tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52854196702895919362024-03-15T18:09:51.575-07:00Farmers Helping Farmers: Kenya 2012Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.comBlogger262125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-50874126847646857722014-05-10T04:20:00.002-07:002014-05-10T04:20:35.832-07:00Pre-service teachers seeding tomato seeds at Muchui Business Centre with Gikundi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-31010195670778267252014-04-10T06:04:00.001-07:002014-04-10T06:13:19.373-07:00First blog from teachers<div>
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Well, Meru has changed our lives…as dramatic as that sounds, its true. We came here as four students, somewhat naïve in what we were about to experience. We knew that our paradigms would shift, how much of a shift was nothing short of outstanding. I apologize for the delay in this post, as we are <i>fortunately</i> without internet access at our apartment. </div>
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Upon arrival, the sweet smells of Nairobi entered our lungs as we inhaled our first breath of air. Perhaps it was flowers, perhaps it was the fact that we had been relaying from airport terminals for the past 20 hours. Regardless, to have our feet on solid, Kenyan ground, felt comforting. Henry was there to greet us, along with Simon and Susan, all equally making us feel at home instantaneously. In our exhausted excitement we commented in awe at the Acacia trees, donkeys on the highways and cows crossing the road. Kat experienced an awful journey, suffering from an equal concoction of those damned malaria pills and a potential flu bug…not to mention flight anxiety. However, with the help of the angels at the Anglican Guesthouse, she was comforted by new friends, and comically Fanta with salt. The next day we met with Mamma Jen for the first time (truly deserving of that name). She got us amped and ready for the 4 hour drive to Meru. </div>
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It seems like months ago that we had that first journey to our new town. I remember analyzing and observing the people as we drove, my mindset completely different than what it is now. I remember almost pitying them, for their lack of technology, electricity, and proper housing. I remember feeling bad for them, for wishing for some common solution to help them all. I remember being scared to eat their food, to drink their tea, to live their lives. I never thought of myself above them, but I did think my way of life was easier. I now understand, that our Westernized way of life is not easier at all. </div>
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We are consumed my technology, not only ruining our environment, promoting child workers, and racking our bank accounts, but also driving us away from each other. We have phones that communicate instead of our mouths, ipods that allow us to segregate ourselves from the rest of our peers, and big houses that ask us to be alone, locked behind the doors of our own bedrooms. We eat food from around the world and have mega superstores, but what we eat is pumped with hormones and filled with toxins making us sick. We may have vehicles, but our lack of exercise has made our country obese and fragile. We have so much, yet hardly share our wealth, in fact, I’ll go as far as to say forgotten how to give. </div>
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Maybe the Kenyans don’t have our prestigious lifestyle, with our cars and our clean houses and our flashy material goods. But what they have is better, they have a sense of community. They are healthy, strong-bodied individuals, who have people that care for them and family that love them. They have nothing and give everything. They are unaffected by this demanding sense of time management we have in Canada. They walk and talk, about the big things, and the little things. They eat local food, unaltered by toxicity and import, minimizing their carbon footprints. They don’t use their lights in the day, because sunlight is more than enough. They do not waste, they do not care for vanity, and strive for comfort rather than attaining uncomfortable stilettos. The children are independent, grateful, eager to learn, undistracted by technology…not to mention killer fast runners. So yea, I have an Ipad, but what I don’t have is strength and acceptance from community. <br />
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Photo sent to FHF by Mwenda which he entitled as Carolyn Francis introduced her teachers to Ruuju students </div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-31590972359244200932014-02-17T07:22:00.002-08:002014-02-17T07:22:43.608-08:00Breast examination
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of our volunteers in Kenya, Janet Dykerman,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is a mammogram technologist on Prince Edward
Island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since breast cancer is all too common in Kenya, we asked her
to explain to women how to check their breasts for lumps or changes in their
breasts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When we held focus groups or had other meetings, Janet met
with small groups of 10 people or less for a half-hour and explained why and how they
should check their breasts regularly for any changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She gave them a fact sheet she had compiled
and she had a synthetic breast they could examine for lumps. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">She told them she was not a medical doctor and that if they
found changes in their breasts they should consult a medical doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">All women were very appreciative and told us they had not
been told this previously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-61249328840303963172014-02-15T06:13:00.002-08:002014-02-20T12:31:24.593-08:00Gathering information<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Teresa Mellish</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On this visit to Kenya we <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>gathered <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>information for the final report on the Food Security project.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One way of doing this was to interview women on their shambas (farms). It’s a wonderful opportunity to see their screenhouses and greenhouses. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We randomly select the women and then travel to their farms. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">They are always cooperative and willing to answer our questions. They always offer us tea and frequently give us a few eggs, some mangoes, passion fruit, a few pieces of sugar cane or some delicious plums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All we have to give them is a 2014 calendar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here are two pictures- one of Ilse interviewing a woman on her shamba (with Salome translating) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and the other of fruit we were given over a couple of days. </span></div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-16145457484537169512014-02-15T02:12:00.001-08:002014-02-15T02:15:50.129-08:00Training on financial record keeping<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ron Herbert, a retired accountant and a volunteer with
Farmers Helping Farmers, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>taught two classes
of basic financial record keeping to the Directors of five dairies we work with
in Kenya. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The approach he took was to show the farmers how they could
keep financial records on their own shambas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He developed the curriculum for 4 sessions for each dairy and a Kenyan
will teach the other two sessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have tried to have Kenyan accountants teach accounting
and they try to make accountants out of our partners by making it too
complicated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though most
farmers don’t like bookkeeping, it’s a necessary part of any business,
including farming. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kenya dairy farmers were appreciative of
the training- they even did their homework between the two sessions!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the attached pictures shows a few farmers discussing
the training. They are seated under a large avocado tree near Karatina which
provides shade- it is the most pleasant classroom in the world. The other one
shows Ken Mellish presenting a laptop computer to the Dairy Chairman so they
can start computerizing their milk records.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This laptop was donated to us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Village Feast members, Jolyne Sharkey and Ilse Peters-Ching
were excited to open three cookhouses at three schools during the past couple
of weeks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The construction of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>cookhouses and the energy efficient cookers were
paid for by the Village Feast over the past few years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The cookhouse is a kitchen where the morning porridge and
the lunch stew are prepared and served to the school children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
children’s parents provide the maize and beans for the stew and Farmers Helping
Farmers with their partner DFATD support<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a school garden to produce vegetables for the stew with funds from the
Village Feast for the school gardeners wages. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The three schools are all primary schools with over 200 children
at each school <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from nursery to standard
8. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The schools are all twinned with Island schools as follows:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Mitoone Primary School<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>is twinned with West Kent Consolidated School</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">King’O Primary School is twinned with Gulf Shore Consolidated
School</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Marinya-a-Ruibi Primary School is twinned with Margate Pastoral Charge
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">During their time in Kenya Ilse and Jolyne also visited four
other cookhouses sponsored by the Village Feast. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thank you Village Feast! You are making a huge difference in the lives of the school children at these schools. </span><br />
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-14460723181494578332014-02-13T05:12:00.000-08:002014-02-13T05:15:02.999-08:00We visited Shaad Olingo's farm <br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By Teresa Mellish</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last weekend, Ken, John, Eddy and I visited Shaad Olingo’s
farm in Muhoroni.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that all of the
people who have volunteered in Kenya over the past 30 years <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with Farmers Helping Farmers know Shaad and
will recall his wonderful hospitality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We tell all of our volunteers to feel free to ask Shaad anything- because
there is nothing he has not been<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asked
before by Canadians! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFzdUyjNfjvk0Bd8OvcqFDn5UPS8CkghTBhdCyVHkEvp7xZ6vMp63oPHHyT_hC-dPRci-ydq0T8vwnHm0dmrChs56XhEbVBKFTMnK9beo9oEPAtAYmGwjo2g6nVFbDgZadrEXfDYUCxE/s1600/kenya+2014+-2+206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFzdUyjNfjvk0Bd8OvcqFDn5UPS8CkghTBhdCyVHkEvp7xZ6vMp63oPHHyT_hC-dPRci-ydq0T8vwnHm0dmrChs56XhEbVBKFTMnK9beo9oEPAtAYmGwjo2g6nVFbDgZadrEXfDYUCxE/s1600/kenya+2014+-2+206.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhopTF8FgTpdC2bazRBLnx5Hzze2Q9HJQ5Pn1rQ564-GVWuXfIuxvLS-WOFYJ85CMcN5X7NbfMWVWoEf2gjgmPs0rzpGI-mF7TYSbfrAqEa1YbtZBSF3t4FAB3WtebL7FusdfkqboEq6Pw/s1600/kenya+2014+-2+198.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway back to the farm, Shaad’s farm, called GAD-Hortec
(named after his three sons) is a two hour drive from Nakuru on the highway to
Kisumu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has black soil and most
important, it has lots of water!!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He is presently growing bananas, mangoes and papaya.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has also grown tomatoes, onions, kale and
potatoes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He wants to dig a pond to store the water and then irrigate
his crops with the stored water. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The area where his farm is located<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in Nyanza county – we saw fields of sugar
cane and we learned that the county is food deficient so he should have no trouble
selling the food he produces. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was a wonderful farm which Shaad was delighted to show
us.</span><br />
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-73406454564614164092014-02-13T00:15:00.002-08:002014-02-20T12:35:48.970-08:00Eddy Dykerman discusses vegetable production with Gikundi<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Brookfield Gardens Eddy Dykerman shared his vast experience
in vegetable production with Gikundi M'Muguna , the horticulturist with the Muchui
Womens Group in Kiirua <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Gikundi visited Brookfield Gardens for a week
in the summer of 2013 when he visited PEI.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The project funded by DFATD and the Andreas Baur Foundation
aims to improve food security and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>includes the production of vegetables in
screenhouses and greenhouses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Eddy was with a team of 11 volunteers with Farmers Helping
Farmers who are working in Kenya for three weeks. </span></div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-63605363887072961582014-02-07T07:23:00.002-08:002014-02-07T07:23:27.913-08:00
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Cattle
and Chaos Collide –A Veterinary Students Experience in Kenya<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On one of our favourite days in Kenya so far, we had
a walk-in clinic organized by the Muchui Women’s Group in conjunction with Dr.
John van Leeuwen and his veterinary students, with the help of StephenChandi
and LeahKarioki, FHF’s in-country staff.Locals brought their cattle to be
dewormed or treated for suspected illness. In this area of Kenya,cattle are
grazed in a pastoral style system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The day wasorganized chaos- people yelling, cattle
running around on the loose, bulls fighting in the holding pen, cows jumping
over and breaking through gates. It was awesome! We saw over 400 animals and it
was very rewarding and felt as though we were making a very big impact. We
divided into two groups, one group deworming and the other examining and
treating sick cattle. Both spots were very enjoyable. It was interesting to see
the variety of cattle breeds: Brahman, Zebu, Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey and
every combination.We sawmany diseases that we don’t encounter back in Canada, mostly
tick-borne diseases such as East Coast Fever (Theileriosis) and Anaplasmosis,
along with conditions caused by overexposure to sun, such as cataracts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the course of our three weeks in Kenya, we are educating
farmers on nutrition, milk quality and animal care.At the walk-in clinic, we
gained a greater appreciation of the problems faced by smallholder cattle
farmers in Kenya and are looking forward to making the most of our remaining
two weeks in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Michael, Alexander and Marianne – Senior Veterinary
Students from the Atlantic Veterinary Colleg<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>e.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-42006815136783584992013-11-06T04:09:00.002-08:002013-11-06T04:09:36.582-08:00NF2 50/50 Benefit Dinner <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tQHrinHw2mzRT4Hoi37268oTtAfJFe8mWGMRjYTB5_xEDCat7Y7FnQ7VfCXJocqNbApgklOsSzmLW5IQVBCwaqn0BiqRDNOxBDb502VDr9eKFSUVOUYhAVm7r-cQW4S99a-wVfiPG7Y/s1600/NF2+dinner+2013+poster+FINAL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tQHrinHw2mzRT4Hoi37268oTtAfJFe8mWGMRjYTB5_xEDCat7Y7FnQ7VfCXJocqNbApgklOsSzmLW5IQVBCwaqn0BiqRDNOxBDb502VDr9eKFSUVOUYhAVm7r-cQW4S99a-wVfiPG7Y/s640/NF2+dinner+2013+poster+FINAL.jpg" width="417" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">After arriving home from Kenya in February 2013 I have been considering ways that I can continue to support the work of the womans groups from my home farm and community in Nova Scotia. My hope is that here in Nova Scotia we can create a strategy to have a long term continuous stream of funds to carry out the work of FHF. I am really excited annouce that NF2 (No Farms No Food) has choosen Farmers Helping Farmers for their 50/50 benefit fundraising event. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The event raises funds in support of sustainable agriculture and land preservation locally and afar. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It is the 3rd Annual "You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone" benefit
dinner at the Old Orchard Inn</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Thursday, December 5th at 6 p.m. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's
going to be a wonderful evening to kick-off the Holiday Season in a fun
& meaningful way. We’ll once again be able to enjoy a bounty of
local foods including a whole spit-roasted pig from Meadowbrook Farms.
