Sinkhani Dreams

If you were asked to identify your biggest dreams, what would you say?  We posed that question to the 25 Sinkhani health workers in Malawi in June and their answers were humbling.  This is a sampling:

Everyone loves one another
Sinkhani all work hard with heart
Have enough budget for bicycles
Frequent refresher courses
Be dedicated
Exchange training with the Kafwa in Zambia
Have Aspirin and Panadol (Tylenol) to share
Expand to new centers
More training from Sherri -- maybe monthly :-)
Health/training Center
Equipment to weigh babies
Porridge for underweight babies

Not too many "me" wishes in the list.... These are the ladies who weigh 20,000 babies annually and just want tools to do their job.

Great NonProfit Award

We have been honored with one of the first Top-Rated Awards of 2014 from GreatNonprofits! We appreciate all of your reviews!  Click on the link and read what our supporters are saying.  #GreatNP14 http://greatnonprofits.org/org/healthed-connect

We couldn't be more pleased!!!

Welcome Agness

Left to right, Zelly, Idah (head teacher), and Agness

We're still missing our sparkler teacher, Mercy, who passed away this summer.  We are happy, however, to now welcome her replacement, Agness.  The head teacher announced last week that they had completed their search and found Agness who began her responsibilities teaching 2nd grade this week.  We are happy to welcome her to Zamtan!

P.S.  See the little rough-timber building with the holes in the roof in the background?  That's Agness' classroom until the new school is completed.  Zelly and Idah currently hold their classes in the church (white building behind them in the picture).  Everyone is excited and can hardly wait for REAL classrooms!  Let's hope construction is completed before the rains come!

Where are the men?

Fifty-three community members turned out for a work day at Zamtan to dig foundation trenches for the new school.  A long awaited day!  Now that the borehole is dug and water is available, construction can begin on the coveted new classrooms.  But take a good look at the workers who are digging and hauling away the soil.  They are all women.  Just proves that moms will do absolutely anything to obtain an education for their kids.

Serious scholars -- this is for you!

We're celebating the publication of our second research article in a refereed journal, Clinical Nursing Studies!  This is a follow-up about our orphan grief-support programs in Zambia. It is a huge time commitment to conduct the research, analyze the results, write the article and then get it published.  BUT...we love to share the news of the incredible impact this program is making in the lives of children.  We're also hoping other health professionals will see the article and be inspired to develop similar programs.

It was great to have our very own Kelsey Welch Novelli, who helped develop and teach the program on site, as one of the authors along with Graceland faculty and the Graceland librarian.  If you noticed the "evidence-based" inclusion in our mission statement, this is what it's all about.

You can access the article by clicking on http://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/cns/article/view/4724.  Immediately below the abstract there's a place to click on pdf to see the entire article.

Happy Anniversary!

We've been richly blessed in our 49 years together and are especially grateful for our HealthEd Connect colleagues around the world.  Here's to another great year!

Classrooms rising!

 

Jackson (contractor) testing the pump that made construction possible

Classroom construction has begun in Zamtan!  Gershom reported this week that:

Jackson, [the contractor] tried to explain that the delay was the shortage of Cement in Ndola, that made even the Blocks not to be made on time as he planned before. He said to the Committees that after we finish filling the foundation next week Wednesday and Thursday especially if the Community will come in a big number, then we can finish in two days time, then the true estimation can now be as follows:

September  - 0ctober   - November, the Construction shall be completed and December will be final touches to made sure, its ready to be open in January 2015, when HealthEd Connect will be here in January. What is needed is to be fully supported by the Community and things will easier for us.

Isn't this great!!! The kids will have their little heads covered by real roofs before the rains come.

Keep Smiling!

Your smiles are paying off!!  We received our first check from Amazon.com for $57.87 -- that will pay for 482 nutritious school lunches.  Collectively we spent around $11,574 at Amazon and I'm pretty sure that's more than the 3 electronic books I ordered.

So don't forget to type in Smile.Amazon.com when you go shopping.  It costs you nothing and Amazon makes a donation to HealthEd Connect.  Keep shopping --and keep Smiling!!