An afternoon as a 'Rural Healthcare and HIV/AIDS Awareness' volunteer: Hannah Carr

Volunteers sometimes find themselves faced with moments on projects that provoke such an intense passion, emotion and desire to make an impact, that it can often be hard to find the words to express these feelings. This entry is straight from past 19 year old Australian volunteer Hannah Carr's journal.  

October 3, 2013- Day 2 Adult HIV Education Course:

“The second HIV class was a combination of hilarious, impressive and incredibly heart-warming! The difference in all the men today compared to yesterday (day one) was wonderful! They were so confident and comfortable speaking about HIV and even about STIs, that I was feeling really overwhelmed at the end of the day, knowing I helped make that happen. 

We had to do the condom demonstration and my gosh, did that make me laugh! Between sexual jokes and awkwardness and the men momentarily thinking they had to practice on themselves, it was a huge dose of laughter! The one woman of the class was very timid, so I sat with her and we went through it together; which I’m glad I did!

Again, the men blew me away today with their honesty and well-thought-out questions, as well as the way they responded to the information we gave them. It really felt like they believed in what we were teaching, particularly when I started talking about being proud of who they are- HIV positive or negative- and that they were all equal and worthy people, regardless of their HIV status.
I cannot wait for the exam tomorrow afternoon and to give out the certificates; even if they forget some of the medical stuff, removing the stigma and discomfort of speaking about HIV is so HUGE and I feel so, so lucky to be a part of that.”

- Hannah Carr, 19, Australia.

The below pictures were from the last day of the Adult HIV Education course, where each and every student in Hannah's and fellow volunteer, Jo's class passed!

For more information on volunteering our Rural Healthcare and HIV/AIDS Awareness project or any other AFrican Impact project please follow this link: http://www.africanimpact.com/

September Monthly Update

A quieter month than we are used to here in St. Lucia but none the less productive! With 14 volunteers and a few special visitors it’s been a great month for staff, community members and of course volunteers. Some very exciting changes are on the horizon for our Medical Outreach and HIV Awareness program so watch this space for more information and possible ways you could be involved in shaping its future.

The' Medical Outreach and HIV Awareness' program received a visit from Min, manager for African Impact's Healthcare projects. Volunteers led Min out on projects and were thrilled to be working closely with her as she and the team formulated ideas which will be put into place over the next few months as a way to progress the project. 

Rachel helping volunteers on 10 families

A couple of sneaky examples how things will evolve include incorporating a lot more education into the 10 Families nutrition program so that it will focus not just on weight gain but also on positive and healthy living. We will also be compiling a new and improved ‘Medical Induction’ so volunteers feel more comfortable and prepared before they head out onto project. 

The first step for all of this coming together is working alongside Rachel, our newest member of the African Impact St Lucia team. Rachel is a trained nurse who has worked for AI previously, she will be working closely with the volunteers,  communities and staff  as our new ‘Medical Adviser’ to ensure that our Medical project is the best it can be... we are very excited to see how the next few months play out!!

Veronic was thrilled to get spinach

Harvesting from our gardens to give to our 10 Families and Home Based Care patients was a brilliant achievement on the medical project this month as it really shows that all you lovely volunteers and your hard work has paid off. Every volunteer who has been a part of each of our gardens throughout the year should be very proud of themselves, these gardens really do bring a lot of people joy as well as fresh, nutritious vegetables. Top job volunteers!

We were lucky to have volunteer Emma Leek join us this month who is studying nutrition. Emma put together an amazing presentation on nutrition when living with HIV/AIDS, as well as one specific for  nutrition with infants for our ‘VulnerableChildren and Rural Families Support’ program. These presentations were given to our support groups as well as Girls Club. Everyone had a lot of questions and Emma was able to answer them all with great professionalism. Good work Em!

Pat and Selien painting a a new bed for Malibongwe

Our Community program has been on flying form! 

With beds and shelves being made and delivered, gardens tended to, garbage certificates being handed out and of course visits to the Croc Center. 