And we look forward to tasting a typical vegetarian Kenyan dish, too.
Musical performances will keep us entertained and we can finish, or
perhaps begin, our Christmas shopping before or during dinner with the
always-diverse silent and live auctions. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The evening's proceeds will be
split 50/50 between the Annapolis Valley Farmland Trust and Farmers
Helping Farmers (to help with the final year of their three-year
horticulture project working with women’s groups in the Kenyan
communities of Marega and Kiirua). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Tickets are now available. Please share with your Nova Scotia Friends, or come join us from PEI. For more information visit the facebook page: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/NF2-No-Farms-No-Food/137602539594998?ref=hl">https://www.facebook.com/pages/NF2-No-Farms-No-Food/137602539594998?ref=hl</a> OR you can email me: <a href="mailto:patricia@taprootfarms.ca">Patricia@taprootfarms.ca </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-89900617258900893292013-10-21T04:42:00.001-07:002013-10-21T04:42:46.590-07:00Studies Abroad <h1 itemprop="name">
Studies abroad</h1>
<div class="author">
<dl>
<dt class="author"><a href="http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/Author-Mary-MacKay/767/1">Mary MacKay</a></dt>
<dd itemprop="datePublished">Published on October 19, 2013</dd></dl>
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<figure><img alt="" itemprop="image" src="http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/media/photos/unis/2013/10/18/photo_2459532/article_large.jpg" /></figure>
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© <span itemprop="copyrightHolder">SUBMITTED PHOTO</span> </div>
The UPEI team of Vanessa Dennis, third from left, Alicia MacDonald, Sydney Abells, Jennifer Whittaker, Megan Ellis and Danielle Perry spend 90 days each in rural Kenya participating in health and agricultural projects to increase food security and health of Kenyan women and children.</div>
<h2>
UPEI nursing, biology and Atlantic Veterinary College students reflect on their 90-day internships in Kenya</h2>
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<section class="article_text">This was the second study time round in Kenya for Dr. Shauna Richards, who was involved in ongoing projects that are a partnership between Farmers Helping Farmers (FHF) and the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) in Charlottetown.<br />
This time her research focused on whether improving the nutritional content of cow feed and fodder is a cost effective way to boost milk production.<br />
“All of the projects have the goal of improving dairy farming but the fourth year rotation is about practising clinical medicine, so treating sick animals and dealing with certain types of diseases that we wouldn’t see, normally. But this project was specifically focused on improving milk production through nutritional sources,” says Richards, who is now a grad student, studying for her masters of science.<br />
“It’s not just trying to improve one thing, it’s trying to improve a whole system of milk production, which affects more than just one farmer. It also affects the local economy there to have a better milk producing system.”<br />
FHF has for many years worked closely with Wakalima Dairy Group, which started off as a co-operative of small individual farmers who would pool their milk daily to sell to a processing plant.<br />
<br />
“They got bigger and bigger as time went on with help from Farmers Helping Farmers and now they are an actual business because they just got too big to be a co-operative anymore. There are over 6,000 farmers selling their milk every day and they have two bulk tanks like they would have here for cooling milk. . . and they are starting to build a processing plant so they can process and sell their own milk,” says Richards, who was worked in Kenya with two veterinary students from Vets Without Borders.<br />
Most farmers have one cow but not more than five so that alone was a different experience for this Canadian veterinarian.<br />
“I really like working on the scale of smaller farmers because you get to work with them on a more individual basis and they work with their cow on a more individual basis too. It’s their livelihood and it’s a really important part of their farm,” says Richards.<br />
Most cows are fed locally grown forages and a small amount of grain.<br />
The research focused on whether higher feeding of grain will improve milk production to a point where the monetary return outweighs the added expense.<br />
“We wanted to see if purchasing these (locally produced) feeds was economical for these farmers. . . . We wanted to make sure that they’re going to be able to make money with the additional milk that their cow is going to produce when they buy these feeds,” Richards says.<br />
“They all know that feeding more feed is going to help their cow but they’re quite concerned economically because buying that bag of feed means money from somewhere else. . . .”<br />
This year’s study involved feeding measured amounts of the locally grown forages and purchased feeds to the cows and keeping track of the milk being produced.<br />
While the actual statistical verdict is still out because the full examination of the data will not be complete until early in 2014, there was a pilot study done last year by a graduate student from the University of Nairobi, which is also a partner on the project.<br />
“And based on (that) pilot project we’re optimistic that it’s going to be beneficial,” Richards says.<br />
“It was really great to be out in the field and working with farmers, and especially because we got to go back over and over to these farms again to see them. So it was nice because we got to build an actual relationship with them, it wasn’t just a one-time visit.”<br />
The opportunity to travel and to do research was a dual draw for UPEI biology students Alicia MacDonald and Jennifer Whittaker, who were in Kiirua for 90 days conducting research that focuses on factors that contribute to respiratory problems in women and children.<br />
“I think my favourite part was being integrated right into the community,” says MacDonald, who spent much of her time with a test group of 45 women assessing the value of more efficient cook stoves in reducing the exposure to wood smoke.<br />
“I don’t have the results yet because (the data is) getting analyzed now but we’re thinking from the comments that the women made and from the testing that the chimneys are having an effect: that their cough is significantly less, that their eyes weren’t bothering them, because women are typically in a cookhouse between three and six hours every day. . . . They cough a lot and it’s a major cause for COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease),” MacDonald says.<br />
This final round of data will be compared to a study that was conducted two years ago just after the installation of the energy-efficient stove and chimney systems, which were donated by FHF.<br />
“They are very happy with the stoves. We never heard a complaint from any of the 45 women,” she adds.<br />
While MacDonald was focused primarily on indoor Studies<br />
... Cont. from C1<br />
air quality, Whittaker directed her attention to the great outdoors for a baseline study to determine the level of air pollutants, such as the exposure of road dust on children walking to and from school.<br />
“My (research) is on outdoor air quality,” she says.<br />
“Basically there are a lot of dirt roads in the area where we were so my supervisor was thinking that was probably a high source of pollutants, especially for the women and children there because they’re constantly walking back and forth, they spend most of their time outside and there’s a lot of open air fires. So I was setting up the baseline data for the amount of pollutants that were in the air to see if it’s worth studying to see if there is a significant impact on their health.”<br />
Whittaker placed a series of eight air samplers along the road to calculate the total particles in the air to compare with research that has been done in other areas and World Health Organization guidelines.<br />
She also made note of the amount of pedestrian and vehicle traffic at certain times of day.<br />
Her work will provide the baseline data from which future UPEI biology students can make comparisons.<br />
Both UPEI students adapted quickly to their unfamiliar surroundings and made do surprisingly well without their usual easy access to the lab, the Internet and uninterrupted electricity.<br />
“We learned very quickly to always have our laptops charged because at least if we lost electricity we could use them for a little while,” Whittaker laughs.<br />
“The hardest hit was not being able to just be able to search for (information) when I wanted it. If I thought of a question usually you just go to your phone or your computer and just Google it right away. And so I had to write things down so I’d remember to look things up when I had the Internet or stay up till the middle of the night when the Internet was working a little bit better.”<br />
Fourth-year UPEI nursing students Danielle Perry and Vanessa Dennis explored avenues of a whole new working world during their internship working at a small rural hospital in Kiirua.<br />
The UPEI students’ focus was on sharing best practices in the areas of immunization, maternal child health and more.<br />
“The health care is very different from here. They don’t have as many resources as we do, (but) a lot of the doctors are really smart and very creative. Here we would have everything, so if we wanted to put a catheter in we would have a catheter, if we needed drains, we would put drains in,” Perry says.<br />
“But there, sometimes they had to use catheters for drains (for example). They were just really innovative. So if they had one piece of equipment they could use it for five different things where we would have the specific tools for each.”<br />
The mental comparisons didn’t stop there for Perry, who did a rotation in Charlottetown in maternity and surgery before she headed to Kenya where she did a month of each there.<br />
“It was just hard to see that some people couldn’t afford to get the surgeries because almost everything is out-of-pocket there. Because you have public insurance and private insurance and not a lot of people can afford the private, so most people had to pay out-of-pocket for their surgeries and they couldn’t afford it,” she adds.<br />
“Room-wise there’d be six or seven people to a room, whereas here people complain if there are two people in a room. . . .”<br />
Working alongside the Kenyan medical personnel was an amazingly unique experience for both.<br />
“I got to scrub for a lot of surgeries, which I wouldn’t have got the chance to do here,” Perry says.<br />
“Even when you’re a registered nurse (here) you’re allowed to scrub in and pass utensils but you’re not allowed to assist in the surgery, whereas in Kenya I was passing tools, I was using retractors, I was assisting in the actual surgery. I even got to make a few little cuts, which I would never get to do here.”<br />
Perry and Dennis did presentations to hospital staff about Canadian standards of practice in the areas of post-surgical care, for example, and procedures like transurethral resection of the prostate, which is being implemented in Kenya in the coming year.<br />
“We did some education sessions (at a local clinic where they also worked) and through working with them the whole summer we got to find out what their core beliefs were,” Dennis says.<br />
“So then we found out how they believe that they shouldn’t breast feed a child while they have mastitis, but we’ve been taught through best practices ways that you should for multiple reasons. So we taught them that they should do this and made a point to connect with as many people related to that enforcement that we could (to share that information).”<br />
This on-the-job training venture was like nothing Dennis could have ever expected.<br />
“I learned so much. The thing that I really enjoyed was getting to do procedures and skills and different things there that we would never have the opportunity to do here as student nurses,” she says.<br />
“I got to conduct births, help women deliver their babies, whereas here that’s not something the nurses do unless they absolutely have to. It’s something for the OBGYN or the doctor. But there the nurses do that. The nurses have a broader scope of practise and I was able (with training and guidance) to be included in a part of that."<br />
<br />
</section></section>Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-28228266302089987722013-09-11T16:43:00.002-07:002013-09-11T16:45:26.485-07:00Making movies and cuddling babies<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Megan and Sydney here- the nutrition
interns from UPEI. We have recently
returned from Kenya, and wanted to bring you up to date on some of the work we
did in July and August (now that it is easier to upload blogs and pictures!).</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Over the summer, we worked on three
projects: 1) the assessment of food security and diet among women in the Muchui
and Ruuju women’s self help-groups 2) using a ‘train the trainer’ model with
women ‘champs’ to teach women and men in the broader community about nutrition
and healthy family meals and 3) the development of an infant feeding resource
to improve the nutritional quality of infant foods and to extend the period of
exclusive breastfeeding. This blog is about the final one-where we developed a
video which can be used by the local St. Theresa’s hospital to educate women
from the community. It is our first ever
experience as directors and videographers!</span></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> Before we developed a video, we had to decide
what information was needed, and what approach to take. That took a fair bit of
interviewing and research. Our professor Jennifer (Prof Jen) provided us with
information and concerns identified from previous nutrition interns [Amy,
Harrison (2011); Kaylynne and Christina (2010)]; we also had the guidelines for
infant feeding from the World Health Organization which would form the basis
for our recommendations. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Our first step was to meet with
women in their homes and in the hospitals to get an understanding of what their
infant feeding practices were. We also met with healthcare professionals such
as dietitians, HIV advisors and nurses to get an idea of what the teachings
around infant feeding were. Most of the women understood that breastfeeding was
good for their baby but were unsure of how long to breastfeed for; many women
breastfed for only one month before giving their baby solid foods. </span></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We spoke with one of the new
mothers (she had a healthy baby boy on July 10<sup>th</sup>) who had not yet
received any nutrition education from Caroline the dietitian (who was hired in 2012 after </span><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">one of the UPEI nutrition students (Harrison)
recommended they do so!). W</span>e were concerned
about some of this mother's responses. She would be returning to work in three months and
would no longer be able to breastfeed her child. She thought that because she
was going back to work, there was no other alternative but to resort to a
formula made with cow’s milk, bananas and Irish potatoes for her child. She also told us that her mother said that
the baby needed to be fed water immediately as well, or it would become
dehydrated. After interviewing the women and Caroline, </span><span lang="EN-US">we were reassured that one reason behind women weaning
their infant too soon, or introducing less nutritious foods was a lack
of knowledge and that
our video could, in fact, help. We also believe
that hiring a Dietitian was one of the best choices that St Theresa's Hospital could have made!
