic approach to the well-being of the village.   They asked questions about anything and everything.  We walked and knocked on the houses.   However, most of the people were not home which Faith explained that they went to work and typically returned between 12 and two.  After visiting a couple of homes and being unsuccessful we finally found a mom of two.  The homes were made of like wood and the ground was just the ground.  The house had two rooms, we sat in the living room.  The students introduced themselves and me in Swahili and explained their purpose for being there.  As they began to start the survey I sat back and took notes.
The survey asked questions on the demographics like all the members in household names, their religion, education level, and more.  They ask questions specific to mothers with children under 5 because by the time they are 5 they should have the basic immunizations, they also looked at the actual immunization record, they asked questions about morbidity and mortality,  and whether family members had relocated.  It later asked about many prevalent infectious disease.  If  they stated that they did not know, the student explained it to them in a clear and concise manner which I liked alot.  I commended him later to which he responded that this is only opportunity that he had to educate and he never when they would hear that again.  The questions also asked about recent health issues and last time anyone went to a clinic.  They also had a private session where they asked about the reproductive history of the women especially when it cam to birth control.  Most of the women we spoke with were on the pills which were readily available to women.  They examined the water supply and explained to them that instead of using a cup to dip in a bucket they should pour it out of bottles because germs was on the cup which would then contaminate the water supply.  Later they asked on the finances of the house, weighed the child , and observed the outside toilet.  We interviewed three more people one of which the professor sat in on.
This was a great experience because as a Human Services Major I learnt alot about Community Needs Assessment.  The best way to assist a community is to talk to them and discover what services they are in need of instead of assuming and trying provide an intervention.  These students wanted to do a health clinic the following Saturday so they wanted to know what supplies necessary.  Later on I learnt that this was called Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR).  However, I had some criticism about this survey: first of all it was 22 pages long and the students since they were translating sometimes had miscommunication.  The fact that it was 22 pages made it exhaustive and a bit much.  Was all that information pertinent.
At the end of the day we stopped to see a physician to get more malaria medications for some people and then we went to the hotel where we had another nightly meeting.  Later, I snuggled up in my bed while watching a Nigerian movie.  I am beginning to get addicted to Citizen Live.