Staff member Nonhlanhla visited for the first time this month and after being very nervous at the beginning, she did manage to pluck up the courage to clean one of the pens.

Children at Simunye enjoying a lesson with volunteer Ge

The ‘OrphanDay Care and HIV/AIDS Education’ program continues to go from strength to strength. This month volunteers attended Simunye Crèche on the second round of rotations and volunteers and staff were excited to see how much the children had improved. 

They children did not disappoint! After completing Child Assessments, everyone was thrilled to see how much the children had improved and the new skills they had learnt.

Reading Club has been, as always, INCREDIBLE! Every week brings new members and more and more children receiving certificates as they reach their reading goals proving not only that it is a sustainable project, but learning is fun! This Club is something we are very proud of here in St Lucia.

Volunteers helping staff with the condom demonstartion

Along with all our projects we have been involved in a few different events this month. The clinic held a Family Planning day to raise awareness of the next contraception method, the coil. After talks from nurses and councillors, AI volunteers and staff did a condom demonstration and talked about the importance of staying safe during sex. 

It was an interesting event to be involved in and it led to women getting the coil inserted there and then. Success!

We even dropped in on the weekend to assist with a new Environmental group in Khula launching their new club by doing a huge garbage pick-up session. This was amazing as KYD (Khula Youth Development) had organised for different speakers and organisations to get involved and talk to the community about the importance of the environment and why it is important for the younger generation to take charge. It was such a fun and fruitful day!

KYD Enviro Day! 

Months like this are only possible because of all you rad volunteers joining us and throwing all your passion into the projects! September saw lots of exciting developments, and we are looking forward to seeing how the year concludes.. stay tuned!

The Happy Africa Foundation - September

THAF Intern Stacey Addison has been working as hard as ever for us here at African Impact St. Lucia, take a look at the work she has been up to. Wait! There is more! Check out the stats from half way through her stay, it's pretty amazing! 

Limke (pictured left) saw our donation request on Facebook

A scale for our 10 Families focal project was donated! Massive thanks to Medical Outreach and HIV Awareness volunteer Limke de Hoek!!!

 3 baby packs were given out to new mothers in the communities full of clothes and essential baby items.

 Quiz Night raised R1545 for the Medical Project, with 5 teams competing for a prize of wine and beer glasses.

African Impact Thanda visited St Lucia and we got everyone together to participate in a quiz which was made by one of Thanda’s Volunteer Coordinators, Tara. All of the volunteers enjoyed meeting each other and we were able to raise money for THAF and their Rhino fund. R135.50 was raised for THAF which will go towards Inkanyezi Crèche.

Gogo was thrilled with the mattress received on a visit from Flo and Selien.

        We delivered a bed and mattress to Veronic, one of our 10 Families and Home Based Care patients. Although she wasn’t at home she had a lovely surprise when she got home to find a new bed which was made and painted by volunteers. 

      We also delivered a mattress to Gogo Khumalo. She was so happy to receive this donation and it has made her life a lot more comfortable.

       

      We held a yoga session at the volunteer house with local yoga guru David which raised R120 for Inkanyezi Crèche.

Some of the many donations we received being put to good use. 

     The donations room has been restored after peak season and all donations have now been labelled and organised with donations being sorted ready for Christmas.

       Lots of awesome crafts were made at Holiday Club, After School Clubs and in crèche lessons using donations given by past volunteers.

THAF 3 Month Update - Halfway Through Stace's Internship

We’ve held 3 Quiz Nights which have raised R5574 for the Medical Projects.

9 volunteer events have been held since the beginning of July.

      Volunteer events have raised R2912.10 for the Medical Projects.

      Hippo Festival raised R1763.05 for the Medical Projects.

           THAF Merchandise has bought in R1952.56 for The Happy Africa Foundation.

            Virgin Money Giving Page has raised around R15,000 for Inkanyezi Crèche.

     Thanks to everyone who was involved with all these events, fundraisers and projects. None of this would have been possible without all of our volunteers fantastic work. For more information about how you can help, click here to find out more about The Happy Africa Foundation.