Caroline is working with all the new mothers and educating them on the
importance of exclusive breastfeeding, and complementary feeding once the child
becomes six months old. Our video can be one tool that she can use to help women from the surrounding community who come to the hospital.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US"> The information that we got from talking to the women and
healthcare professionals helped us to decide what we needed to
include in the video. We developed an outline for the video and had it reviewed
by Prof Jen. After an introduction, we
would cover benefits of breast feeding exclusively for 6 months, concerns and
myths about breast feeding and infant feeding, and the how/when/what of introducing
solid or complementary foods. We wanted to have the entire video in Kimeru with
some English subtitles so that it would be understood by local pregnant women
and new mothers, and the staff at the hospital. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuiR8Sa3FODmyFba2Q__iSuFezMGH6Fhcg5nRCmSEa00UQ1-RatVxkiNDQr2lO7ePMqQYjiT3TxD9bgKTCJXlWtQrEV1QdNYhTkrfQ0CdaCcJjvgSCp86ecJ3-qbBLssJ2xOt7eWZ4Yfc/s1600/DSC03098+(Large).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuiR8Sa3FODmyFba2Q__iSuFezMGH6Fhcg5nRCmSEa00UQ1-RatVxkiNDQr2lO7ePMqQYjiT3TxD9bgKTCJXlWtQrEV1QdNYhTkrfQ0CdaCcJjvgSCp86ecJ3-qbBLssJ2xOt7eWZ4Yfc/s320/DSC03098+(Large).JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Megan and a little baby girl</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Now it was time for the fun
stuff: we got out our high tech video gear (IPHONE) and went into women’s homes, the hospital and Machaka Children's home to get all this information on tape. At Machaka, Grace, the social worker, and Susan, a
childcare provider, helped us out as we taped the babies being fed. They were all ready to begin
when we arrived; the videotaping went very well and the women were excited to watch themselves
on video. They even called some of their
coworkers to come watch it with us! <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitE2-Q5sRYxEZlo88vsft2JsHNHFZvmSJ9Gz66cmOUvi7VBEdXvIcIKv4NXh2SHRmP3pIjsL94LIDXslJaQZR-BBM9VDjP59KI1eWP18PRodf5eGYZ8sX50dA4VQtptcBxfeNgrFKj1YE/s1600/jonah+and+syd.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitE2-Q5sRYxEZlo88vsft2JsHNHFZvmSJ9Gz66cmOUvi7VBEdXvIcIKv4NXh2SHRmP3pIjsL94LIDXslJaQZR-BBM9VDjP59KI1eWP18PRodf5eGYZ8sX50dA4VQtptcBxfeNgrFKj1YE/s320/jonah+and+syd.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sydney and little Jonah at the children's home in Machaka</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">We interviewed several woman from the Kiirua area, some of whom were part of our home assessments in June of food security. One women, Harriet,
is currently seven months pregnant with her first child. She is a working
single mother and we were happy to hear that when she does have to go back to
work, she will continue to breastfeed as her baby will be at work with her.
We videotaped her talking about two of the benefits of
breastfeeding. Of course, she gave us a cup of Kenyan tea before we left! </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">At the women's homes and at the hospital, we were a
little rusty at first with the information having to first go through Rose (our
translator) first and then one of the women to be videotaped. The women were
happy to help and excited to be famous throughout Kiirua! After two weeks of taping in the community,
the hospital and Machaka children’s home, it was time to make our edits, add in
English subtitles and get it flowing together nicely. We completed the video
and went to the Muchui Business Centre to have the first showing of the video. We wanted
to evaluate how effective the video was so we had the women do a short
multiple choice quiz before the video and the same one after. We were pleased that most women chose the correct answer after
watching the video. </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLr_CeVQWV2VCznsR7pDk47j1i9AIEZwke0hlTGw3eM3HtRSY7P57CzyDdVMIUyAmliuvQFT-ZQwngiFX6HTCsDpFiKLFgwIjlskTYknmy0imMsWCyNnXma15s8E4rl9upJdSwPw0IeM/s1600/syd+meg+showing+video.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLr_CeVQWV2VCznsR7pDk47j1i9AIEZwke0hlTGw3eM3HtRSY7P57CzyDdVMIUyAmliuvQFT-ZQwngiFX6HTCsDpFiKLFgwIjlskTYknmy0imMsWCyNnXma15s8E4rl9upJdSwPw0IeM/s320/syd+meg+showing+video.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Sydney(L) and Megan's (R) CME presentation </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">The last showing of the video was for the healthcare
professionals at the hospital because this is where the video will be used the most.</span><span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; color: #333333;">These CME, or continuing medical education, presentations are a bit nerve racking because they are around an
hour and 15 minutes and the people that come are all health
professionals…doctors, surgeons, nurses, clinical officers, etc. (We waited 45
minutes for people to show up...we are finally learning to live on Kenyan time!)
The presentation went fantastic which
was great, because the Minister of Health happened to show up…. Talk about
intimidating!! After the presentation, she said she<b> loved</b> the presentation and said it was one of the most creative
things she’s seen. She asked for a copy to take back with her. How cool! </span><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US">
Caroline also asked for a copy of the video for herself and we hope that she will
use it as a resource within the hospital and community. By the way, </span>a small TV and DVD player was bought with the money from last year's UPEI Students for Development fundraising dinner which
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span lang="EN-US">Overall, the video recording went really
well, considering it was both our first ever experience producing a movie.We showed it to Prof Jen a few days ago, and
she was pretty pumped about it. We had
raised money for a small TV and DVD player in the hopes that the video will be
shown at the MCH (Maternal & Child Health) clinic at the hospital, and will
help educate pregnant women, new mothers and their families to give babies the
best possible start in life. We plan to
have a screening of the video in the Department of Applied Human Sciences this
fall- we will keep you posted on that!</span></span></span></div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-67815495963283684552013-08-19T02:05:00.000-07:002013-08-19T02:05:19.079-07:00Farewell Kiirua!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am sad to say that we are entering our last week here in
Kiirua.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has been an exciting 12
weeks in Kenya; we have learned so much about ourselves through our work in the
hospital and in the communities.</div>
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We have met so many amazing and inspirational people here in
Kenya.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few weeks back, we
were invited to sit in on an HIV support group, held by staff at the hospital
once per month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a
positive and emotional experience for me as I witnessed so much strength and
courage during that meeting. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Members were so supportive of one another and their happiness
and determination was noteworthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>During the meeting, individuals asked questions ranging from diabetes <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>management to making healthy lifestyle
choices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were very grateful
of our presence and asked us many questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have had limited exposure to HIV/AIDS in Canada so we
told them that we wanted to learn from them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was one of many experiences that has opened my eyes to
how truly privileged I am to live in Canada and to have my health.</div>
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My time in Kenya has given me newfound respect for individuals that live in substandard conditions.<span> </span>The people of Kenya have a contagious spirit that makes you look at life in a whole new light.<span> </span>Kenyans are hard working and innovative-they make the most of what they have.<span> </span>I have witnessed numerous occasions in the hospital where staff members have had to use alternative methods because they have limited resources.<span> </span>I have seen surgeons use bladder catheters as surgical drains because drains are limited and reserved for emergencies.<span> </span>Although they don’t have the resources that we have in Canada, the things they do and the choices they make are safe and logical.<span> </span>They take things to a new level, something that Canadian healthcare professionals never have the need to do.<span> </span>They are creative and they are successful.</div>
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Although I have had limited opportunity to work within the
rural Kenyan communities, I have witnessed the incredible strength and
willpower of the Kenyan women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These women are unlike any I have ever encountered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They work long days; managing their
farms, collecting firewood, and feeding and dressing their families while
maintaining an air of grace and pride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The women will go to bed hungry if it means that their children have had
sufficient food during the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The women were very grateful of our presence and welcomed us into their
homes (Karibu).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The work of
Farmers Helping Farmers and the support of CIDA have improved many of these
women’s lives drastically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many
have screenhouses for their crops to grow, water tanks for clean drinking water
and kitchen gardens, where they can grow green vegetables and vitamin A rich
vegetables for their families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
making these changes in the community, these organizations have started a
health promotion initiative that will hopefully minimize hospital visits for
these families and improve their overall health.</div>
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I leave Kenya feeling grateful that I have been given this
opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has helped me grow
as an individual, made me excited about my career, kindled a love for travel,
and compelled me to do further trips that work towards making communities
sustainable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope to be able to
share my experiences with others so that they feel compelled to witness what I
am witnessing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well, I hope to inspire
others to become involved with Farmers Helping Farmers or other organizations,
to do their part in helping underdeveloped communities grow stronger. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
-Danielle Perry; Nursing Intern</div>
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<br />Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-50170263995681052532013-08-02T05:52:00.000-07:002013-08-02T05:58:02.042-07:00Vet team working in Mukurwe-ini , Kenya <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJI3CTJoffE_ZF_jKWF0t33BkTeHbpaXRPcvitv0N3vMhZIspKSXbVn34PbprTw136TBZOalwrlpXzTFo0spYMQisHXe4r15xeNTzSyKussy-caLSupFIp7TDkYJVcPgmK_aqBHOEac4/s1600/DSCF6650.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" dba="true" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJI3CTJoffE_ZF_jKWF0t33BkTeHbpaXRPcvitv0N3vMhZIspKSXbVn34PbprTw136TBZOalwrlpXzTFo0spYMQisHXe4r15xeNTzSyKussy-caLSupFIp7TDkYJVcPgmK_aqBHOEac4/s400/DSCF6650.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Vet team working in Mukurwe-ini doing research on feedning cows and calves owned by farmers who ship milk to the Mukurwe-ini Wakulima Dairy Ltd.<br />
Left to right <br />
<div>
Dr. Shauna Richards (AVC'10), Dr. Gertrude Shepelo (UoNairobi'12), Genevieve Luca (FVM'16), Jessie Wilkins (UoCalgary'15) and Dr. John van Leeuwen (AVC Professor) </div>
Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-59734106609486667422013-07-27T17:05:00.001-07:002013-07-27T17:05:58.700-07:00<h3>
<a href="https://blog.vetswithoutborders.ca/2013/07/23/the-people-you-meet/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent lenke til: The People You Meet">The People You Meet</a></h3>
<div class="date">
By Jessie July 23, 2013 5:47 pm</div>
<div id="top">
