I’ve now been here for a couple of weeks, everything is in
full swing. Getting to know all of the children again is lovely, each one of
them has a completely different personality and they all deserve the very best
out of life.
On a completely unrelated note, I’ve never heard so much
Westlife being played… It seems crazy to say that Westlife is so popular in
Ghana hahaha! I wonder how it began?
This is one story that the First Aid supplies have helped…
Fatahia is 16 years old. She attends Mole Junior High School, the distance from
Larabanga is verrry far and she walks there and back every day in the scorching
heat. It wasn’t that she came to me with her injury like most of the others but
I was walking through the village to see somebody and I caught a glimpse of her
knee. Her skin had been completely ripped off and she just had some cloth to
cover it. I asked what happened and she told me that whilst she was walking to
school, a motorbike had hit her and the driver didn’t even stop to apologise or
help. She visited the CHPS and she found out that her health insurance had
expired which meant she had to pay 10 cedis for it to be dressed each time.
This is a lot of money, money she doesn’t have so I told her I would come back.
Just by looking at it I knew that it was becoming infected, yellow gunk had
covered it. When I went back, as I was cleaning it I could see something black
embedded in the wound. I put some drawing paste on and covered it so the next
day it had come further out and I was able to retrieve it. It was a piece of
metal from the motorbike. I have been going to dress the wounds every day and
it is getting better. I also gave her, her own first aid kit and explained to
her how to use everything so she can ensure if something happens again, it will
be clean and infection free! I was able to do this because of the generosity of
lots of people :)
I have also been giving out First Aid kits to families within the community and explaining how and when they should be used, I think raising awareness of how simple First Aid can prevent infections is definitely worthwile! I remember when I was packing all of the supplies, thinking of how hard it was going to be to get them all here but now I have done it, it's incredible to see the positive affects on peoples lives because of something so simple and readily available to us.
So now, the toilet/handwashing facility that has been built. I am so so happy about this, as I hope you all are too as this is how the donations have been spent, to improve sanitation. It is giving the children somewhere private to use the toilet and to wash their hands. Usually they just go anywhere which for one isn't good for the environment and also them, its not hygenic so this facility is fantastic! It has been lovely to see lots of people from the community coming to help and to see what's going on. It has been painted and tomorrow, the children are going to print their hands on the walls, to put their mark on it.
With regards to the football kits that were kindly
donated,
I received a gift one evening, from the football team, they had
organised
between them to bring me 6 yams from the farm. But of course if I could,
I
would bring them back and give them to the football teams that donated
the
kits! That just shows they really do appreciate it! I will upload the
pictures of the teams in the kits when I can, it has taken hours to
upload these ones haha, they're worth the wait though.