We came at night – it felt strange because we typically don’t go out after dark falls. As we walked to the door, I could see a beautiful set of smiling teeth and a pink dress suit. Our host greeted us warmly, and took us up the front stoop. As we were about to go in, she whispered that she was just finishing hosting a big celebration for a recent graduate of IT school. She apologized that they hadn’t quite left yet, but were about to leave shortly. We took off our shoes and she opened the door. There were about 30 people inside, all with their heads bowed – they were praying a blessing over the new graduate. We paused at the door to let the prayer finish.</div>
As we entered, we shook the hands that came from every direction and were quickly shown a seat. All of a sudden cake appeared before us, and food started to multiply on the kitchen table. We chatted with some of the guests, then filled our plates to overflowing with mokimo (potatoes), githeri (bean stew), lamb, chapattis, fresh fruit, and rice. It was delicious.<br />
Then our host was freed up enough to sit and have a chat with us. I was already in awe of this formidable women and her hospitality. There had been a little mix up. We were supposed to stay with her over the weekend, but somehow the dates got miscommunicated and she already had a houseful of guests from the graduation celebration. She insisted that we still show up for a meal – all without ever having met us before.<br />
Jennifer Murgocho works in association with an organization that were are working with in Kenya called Farmers Helping Farmers. She is based in Meru – and we were visiting for the weekend. She told us about her involvement with Farmers Helping Farmers. She detailed the schools, women’s groups and communities that she has worked with, and the changes she has been a part of in the years past. As we sat and listened, I reminded myself what a privilege it is to listen to someone talk about their true passion. It’s even more of a privilege to see that passion turn into reality through the course of their life work. There are some people that I have sat with in my life that leave me deeply inspired and hopeful. Jennifer was one of those people, with one of those incredible stories.<br />
I was reminded that a life well-lived goes far beyond a job. A life well-lived is passionate enough to host a graduation celebration with a large guest list. To invite complete strangers into your home for a meal. To make people feel welcome, cared for and understood. To be compassionate enough to see areas that need improvement, brave enough to act and committed enough to follow through. These are great life lessons for a veterinary student to learn and remember.<br />I can’t say I’ve ever had milk directly from a cow. It was boiled of course – to kill all the nasty pathogens that raw milk can harbour. I’ve never been able to directly attribute my milk products to a specific cow. It’s kind of an odd feeling to look at a cow while you are drinking the milk it made a few hours earlier. But when I think about it, and it’s really not all that odd at all. And it’s far more rewarding to see a product go (as we say in food safety courses) from ‘farm to fork.’<br />
It was freezing on Monday, and the warm milk was a welcome gift. There were four of us on the farm that day and we each had a glass. I’d estimate that we drank roughly a litre of the farmer’s milk. In Kenya, farmers are paid 27 Kenyan Shillings per kilogram of milk produced. That’s just over 30 cents Canadian. For many farmers, the milk proceeds are a large proportion of income for the household. Most cows in Kenya are producing roughly 9 kg per day, compared to a typical Canadian cow which produces roughly 32 kg per day. It’s also important to keep in mind that most farms in Kenya have less than 3 actively milking cows at any given time.<br />
So this hot milk on a cold Monday morning was not just a simple gift. The farmer’s name is Waruguru. She told us how two of her daughters passed away, so she is responsible for feeding and caring for the cow. She has one daughter left, who was there to help answer some of our questions and help with the farm. Her grandson was there as well. The teachers strike ended on Monday, with most students heading back to classes. His presence on the farm likely means that school fees are too expensive, and he is not able to attend classes. He was incredibly helpful – holding the calf, getting me soap, moving the cow into the milking pen, and holding supplies for me.<br />While Jennifer inspired me with her courage and commitment, Waruguru inspired me with her kindness and generosity. Her gift to us was of high personal cost and I’m deeply appreciative for it. Two stories from two strong Kenyan women who have big enough hearts to give – at times beyond their means.<br />
And this is why I love veterinary medicine, and why it’s so much more than just a job to me. Students that want to become vets because they love animals and dislike people are misled. People are our job. A veterinarian gets unique insight into the lives of the people owning animals and the ability to make a real difference in both the lives of the animal and it’s human.<br />
And once in a while, their humans make a real difference to us, too.Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-20362567739071381902013-07-24T02:28:00.000-07:002013-07-24T02:28:27.470-07:00Dairy feeding research<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Hello Farmers Helping Farmers Blog readers, </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">My name is Shauna Richards and I am a veterinarian who has returned to the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) to pursue a graduate degree in veterinary epidemiology (study of disease in populations). My project at the AVC is supervised by Dr. John Vanleeuwen and funded/ partnered with Farmers Helping Farmers, The Canadian International Development Agency, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, AVC, Vets Without Borders (VWB) and the University of Nairobi. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The project aim is to determine the cost benefit of feeding additional purchased feeds to dairy cows and calves owned by smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya. Specifically we are working with farmers who are members of the Wakulima Dairy Ltd. in Mukurweini, Nyeri County. While it may seem obvious that more feed will allow a cow to produce more milk, and allow a calf to grow faster, the concern is if buying these additional feeds will make the farmer money in the short and long term. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The study plans to purchase grain and mineral for milking cows and feed them in varying amounts to locally owned cows to determine their milk production and farmer’s subsequent income over the first 2 months of a cows lactation. At the same time the calf of the cow will be fed varying amounts of purchased grain and milk to determine if they will grow faster. In the long term calves which grow faster will become productive herd members earlier, and therefore make the farmer more money. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In addition to the feeding part of the study we will be evaluating and sampling milk from the study cows to determine the rate of mastitis in smallholder dairy farms in Kenya. We will also evaluate the pathogens causing mastitis. Finally we will be evaluating the rate of gastrointestinal pathogens in the study calves. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This study is unique in that we have 111 farms enrolled and we will make repeated visits to the farms over a 2 month period. This will provide us with better data in order to determine the cost-benefit of additional feed, the rate of mastitis in cows, and the rate of gastrointestinal disease in calves. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Aside from providing better data, the repeated farm visits allow us to develop a relationship with the farmers and allows us to make helpful recommendations on how they can improve their dairy farm. This is important because aside from the additional feed that the farmer is receiving, they are also gaining knowledge. And while we aren’t allowing them to share feed with other farmers, they certainly can share what they are learning! </span>Following completion of the study we plan to publish the results, and to also disseminate them to farmers who are members of the WDL so they can make sound financial decisions on their dairy farms. </div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I would also like to briefly describe the team members whom are working here in Kenya for future reference in additional blog entries:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Genevieve: second year veterinary student at University of Montreal whom is funded by VWB</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Jessie: second year veterinary student at University of Calgary whom is also funded by VWB.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Shepelo: Veterinarian from the University of Nairobi, who is also pursuing a graduate degree in veterinary epidemiology and is running the study with me here in Kenya.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Priscilla: Our local and very talented, very friendly translator, whom I could not do any of this project without!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ephraim: One of our drivers, who also commonly stands in as veterinary technician on all of our farm visits.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Godfrey: Our other driver, who often provides his milking skills to collect milk samples, as well as provides excellent comic relief.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Gerald: Coordinator at the Wakulima Dairy and for this project.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I hope this blog entry provides some context to the wonderful entries by the 2 veterinary students whom I am working with this summer. </span></div>
Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-84723869104132173512013-07-21T17:40:00.001-07:002013-07-21T17:40:17.758-07:00<h3>
Manners and Manure</h3>
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By Geneviève - July 21, 2013 - 5:59 pm</div>
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The inhabitants of Kenya are known for being a warm and welcoming people. After spending a few weeks in their company, I can but confirm this fact. Kenyans are not only thoughtful hosts, they also show a politeness and manners often incompatible with our North-American placid, planning and always-in-a-rush habits. Indeed, what Canadian city dweller wouldn’t be suspicious, sometimes scornful, of a handshake from a perfect stranger met on his way? And who would actually make – or even accept – an unexpected invitation to have a cup of tea in the middle of an already busy work day? Yet these things are common in this country that welcomes me so generously.</div>
According to good manners here, you should greet anyone you meet with a good handshake and a cordial “Habari”, often followed by a series of other greetings. Whether it’s a collegue, a new acquaintance or someone that will remain a stranger doesn’t matter : it’s greeting before talking. And so, when our driver stops the vehicule to ask someone passing by directions to a certain farm, a hand enters by Ephraim’s opened window and must meet the hand of every single passenger, accompanied by many “habari”, before the person, bent over the window, will give us the desired answer. Even one with a wet or dirty hand cannot escape from this human contact : in those cases, he must present his arm, flexing the carpal joint, and the other person can then grap and shake his forearm, just up the wrist.<br />
Kenyans also have the habit of saying “sorry” when some undesirable thing happens to you. Therefore, every time I fall on a slippery slope, every time I drop my pen in the mud and every time I hit my head – which happens every single day because of the acrobatics I perform to get inside the pens – the witnesses will immediately say “sorry”, even though these troubles are entirely my fault.<br />
Generosity is yet another aspect of the Kenyan culture. When we are visiting farms, we frequently leave with a bunch of bananas, papayas, sugur canes, eggs, corn, or avocados as big as a head. We tell the farmers that they don’t have to give us anything, that their participation in our study is more than enough, but they are happy to share the result of their laboured soil, in addition to the time they already spend with us. Besides, I doubt Francis, our cook, will ever be able to make enough banana bread to empty our stocks.<br />
Sharing is an essential value here. Even those who haven’t got much will give you all they can possibly offer if you are in need. This weekend for example, we had planned on going to visit the students from UPEI staying in Meru (they are also travelling for some projects with the Farmers Helping Farmers organization). A misunderstanding kept us from staying at Jennifer’s house (she is an active member of a wowen’s group for community development and used to be their chairperson), since she thought we were coming on the next week and had therefore no more rooms available for Saturday night. Dismayed by this misunderstanding, she wanted us to sleep in her own room rather than to have us staying in a hotel a bit further away. We simply couldn’t accept such an offer, so she almost forced us to at least come at her house for dinner, and she nicely received us even though she already had a very busy evening.<br />
The Kenyans’ generosity is only equalled by the local hospitality. We often receive invitation to sit down and have a cup of tea. Our daily schedule is quite busy and we tend to decline those offers, but the farmers insist, some of them even adding that it is not very polite to refuse. Therefore, except if we really are in a hurry – which seldom happens, with the African beat we are starting to catch – we let ourselves be guided towards chairs, wooden benches or even inside the house, in a small living room, to sit down and to take the time to enjoy our hosts’ company, a much appreciated token of gratitude. They sometimes serve us food and, when it’s the case, it’s usually in enormous quantities. Of course, it is considered rude not to finish your plate…<br />
Farmers wish so much to show good manners as hosts that they insist on having us sitting on a piece of decorated material instead of directly on a log and they tell us not to remove our boots when we come inside their house. Can’t they see that we already are covered in dirt and other filthy things? They don’t seem to care : they wouldn’t accept to see a bit of dust from a log or from the floor going on their guests’ precious scrubs. In front of those very – too? – thoughtful hosts, we smile, but we let them understand that we would actually be disrespectful to such good manners by covering the place with manure.<br />
<br />
Geneviève C. L.Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-84797204835823366292013-07-20T03:48:00.001-07:002013-07-27T16:57:42.227-07:00<h3>
The Good Idea</h3>
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By Jessie - July 17, 2013 - 6:42 pm</div>
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Today, as I was rinsing manure from my armpit, I thought about some of my experiences in Kenya so far. I had just been covered head to toe (literally, some even went in my eyes and ears and mouth) with manure from an unruly cow. One of the worst I’ve encountered here, actually. Although I don’t really blame her for protesting the rectal thermometer, it really doesn’t compare to having a rectal palpation done. Pretty sure my arm has a far greater circumference than that little thermometer. But she jerked, kicked, and jumped out of her restraints – even testing the sturdiness of the milking pen itself (it held, but a few tense moments passed in which I had devised a strategic plan to prevent her from falling into the 6 foot pit right in front of her, and corner her so that we could have some hope of roping her back in – all the while leaping over 5 foot fences to avoid being trapped in the fragile structure).</div>
I’m most thankful my plan remained untested.<br />
I’m thinking: this is the third farm of the day. I’m now doomed to spend the rest of the day covered in manure. I’m sweating from the sun and from the stress of planning an evacuation plan for myself and a thousand pound beast. I’m hoping that the manure that went in my mouth isn’t harbouring a severe strain of Salmonella or E.coli. I’m dreading the monstrous hike up the mountain to get back to the car. I realize that thoughts along this vein enter my brain almost on a daily basis.<br />
It made me wonder why I thought Kenya might have been a good idea.<br />
When I got to the top of the hill, I was greeted by my new driver, Godfrey. He laughed immediately upon seeing me and told me I was ‘SO CLEAN.’ I couldn’t help but smile. On the way to the next farm we shared bananas, and chapatis (a most delicious flatbread which we take turns buying each day). We joked about the outrageous cow.<br />
We carried on with our day – getting more covered in manure, spilling iodine all over my pants, sweating profusely and struggling through communication mishaps with our farmers. We shared chai tea with two families. I chatted with a group of 8 or 9 boys and learned what animals they had on each of their farms, what they wanted to be when they grew up, and how to take care of pigs. We laughed as our team (Shepelo, Godfrey and I) ate more bananas and avocadoes than I have ever consumed in a week, let alone in one day (I ate 6 bananas. In one day). We almost cried we laughed so hard over Shepelo’s story of the leaking hot water bottle in her bed. We were invited in for supper at our last farm and couldn’t believe the size of the bowls of stew and rice put before us. We finished enrolling our last farm in the study – farm 110. We came home to another huge dinner prepared by an ever-smiling Francis.<br />
Although each day brings its’ own struggles, by the end I’m always reminded why Kenya was a good idea. The people I have met, the team I am working with, the positive impact that the research is already having, the growth in my practical skills, and, well…let’s be honest – the food.<br />
Yesterday we visited a farm where the farmer had 2 cows and a calf. After we had finished our work, he invited us in for tea. His wife had<br />
just passed away the month before. He has a beautiful farm, and is taking our advice and rebuilding some of his pens to increase cow comfort. He asked me if I planned to come back to Kenya in a few years. I said I hoped I could come again. I told him I would visit again in a few weeks – but he insisted that I come in a few years. He wanted me to come back to his farm, because he wanted to show me the improvements he would make after 3 years’ time. He told me he hoped to grow his herd to a maximum of four milking cows, because he knew that is all<br />
that he could handle. He mentioned that he has already seen a gain of 2 L per day in his milking cow for the past two weeks he has been involved in the study. He was very pleased with this, and wanted to increase his ability to feed and care for the cows in the best way he could.<br />
I sit with a person like him – someone who is realistic about their limits, trying really hard to take recommendations to improve the farm structure and cow production, and who is a proud Kenyan – and I can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed to have been given a little window into his life. I think to myself – partnering with people like this are what makes Kenya a great idea.<br />
It might even make me thankful for the manure in my armpit.<br />
<br />
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<br />Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-50557895579756024362013-07-19T02:24:00.002-07:002013-07-19T02:24:18.570-07:00Nutrition teams finish home assessments of food security<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Megan and
Sydney here-the UPEI nutrition interns for 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a long and eventful month, the food
security assessments of 2013 are officially under wrap! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have visited homes of 26 women from the
Muchui and 12 women from the Ruuju Women’s Self Help Groups. During our visits,
we have assessed women’s <i>food security</i> using a standardized validated questionnaire
which assesses everything from their worry about having enough food for their
families to how often they have ate less, missed meals or entire days of food
or went to bed hungry. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2OtCIyQo-SdhHr4URti3BdgNLFnPgd8_dpxpWrrOLIJwxe-WKIyijn8yzybdpoeA5mqx7jzJWB66gdy2vRzRZyyZ49m1YTZO29C32N39BSaHwfPtM6pl53P7HOn4uX99XTPJX1DYa2Y/s1600/DSC02394.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2OtCIyQo-SdhHr4URti3BdgNLFnPgd8_dpxpWrrOLIJwxe-WKIyijn8yzybdpoeA5mqx7jzJWB66gdy2vRzRZyyZ49m1YTZO29C32N39BSaHwfPtM6pl53P7HOn4uX99XTPJX1DYa2Y/s320/DSC02394.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doing our first interview with Penina in Ruuju</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We have also
assessed what they are eating, and how often they are having the nutritious
foods grown in their shambas (farms), with the help of Farmers Helping Farmers
agricultural projects. (More on that in another blog!) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">After doing
38 interviews, we have come to love and respect these women and for the hard
work they do <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">day after day</i> just to
keep food on their table for their families. They greet us warmly with big
smiles, and often give us Kenyan tea, or insist that we take a papaya or eggs
home with us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> have noticed a
substantial difference between the two communities. Even though the communities
are only 1 hour apart, the climate, the resources and the people are very, very
different. It is dry in Muchui, but most of the women have a substantial amount
of land and screen houses or greenhouses. In Ruuju it is very tropical, but the
women have very little land and most of them do not have screen houses or
greenhouses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From what we have seen,
Muchui is far more food secure than Ruuju. Many of the Muchui women are able to
eat the kinds of foods they prefer and the kinds of foods that they need. Most
of the women answer <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘no’</i> to the
questions ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did you go to sleep hungry at
nig</i>ht’ or ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was there ever no food to
eat of any kind’</i>. However, they are still answering ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yes</i>’ to ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did you worry that
your household would not have enough food’</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It appears that almost all women, no matter what community they are
from, are worried to some extent about where their next meal will come
from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISDLkEnrSsHQ8PbsQkIcf4mou_5lNZ-8DGbDHtxowlCV0HOnoiPAoMU_p5MOBO32ZqfmXnpMiJa4q-izDY8lVRqKluyJZQadKh4xKYG2e8nSv2E81HBN8sv453GF2lG-Ah6hqfBtm538/s1600/DSC03010.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgISDLkEnrSsHQ8PbsQkIcf4mou_5lNZ-8DGbDHtxowlCV0HOnoiPAoMU_p5MOBO32ZqfmXnpMiJa4q-izDY8lVRqKluyJZQadKh4xKYG2e8nSv2E81HBN8sv453GF2lG-Ah6hqfBtm538/s320/DSC03010.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We gave every woman we interviewed a bottle of fortified vegetable oil as a small token of our appreciation. This is Purity, who is a very successful farmer!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The good news is that we have observed a strong
correlation between the condition of their crops, and their food security
levels. Basically, the healthier the crops are, the more food secure the women
tend to be.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The women of Ruuju seem to be far more food insecure.
Almost all of the women are only eating two, small meals a day and all of which
have very little nutrient value. The women are answering ‘yes’ to ALL of the
questions being asked about food security, and it is happening over 10 times
per month. This is WAY too often.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXImIoi7kS6FUrz039D4euQAZuHZgRQ7RSliItE1RUwwnNLVDf8rn3yL_Ac5OKxFUbcXNg7G7k9jVRFnfxCHtT4_BDrJr0ksy4etYLYw2cNJ8QN_u896WFvIkoRO2RJBT3taqEVTRqdY/s1600/DSC02411+(Large).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXImIoi7kS6FUrz039D4euQAZuHZgRQ7RSliItE1RUwwnNLVDf8rn3yL_Ac5OKxFUbcXNg7G7k9jVRFnfxCHtT4_BDrJr0ksy4etYLYw2cNJ8QN_u896WFvIkoRO2RJBT3taqEVTRqdY/s400/DSC02411+(Large).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interviewing Sarah in Ruuju under a canopy of banana trees. Our amazing translator Rosemary is in white.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One
woman that we interviewed last week in Ruuju, sticks out in my mind (Sydney) as
she has been the most food insecure that I have seen so far. I keep meeting and
interviewing women and I think “it could NOT get any worse than this”… but,
unfortunately, It does. Some of the stories are inspirational and some of the
stories are absolutely heartbreaking. Anyway, when we arrived at the woman’s
house in Ruuju, her son came up to Megan and I and passed us a note written in
English. Half of the page he used to thank us for all we have done (I suppose
he means FHF and the previous nutrition students) and that he and his mother
are so appreciative. The end of the letter went on to ask us if we were able to
pay for his education so that he could get a better paying job and help out his
mother. At first I thought it was really awkward and inappropriate that he gave
us the letter…until we interviewed his mother. I suppose desperate times call
for desperate measures. It is she and her 15-year-old son living in the house.
The house was nothing more than a wooden box with a roof and some foam on the
floor to sleep on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t sit
inside because there was nowhere to sit. So we resorted to sitting on the edge
of the chicken coop. This woman’s 24h recall consisted of rice, beans, water
and passion fruit. That’s all she had to eat for the day and that is most
likely all that she has to eat most days. She said her last good harvest of
maize and beans was in August of 2012! This explains why she has become so food
insecure. Her crops are not growing now, she does not expect to have a good
harvest this season, and we can only hope the season after this one, will bring
a miracle. This woman reported to going to sleep hungry over 10 nights in the
past month, she often has no food to eat of any kind, and she has also often
had to eat smaller and fewer meals then she felt she needed. It was
heartbreaking to see this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we left
her property, she ran into her house and came out carrying about 15 avocados
with huge grin on her face. I looked over at Rose (our translator) and said
that I didn’t want them, that I wanted this woman keep her avocados and to eat
them everyday. Rose said I had to take them and that it was this woman’s only
way to say thank you to us. It would have been rude if I had not taken them. So
Megan and I took the avocados, and left the smiling woman behind. I wish that I
could come back every year and work with the women, and personally see the
changes we are making. I wish there was more that I could do. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>(Jen sent money for a bag of maize for her,
which will help in the short term…) </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">It is especially hard for me (Megan) to go into
their homes and see how hard they work but then go out into the community and
see men sitting around the shops doing nothing but chewing Khat (a drug that
is legal here).<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwKCVPKAXQzeHofzeR9Xql6CeMWOqWjdTANaNBly5rhVL5GR4YHxxPn_YtBGF9Z1GJsKwvHmZYTSBd8Yq8yIIY-cMCMKsDxRbYyiy6ju2YGnIgHB6I3M32O5OAGYheX7J-c0ueHnjAOc4/s1600/1006200_10151756909873552_237319936_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwKCVPKAXQzeHofzeR9Xql6CeMWOqWjdTANaNBly5rhVL5GR4YHxxPn_YtBGF9Z1GJsKwvHmZYTSBd8Yq8yIIY-cMCMKsDxRbYyiy6ju2YGnIgHB6I3M32O5OAGYheX7J-c0ueHnjAOc4/s320/1006200_10151756909873552_237319936_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A typical scene with men gathering at the shops</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In 2012, nutrition interns (Janet
Gamble, Samantha Smith and Fergie Wallwin) found that women with a screen house
or a greenhouse were less likely to report high levels of food insecurity
compared to women without a screen house or greenhouse. For example, the number
of women reporting experiencing anxiety about having enough food, reduced
quality of food and reduced quantity of food these concerns was significantly
lower among the women with screen houses or greenhouses compared to those who
didn’t have them. These findings suggest that the presence of a screen house or
greenhouse significantly buffers the negative impacts of poverty and crop
conditions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are just now analyzing
the data from this year’s interviews, and will be preparing a report for
Farmers Helping Farmers so that they can see whether their initiatives (funded
by CIDA) have continued to have this positive impact. Based on what we
observed, we expect more good news about the impact of this agricultural and
nutrition project. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggq1O8qELU0_qtsaK3aEaqIcKB6606qIyTLdsqf6OeyhFZm1rHyx8PONYBK4rsGmbVgHT3mfATaTgAGluFYmQ-FMYD_kMxtl-byKCwTgTXxU7XCUWXBTPrgoSmdRU_e4dLNEmzIs33IXI/s1600/DSC02407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggq1O8qELU0_qtsaK3aEaqIcKB6606qIyTLdsqf6OeyhFZm1rHyx8PONYBK4rsGmbVgHT3mfATaTgAGluFYmQ-FMYD_kMxtl-byKCwTgTXxU7XCUWXBTPrgoSmdRU_e4dLNEmzIs33IXI/s320/DSC02407.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Screen house, which protects crops from birds, insects and harsh sun and wind!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">The two
Biology students, Alicia and Jen, accompanied us on the Muchui home visits. (We
did the Ruuju interviews ourselves). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
having them come to the interviews with us, we were able to learn a lot about
why they were here, and the benefits of the energy efficient stoves provided by
Farmers Helping Farmers. We will leave it to Alicia and Jennifer to talk in
more detail about that! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I (Megan)
am so grateful to these women for allowing us to come into their homes and get
some insight into the way they live their lives. These women are extremely
strong , and it is meeting them in their homes that have given us a real Kenyan
experience that would not have been possible had we traveled here for any other
reason. One of my favorite parts about walking to the women’s shambas (farms) were
the children we would see along the way: they are so well behaved and happy
whether they are rolling a tire down the side of the road for fun or working
and carrying a bag of maize on their back. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall, even though they have been hard
sometimes, we have loved doing the home assessments and we are sad to see them
come to an end. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Our next
project, which we are excited to get started on, is an infant feeding video for
the hospital here in Kiirua. This video will focus on breastfeeding and infant
feeding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stay tuned for our experience
on directing a video in Kenya…it could get interesting! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Megan and
Sydney (Meggie and Sydee)</span></div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-88451050988767506722013-07-16T05:55:00.001-07:002013-07-16T05:55:52.089-07:00<div class="post">
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<a href="https://blog.vetswithoutborders.ca/2013/07/13/mukurwe-ini-and-the-surrounding-farms/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent lenke til: Mukurwe-ini and the surrounding farms">Mukurwe-ini and the surrounding farms</a></h3>
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By Geneviève 12:36 pm</div>
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Mukurwe-ini is located in the highlands of Kenya. Therefore, the moment we take the car, countless green hills rise before our eyes, with Mount Kenya in background on days where the sky is clear.</div>
The village swarms with activity all day. On one side of the main shopping street, you find stands – with a structure seemingly made of branches more than wood planks – where they sell clothes, fruits and vegetables; on the other side are shops cramed into a small but long building. That’s where we sometimes buy fries, which comme in a double plastic bag, mixed in with toothpicks to use as utensils – one who does not pay attention to his snack can easily regret it.<br />
We have observed that certain kinds of shops seem more popular, or at least are spotted more often in this area. Indeed, in a same village, we counted many beauty salons, a good number of Safaricom shops (Safaricom being a local mobile network company), a lot of small bars seemingly deserted, and countless butcheries in a competition for the one with the most promising name : « Quality 2013 Butchery», « Meat Garden » and « Pork City » are some seen examples.<br />
As soon as we move away from the center of the village, the scenery changes completely. We leave the asphalt roads to take dirt paths where even 4X4 vehicules wouldn’t venture without thinking about it. The day before yesterday, for example, Ephraim (our driver) was forced to go in reverse gear on a slope on which we couldn’t heave ourselves up. But Ephraim is not one to give up that easily. He was actually reversing to take a run up, not to turn around. Concentrating as if his mind could increase the power of the old car, he hit the gas, reached the three-quarters of the slope, then stopped the vehicule – right in front of a group of children. There was no way he could lose face. And so Priscilla (our translator), Shauna and I got out of the car and started pushing. We had to run, followed by the children, to keep up with the car that constantly needed a push, wrapping us in a cloud of CO<sub>2</sub> and reddish dust. Yes, we vanquished the hill! The kids stared at me with amusement as I shouted out loud to celebrate victory.<br />
To get from one farm to another, we drive up (when we succeed to) or down, through or around hills and hills. We pass people – very often women – carrying loads of firewood or Napier grass on their back and with a strap going over their forehead. We also see cyclists that rather walk next to their bikes instead of getting on them, motorcycles (bota bota) and, rarely (you can understand why), another car. Streets have no names, doors have no addresses; it’s only with the indications Priscilla receives on her phone and sometimes with the help of an additionnal passenger that sits in the back with us – or even on the passenger’s seat with Priscilla – that we can reach the right place.<br />
Then again, seldom have we really arrived when the engine is turned off : some farms have no roads that lead to it, others are accessible only by walking on the neighbours’ property or by going throuch a labyrinth of branches and exotic crops.<br />
Few are the farms that have all their components – main house, kitchen, shed, outhouse, water tank, numerous pens and cages for different species – on a same landing on the hill. Therefore, before doing anything with the animals, we must climb up or tumble down slippery slopes on which our only help – when present – is what could hardly be called stairs unevenly digged in the reddish dirt. Since we have to carry our material in a cumbersome trunk, we barely see where we step. The cows are usually on a lower level and the path to get there is even more rustic. How on earth did the animals get there in the first place?<br />
The landscape is certainly beautiful, but to drive and walk there is not an easy thing to do! Once I’m back in Quebec, my legs of steel will not deign to take the elevator anymore and will get me right up any <span style="text-decoration: underline;">real</span> staircase.<br />
<br />
Geneviève<br />
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<a href="https://blog.vetswithoutborders.ca/2013/07/09/typically-we/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent lenke til: Typically We…">Typically We…</a></h3>
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By Jessie July 9, 2013 5:56 pm</div>
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6:40 am: Alarm goes off. Grr. Never been an early morning person. Not going to start here.</div>
6:55 am: Pull myself out of bed and head straight to the shower. Start to feel less angst towards the world after hot shower. Pause to be thankful for said hot shower.<br />
7:15 am: Francis (our cook) has prepared a hot pot of coffee and has laid out our breakfast foods. Bless his soul. I consider bringing him back with me to Canada. Drink coffee, angst is completely evaporated.<br />
7:30 am: Eat breakfast, make PB & J sandwiches for our lunch. Try to go to the bathroom at the last possible moment before leaving to prolong the inevitable trip to the outhouse on a farm.<br />
8:00 am: Taxis arrive for the morning, we pack up all our supplies for the day, suit up in our scrubs/coveralls/steel toe rubber boots and<br />make our way out the door. Discuss the plan for the day with Pricilla. Greet Ephriam (our driver) with a big smile.<br />
8:40 am: Finalize our plans and get in our taxis. Head to the first farm of the day. Kenya will forever be remembered in my mind by the smell of earthy dirt. Red dirt l that sits thick in your nostrils and winds up and down the hills in impossibly narrow and uneven roads.<br />
9:00 am: Arrive at the first farm. Small bladder nags and my plan to put off the outhouse is ruined. Ask where the toilet is. Open door, go in. Try to adjust eyes to the complete blackness and pray I don’t fall in the hole. Clean out the pockets of coveralls so that things don’t fall in the hole. Pee. Hope no one can see through the holes in the boards. Remind myself to restock the Kleenex in my pocket. On a good day, avoid getting locked in the outhouse. Okay, ready for work.<br />
9:30 am: Use my stethoscope to listen to the heart of the mother cow. Sounds weird, not a murmur, but muffled – suspect pericardial effusion. Tentative diagnosis: traumatic reticuloperitonitis – nail puncture into the heart sac. I’ve never heard this before so call over experienced veterinarian to confirm. Using her stethoscope she listens carefully and states it is normal. Ego slightly bruised, but glad for the cow that it’s nothing.<br />
10:00 am: Finished all tests at the first farm, pack everything up, get in taxi and go to the second farm.<br />
10:30 am: Admire beautiful Kenya as we drive. Open the window, smell the dirt, look at the rising hills, try to see Mt. Kenya on clear days.<br />
10:45 am: Arrive at second farm. Listen for ruminal contraction sounds. Sounds okay. Flick around my stethoscope to listen for a ping (indicating abnormal gas accumulation). No ping, but sounds strangely muffled. Look at stethoscope. Laugh as I realize the drum is full of water. Duly noted. Stethoscope full of water = sounds like pericardial effusion. Dry out stethoscope. Muffled sounds disappear.<br />
11:00 am: See Ephriam playing with the kids on the farm. Joke that he must be the Father of all Kenyan children, because he LOVES kids. Thankful for a driver that is kind, generous and so helpful. I wouldn’t expect a taxi driver in Canada to be willing to jump in a manure filled calf pen to help hold the legs, or one who is willing to carry our box of supplies up and down the hillsides.<br />
11:50 am: Say good-bye to our new friends. Receive a bag of papaya or avocados or passionfruit or sugar cane or an invitation to tea. Decide to start a new sport for the next Olympics: extreme mountain climbing in steel-toed rubber boots. Out of breath. But thankful for the calves of steel I’m developing.<br />
12:00 pm: Hand sanitizer. Eat PB & J sandwiches for lunch between farms. Open the window and lean out to prevent car sickness on bumpy roads. Thankful the breeze is cool – it’s winter time in Kenya.<br />
12: 30 pm: Arrive at third farm. Greet all the children. They are afraid at first, but warm up over the course of our visit. Wade in ankle-deep manure to move cow into the milking stall. Take measurements, do physical exams, collect blood samples, check for mastitis, ear tag and deworms animals. Walk over to the goats to say hi. Finally the children are talking. Repeating our names and everything else we say.<br />
1:30 pm: Realize three of the cows on the farm have mastitis. Collect samples for culture and teach owner how to treat using an intramammary infusion. Avoid getting kicked by having the owner tie the cows legs in a hobble. Sometimes this works. Tail-jack and shove the cow<br />into the fence as a second precautionary measure. Some cows are lovely. Some are wild and blame every misfortune they have ever experienced on the one wearing the scrubs and rubber boots.<br />
1:50 pm: Finish taking measurements from the 5 or 6 cows and calves on the farm. Getting a bit tired and a lot hot. Scrub down arms and boots for the 3<sup>rd</sup> time today. Discover the manure on my arm I was trying to get off is actually a bruise, but have no recollection of where it came from. Repack the car, hop in and head to the next farm.<br />
2:30 pm: Arrive at fourth farm. Through some miscommunication the calf is too old to participate in the study. However, this was not realized until 20 minutes into the conversation and physical exam. Pack up and continue on our way.<br />
3:00 pm: Join the Indy 500, mountain-side dirt-road version. Ephraim likes to go fast at the end of the day.<br />
3:45 pm: Arrive at the last farm of the day. Take measurements, head back home.<br />
5:00 pm: Walk in the door. Smell dinner. It is a cruel joke because we are so hungry, but dinner isn’t until 7. Walk into the kitchen to chat with Francis and see what the wonderful smells are. Can’t wait for dinner.<br />
6:00 pm: Clean boots. Pick out mud and manure with a rusty nail. Do clean up from today, load the boxes for tomorrow, do paperwork for tomorrow.<br />
7:00 pm: CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY. Francis leaves food in covered pots and we get to open them like Christmas presents each night. It doesn’t get old. Francis needs to get his passport ready – he’s coming back with me to Canada.<br />
8:00 pm: Hang out, finish up any extra work for the next day. Write, read, relax. Sun is down, can’t go outside of the compound. Armed guards have arrived for the evening.<br />
10:00 pm: Inspect bedroom for spiders. Kill all the insects. Give verbal warning to those in hiding. Get ready for bed and crawl under the mosquito net. Make new hole in mosquito net as I pull it over me. Read. Sleep well after a long day working outside in the fresh air.</div>
Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-41931018376851185812013-07-07T05:52:00.000-07:002013-07-07T05:52:09.929-07:00Beatrice and African Time <div class="post">
<h3>
<a href="https://blog.vetswithoutborders.ca/2013/07/04/beatrice-and-african-time/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent lenke til: Beatrice and African Time">Beatrice and African Time</a></h3>
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By Jessie July 4, 2013 6:30 pm</div>
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The teachers across Kenya have been on strike since we arrived. No students are going to school right now. It’s been two weeks, and everyone I have talked with is hopeful it will end this week. I’ve spoken to many worried parents, a frustrated teacher, and children who are disappointed to be staying home. Most of the children I have met love school and wish they could be there. The teacher was worried that they are missing out on a crucial time of year. She also let me know that while there are no teachers in the schools, kids are not able to access the materials needed to continue their studies (like textbooks).</div>
So I wasn’t surprised in the middle of the afternoon to hear ‘Hello? How are you?’ in short, clipped English. Not just once, but four or five times. I couldn’t see a face to match the high little voice. I walked behind the house to the hedge, and saw a face just barely able to peer over the top of it. The young girl must have been standing on something to look over the 8 foot hedge. I waved and replied to the young girl.<br />I asked her what her name was, and she told me it was Beatrice. I told her I was glad to meet her, then walked back a few meters to finish washing my laundry. As I worked, Beatrice kept popping over the fence to show me her greatest treasures. First a little puppy, then a small child. She raised the child, then suddenly they both disappeared and I heard a thump, then a little commotion behind the hedge. Oops.<br />No screams though, so I assumed they all landed safely.<br />
Since then, every evening as I scrub my boots I hear a little voice shouting ‘Hello Jessie.’ I’ll walk over, and Beatrice and I will have our daily chat. The other day, I heard her quietly repeating over and over – ‘Please, make yourself at home and feel welcome.’ Not quite loud enough to really convince me that she wanted my attention, but that I could tell she was practicing for our next chat.<br />
Kenyans have a different use of ‘you’re welcome’ than Canadians do. To me, it’s an acknowledgement after a thank-you – mostly an empty sentiment that is kind of devoid of any true meaning. The Kenyans will proclaim it <strong>before</strong> anything else is said – they want to make it clear that they are happy to see you and that you are actually welcome. It makes me smile a little each time – both at the discrepancy in meanings between the two cultures and at the genuine sentiment behind the delivery of the words.<br />
We’ve joked often with people about ‘African Time.’ As Canadians, we are in a rush to get things done, complete the task, have that meeting, and move on to the next thing. The people of Kenya are more focussed on relationships. It’s important that everyone has been greeted properly (with a hearty handshake and ‘You’re welcome’), that everyone is present and that everyone can contribute.<br />
It can easily be a source of frustration for us goal-driven Canadians. We have a limited amount of time here, we have ambitious goals for out project, we have checklists a mile long to complete. However, ‘African Time’ seems to have evolved out of a desire to center life around relationships.<br />
I don’t think that’s a bad way to approach things.<br />
Connection and a feeling of community is rooted in relationship, and relationship is essentially based on shared experience. If you haven’t invested in shared time to create relationships, you probably won’t leave a strong impact. I’ve always believed that people rub off on<br />each other – whether it be positively or negatively.<br />
I’ve also always believed that although you may meet thousands of people in your life, the ones that you remember are people that have taken the time to show an interest in you, and genuinely care about you. You may only know them for a short time, but they remain in your heart because you created a shared experience.<br />
The benefit of ‘African Time’ is that it lends itself to creating opportunities for relationship. A few days ago, we stumbled upon some disorganization that could be attributed to African Time. I sat outside on the stoop for over an hour with Shepelo (a Kenyan graduate student<br />heavily involved in the project). We laughed about some of the funny experiences in life and consoled each other over some of the more difficult ones.<br />
I learned a lot about Kenyans in that conversation, and I’m sure Shepelo learned more than she wanted to about Canadians. Earlier in the week she was shown a pamphlet created by the government of Canada about working with Canadians. As she carefully read each page, she smirked and with a great measure of wit intoned; ‘This will teach me how to work with Jessie.’ And here I thought sarcasm was a fairly advanced and characteristically Canadian form of humor. Shepelo learns quickly.<br />
It’s not always easy understanding each other’s cultural quirks and usually a lot of meaning can be lost in translation. But there is one thing that speaks across cultures – a big smile and a ‘You’re Welcome.’<br />
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<h3>
<a href="https://blog.vetswithoutborders.ca/2013/07/03/a-childs-heart/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent lenke til: A Child’s Heart">A Child’s Heart</a></h3>
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By Geneviève July 3, 2013 5:46 pm</div>
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One of the first things you may remark when travelling in rural regions of Kenya is the presence of children. You can imagine that they remark us quiclky too, since we are wazungu*; they approach and watch us with an endearing ingenuousess. Indeed, as soon as we set foot on a farm, they gather around us, young eyes scrutinize us with curiosity and small mouths can hardly help giggling as we contort ourselves to get into a pen.</div>
Kenyans seem to hold their children (and all the neighborhood’s) in high importance. Of course, young people are a precious help for parents with a more modest educational background. It did happen that the eldest daughter of a family, the only person who could read English, assured us that she would help her mother follow the feeding instructions correctly. However, you can perceive in their eyes that Kenyans care for their youngsters more than just for help.<br />
It’s true that this youth is lovable : lively, keen to help and equiped with intellectual curiosity. At the moment, teachers are on a national strike but, unlike what is expected at home, kids are not cheering at the idea of not going to school. All desire to increase and perfect their knowledge of the world.<br />
Jessie is amazing with kids. She is always ready to take the time to present herself and to ask their names and age. I like them too – in fact, I am a bit disappointed when we don’t meet any children on the farms – but I have to admit that I focus on my task first. Yes, my darlings, you can play ith my hair; I won’t mind, but <span style="text-decoration: underline;">after</span> I am done with the CMT** on this cow that’s trying to knock me out. Once we finish gathering the information, if we have some time left there, we are happy to speak to them even more, to teach them hand games or to let them try our stethoscopes – the joy that appears on their faces is worth the patience it takes sometimes to get them to stop hiding behind their big brothers or sisters.<br />
We cherish those moments of happiness, like yesterday, when the children gave us lovely colored charms that they made themselves – we first had to wash our hands marked by farm labour before we could accept them decently.<br />
More than the hills and lakes, more than the plants and wildlife worthy of a poet’s dream, the real treasure of this country is the pure open heart of the children and the loving care that adults give them.<br />
This blog entry does end with a sentimental touch; you just have to deal with it.<br />
<br />
Geneviève<br />*Wazungu : Plural form of muzungu; Swahili word meaning « European » or « something strange », but mostly referring to any white person.<br />
**CMT : California Mastitis Test<br />
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-52965674149241257072013-07-02T13:26:00.000-07:002013-07-02T13:26:26.980-07:00Blogs by Jessie Wilkins and Genevieve Luca sponsored by Vets Without Borders 107 Years <br />
<br />
After we had finished our work yesterday, we had the opportunity to visit the family home of our translator, Priscilla. There we met her mother and her grandmother – who is 107 years old. She greeted us with handshakes and warm eyes, although she could speak<br />no English. It is a rare opportunity, even in Canada to meet someone with this many years behind them. I stopped for a minute to appreciate how many steps those feet have taken in a place like Kenya, and how much change her eyes have seen in the past 107 years. It doesn’t matter where you are from, it’s always a humbling experience to meet the elderly and appreciate some of their life story.<br />
We’ve been in Kenya for a week now, working on our project for 4 full days. We are doing research in partnership with Farmers Helping Farmers, the University of PEI and the University of Nairobi. The purpose of the research is to see if dairy farmers in Kenya will be able produce more milk and higher quality offspring if the nutrition of the cows is increased. The farms are small by Canadian standards, with 3-5 cows on average, and the farmers are primarily women. We hope to find that improved nutrition will increase production and be cost effective for the farmer. Increased production should be obvious, but the higher costs for good quality feed may be an unreachable goal for a farmer. The decision to feed a cow or a family is a real consideration here. The money must be taken from somewhere else – on subsistence farms there may not be a large pot to shuffle money around in. Our challenge will be to prove that feeding better will be more economical in the long run for the family.<br />
I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable that the ‘birth lottery’ landed me in a place that doesn’t struggle for basic daily needs. I’m a proud Canadian and thankful for my home, but it has always bothered me that a large percentage of the worlds’ population has to struggle to meet basic needs. There are some things l think people everywhere should have access to – respect, health care, water, a shelter and food. Despite the wealth available in the world, I have met many people that still aren’t able to satisfy these needs (even in developed countries like Canada). I’ve seen it myself, it’s impossible to ignore.<br />
My decision to participate in a summer internship with Veterinarians Without Borders this summer was heavily influenced by a desire to be involved in a project that has potential to increase equity among people. Although I expect to have opportunities to contribute in Kenya, my larger hope is that I will go home with ideas on how to promote and participate in international development from Canada as well. I hope<br />I can begin to develop realistic expectations of what international development really means, and an appreciation for some of the methods used. My expectation is not to save the world, but to provide a small piece of the puzzle that our skill set as veterinarians will allow us to contribute to.<br />
So our past few days have been spent knee-deep in manure, slipping down steep hillsides to reach the cows, and having kids stroke our strange-looking hair while we are busy listening to ruminal contractions. We will have ample opportunity to fine-tune our veterinary skills and hopefully provide meaningful resources that can help increase milk production – which has already been a rewarding experience.<br />
However, I think the moments that will last with me and continue to inspire passion in my heart for international development are the ones like yesterday, when we met Priscilla’s 107 year-old grandmother. Her hunched back and worn face tell the story of a hard life. I hope that we can be a very small piece of the puzzle that could improve the quality of life for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.<br />
Stay tuned, between me and my Francophone counterpart, we will fill you in with more details of the trip as it progresses!<br />
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<h3>
<a href="https://blog.vetswithoutborders.ca/2013/06/30/kenya-2013-introduction/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent lenke til: Kenya 2013 Introduction">Kenya 2013 Introduction</a></h3>
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By Geneviève 12:55 pm</div>
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Introduction au projet Kenya 2013</div>
Bonjour à tous nos lecteurs,<br />
Nous achevons notre première semaine au Kenya et, après six jours de travail, nous profitons d’une journée de repos bien méritée. Jessie et moi avons maintenant le temps de vous tenir au courant des débuts de notre périple au Kenya. Nous avons conclu qu’étant la French-Canadian du groupe, la tâche m’incombait de rédiger un article en français, ce qui est loin de me déplaire. Cette première publication sera plutôt une mise en contexte; les suivantes seront sans doute plus descriptives ou anecdotiques.<br />
Notre projet au Kenya, en association avec l’organisme Farmers Helping Farmers, consiste à collaborer avec une coopérative locale, Wakulima Dairy Ltd., afin d’évaluer le rapport coûts/bénéfices d’une meilleure alimentation pour les vaches laitières en lactation ainsi que pour leurs veaux nouveau-nés.<br />
Je suis arrivée à Nairobi le lundi 24 juin vers 1h30. Après un semblant de nuit dans une auberge (« Guest House »), j’ai rencontré mes deux mentors, Dre Shauna Richards (la responsable canadienne du projet de recherche) et Dr John Van Leeuwen (son superviseur). Nous avons passé l’avant-midi au Nairobi College of Veterinary Sciences avec Dre Gertrude Shepelo (la responsable kenyane du projet de recherche) afin de réviser les documents et questionnaires du projet.<br />
En après-midi, nous sommes retournés à l’auberge, où nous attendait Jessie, arrivée quelques heures plus tôt. Nous avons fait connaissance et avons clarifié quelques aspects du projet. Le lendemain, nous avons pris la route de Mukurwe-ini, village au cœur de la région où se situent les fermiers associés à la coopérative. Ce n’est que mercredi que le vrai travail a commencé.<br />
Wakulima Dairy Ltd. nous fournit à chaque jour une liste de fermes comprenant une vache en fin de gestation ou qui a vêlé il y a moins de cinq jours. Pendant que Shauna et Shepelo remplissent un questionnaire avec le propriétaire de la ferme – non sans l’aide de notre traductrice Priscilla – Jessie et moi nous chargeons de l’examen général des bovins, de vérifier la présence ou l’absence de mammite chez les vaches en lactation, de prendre un échantillon de sang pour chaque veau à l’étude, d’étiqueter (« tager », en bon québécois) la vache à l’étude ainsi que son rejeton, de repérer les éléments du logement à améliorer, etc. Les fermiers reçoivent également des instructions à suivre concernant l’alimentation de la vache et du veau à l’étude. Les deux premiers jours sur le terrain, nous travaillions tous les cinq ensemble, mais désormais, nous sommes séparés en deux équipes pour couvrir plus de fermes : Shepelo avec John; Shauna avec Jessie et moi.<br />
Chaque équipe visite de cinq à six fermes par jour; chaque ferme comprend habituellement d’une à quatre vaches, de zéro à quatre génisses et de zéro à trois veaux. Nous ne parcourons pas nécessairement de longues distances, mais il faut considérer que nous conduisons sur des chemins de terre étroits serpentant à flanc de collines escarpées. Cette géographie particulière nous donne droit à notre petit orchestre privé, composé du chant de la suspension, du roulement tonitruant du moteur, du vibrato des portières, des percussions dans le coffre arrière et d’autres sons dont il vaut sans doute mieux ignorer l’origine.<br />
Le soir, nous retournons à la maison que nous louons, non loin de la coopérative, où nous attend Francis, notre cuisinier, avec un souper constitués de plats locaux. Une fois repus, nous préparons la paperasse pour le lendemain et discutons de sujets divers.<br />
<br />
L’interaction avec les habitants de la région, les différences culturelles, les paysages exotiques et l’expérience que nous acquérons sont des sujets trop vastes pour être abordés dans une première publication.<br />
<br />
Au plaisir de vous faire rêver davantage dans les semaines à venir,<br />
<br />
<em>Jessie et Geneviève</em></div>
Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-47142527237897384782013-07-02T07:01:00.001-07:002013-07-02T07:01:18.141-07:00Nursing in KenyaHey! Vanessa here. I'm one of the two nursing students in Kenya this year. I just wanted to let everyone know how things are going at the hospital. Today I started my first day in surgery after spending four weeks in maternity. While I don't think surgery's my thing since I have bad feet, I loved my first day! On Mondays there aren't a lot of surgeries, but we had a woman come in who needed a cesarean. The nurses here have a broader scope of practice and actually get to scrub in on surgeries and assist. For this surgery, I got to assist and I learned so much. Another nurse scrubbed in with me so that she could take over in case anything went wrong, but it was a very smooth procedure. The doctor was great. I knew generally what was expected of me since I have seen several cesarean births before, but he let me know exactly when to hold what, and he explained his rationale along the way. I can't wait to go back tomorrow, but after four weeks of this, I think I'll return to maternity.<br />
<br />
I feel like I'm becoming so much more comfortable with my nursing skills here since everyone expects a lot from me, and I need to be confident in what I'm doing. Since our maternity rotation at home is mainly focused on post-partum (after birth) care, there was a lot that the nurses taught me during my rotation here. It's really interesting how things work in this hospital. The nurses have a lot more responsibility in labour and delivery too, as they conduct the births and pretty much do everything unless there's a major complication. Being almost a nurse myself, they have been teaching me everything they know that I haven't gotten a chance to learn. The nurses and doctors here sure are knowledgeable! I love being a part of the doctor's rounds because he speaks very good English and he is usually teaching a clinical officer while doing the round. Here, a clinical officer is like a doctor, except they don't perform major surgeries. The doctor, as well as the rest of the staff have been very receptive to any questions that I might have. They are also very eager to learn how we do things in Canada. While I only spent two days in labour and delivery back home, I learned a lot in class and still have a lot of knowledge to share. I have been making some suggestions and questioning a few things, but, for the most part, I have been very impressed by how things are done in Kenya. Most of their standards are similar to what we would do in Canada. Some things are always practiced, so I make sure that I uphold them when I am performing the procedure, and I try to encourage sterility or whatever it may be when appropriate.<br />
<br />
Overall, I am having a wonderful time in Kenya. I am learning so much about their hospital and their culture, and I love teaching about Canada and our standards.<br />
<br />Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-15437878333040715752013-06-21T01:42:00.000-07:002013-06-21T01:52:43.100-07:00<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span">Sydney here- one of the nutrition interns for 2013. I have to tell you about one of my days in Kenya...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="apple-style-span">Have you ever woken up and immediately known that it
was just not going to be your day? You know those days where you are so grumpy
and angry at the world for no apparent reason? Well today was one of those days
for me. I was waken up at 6am to the sound of PIGS<i> screeching </i>their
little heads off and<i> birds squawking</i> like there’s no tomorrow. I barely
slept all night and I was mad at the Internet for not working when I wanted it
to. Things just weren’t going my way. I also woke up remembering that I had
completely forgotten to inform<u> TWENTY </u>people of a lunch education
session I was holding later in the day and then somewhere between 7am and the
sound of the pigs screaming, I accidently fell back asleep. I few hours later I
woke up in a panic realizing I had fallen back asleep, and had forgotten to set
an alarm. See, at 10:30am I was supposed to go to Mamma Salomi’s house for a Champs Education session!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I showed up at Mamma Salomi’s and our women champs
greeted us with huge grins on their faces, so happy to see us and show us what
they had done. --- They did ALL the cooking – they were all ready and prepared
for the education session! I was SOOO happy to see them all there waiting with
the food already made, and the nutrition messages studied and ready to be put
into action. I spoke with William (the head master of the school that we were
supposed to be presenting at) and he was able to scrounge up about 20
parents/teachers to come sit in our session. The champs completely took over
and it was so incredible to see. They taught all the nutrition messages to our
participants and didn’t even have to use the binders we made them. Because they
had LEARNED IT. They didn’t need the notes as guidance; they really knew what
they were talking about-or I think they did. …Everything they said was in
Kameru so for all I know they could have been talking about how strange the
mazungoos were. But I’m pretty sure they were teaching about nutrition. I heard
“Vitamin A” and “Orange sweet potato” a few times. Ha Ha!</span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UF-R1FcmhCsiA-993-a83loRjf75Pv6p6Fe48IoQV5e4BVETDUnc4bPnkuXyR6CoEHUoOSvXluJur_aeN8McnoI7Jl_dzj-rlBrNEmH04pRr_FgvqgBuiqbyhrTB9uLT6wC3UMkmUQg/s1600/marinya.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UF-R1FcmhCsiA-993-a83loRjf75Pv6p6Fe48IoQV5e4BVETDUnc4bPnkuXyR6CoEHUoOSvXluJur_aeN8McnoI7Jl_dzj-rlBrNEmH04pRr_FgvqgBuiqbyhrTB9uLT6wC3UMkmUQg/s320/marinya.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mama Salome (Rael), a champion farmer and Muchui woman, explains how to make githeri nutritious with orange sweet potatoes or pumpkin, soaking and adding greens</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So,
Megan and I sat back and watched the champs take charge. Today I saw something
that really put a smile on my face. I was so proud of the champs and I was also
proud of myself, because without me, Megan, Jen, Colleen and the previous
nutrition students who have come here (Kaylynne, Christina in 2010, Harrison
and Amy in 2011, and Janet Fergie and Sam in 2012), today would not have gone
as well as it did. Today I feel like we really accomplished something! I guess
this is the reason why today became my favorite work day so far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I really got to see the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">women champs take charge of everything</b>. They did all the cooking,
all the teaching-they didn’t need us for anything but support. It showed me how
enthusiastic they are to learn and how adaptive they are to learning new things
and ways to use the most out of the resources they do have, to create healthier
meals for their families. The messages we have been teaching for four years,
about ways to incorporate the healthy crops that Farmers Helping Farmers have
supported them to grow, have been received!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> After our session, there
was food left over so we gave the rest to some of the children at the school.
There was also a bit of time to kill before we were heading back to the
compound, so some of the kids pulled me into a classroom and started singing
and dancing for me. So of course I had to join them!! A white girl awkwardly
dancing with 30, 3-foot African children was probably not a very pretty sight.
After all the singing and dancing I was told that I HAD to teach them something
in English…I had no idea what to teach them? I’m not a teacher? I don’t know
what 5-8 years are capable of learning? So I took the chalk…and went with it!
First I started with the basics…you know</span><b><i><span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> 1 +1 = 2, 2 x 2 = 4</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">,</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">but they
were catching on a bit too fast so I switched things up. Soon I was telling the
children how important it was to have iron, calcium and vitamin A everyday and
which foods they could get it from. That sugar was bad for them, and that
diabetes is on a rise even in Africa….</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Oh my gosh, those kids are smart!! I wish my brain
could catch onto things as fast as theirs. 10 bucks says they take everything I
told them today back to their families and tell them all about it. Kenyans are
so willing to discover new things here and will go to every effort they can, to
learn as much as possible.<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">I have already learned that things do not go as
planned, things are never on time; people are not where they are supposed to be
and, oh, the list goes on.But I am growing to accept that and I am adapting to
it as well. Actually something exciting that I am adapting to is the FOOD! Yay!!
I actually find Githeri quite delicious and could have even gone for a second
helping...but i didnt. Ha Ha!</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">….Anyway, another lesson I learned in Kenya is that
even though things don’t always go as they are supposed to-everything all works
out for the best</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">. Because<br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Copperplate Gothic Light","sans-serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Today could not have gone better</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">.</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">And tonight I will be going to sleep on the right
side of the bed :)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;">Over and out- Syddie (Kimeru pronunciation of Sydney) and Meggie (Kimeru for Megan), nutrition interns. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHox-Ruk_krXrC8OzfbjaswZGPTkjCk-Dho1JZDTjO7PWZtqX5mIMcZVcCEqe66ceKJRkLiXSmoBILYqk9HeUygHgUAQ373mD1QPLtrjI0Zu0m5u2E0ewshHsB2T9Egx6r5QeryloXng/s1600/1011132_10152876569655401_1633949168_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtHox-Ruk_krXrC8OzfbjaswZGPTkjCk-Dho1JZDTjO7PWZtqX5mIMcZVcCEqe66ceKJRkLiXSmoBILYqk9HeUygHgUAQ373mD1QPLtrjI0Zu0m5u2E0ewshHsB2T9Egx6r5QeryloXng/s320/1011132_10152876569655401_1633949168_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
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Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5285419670289591936.post-6597585690441940432013-06-17T04:13:00.001-07:002013-06-17T04:13:37.051-07:00All settled and ready for the summer
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">June 17th, 2013 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We are finally all settled in the compound with thanks to
the sisters and all our supervisors who got us here safe and sound, things are
going well and summer 2013 is officially under way!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone is starting to get onto their own
schedule! Bio and Nutrition are spending a lot of time together doing home
visits that have been going smoothly! The women are very kind in welcoming us
into their homes and participating in our research!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have made some very amazing people along
the way and all our new Kenyan friends are helping us to feel at home! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Project two for the biology crew, air sampling is well
underway and the data is looking goof! We are looking forward to the next 2
months to making new friends and continuing our internships! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Alicia, Jen, Sydney, Megan, Danielle, Vanessa</div>
Farmers Helping Farmershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13669517466557196241noreply@blogger.com0