Goat traffic

Bet you don't share the road with goats on your way to work!  For many people in the developing world, however, goat traffic is part of the norm.

The newly trained Kafwa in Luapula, Zambia, are off to work to monitor babies at the local clinic!  Jane, their supervisor, has a HealthEd Connect smart phone that she uses to send reports and share pictures.  She has no electricity in her home but somehow manages to find a way to keep the battery charged.  Fortunately, cell towers are popping up in even remote areas making it possible to communicate in ways never dreamed of in the recent past.

If you squint real hard, you will be able to see the women are wearing matching skirts or wrappers.  That's their "uniform."  Their fondest hope,---to have t-shirts bearing the HealthEd Connect logo--- is about to be realized.  T-shirts are on the way!

Little circles

Remember those tests you took in grade school when you blackened the correct circle with a #2 pencil? Well, those little circles have now been given a whole new purpose in life!

The graph on the left is a sample used by the Kafwa in Luapula, Zambia to document the weighing of babies.  Each time a baby is weighed, a circle is marked.  The rows are also divided by age to show the number of babies weighed in each age group.  In case you ever wondered how we document the exact number of children monitored by the health workers each year, wonder no more!!  

Thanks be!

Fantastic News!!

Thanks be for the fantastic news that was released recently!  Over $13.9 billion has been raised for the Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next three years.  Hallelujah!! We have made such headway in fighting all three of these diseases -- it would be a God send, especially for the developing world, to totally eradicate them!

The announcement was made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the International Donors Meeting in Canada.  Other interesting facts:

• Russia gave none
• China moved from being a recipient to a donor
• India donated $10 million
• Bill Gates donated $600 million
• The USA donated $4.3 billion  

Small Contributions = Great Appreciation

 

Litinesi, a long-time Sinkhani health worker in Malawi, passed away quite suddenly a month ago. The simple, but heart-felt service, was held in front of the thatch-roofed home she shared with her husband and 7 children.

Dressed in royal blue and white uniforms, the local church choir (many of whom were Sinkhani) played a major role in paying tribute.  After the service, a cultually customary monetary gift was presented to Litinesi's husband. 

Mkakeni Jere, the HealthEd Connect Representative, reported, "...the village counsellors and the Husband to Litinesi send their greatest thanks ...to the whole Healthed Connect Organization and to Sinkhani as well. The husband expressed his feelings that he did every thing on credit to prepare the burial of his wife, and now the organization has saved him from credits, that he made and he also said that now he will have food for the Children, the little  food he had he fed people who came to the funeral and he gave a lot of thanks to you."

We send our love and fond remembrance to the family of a faithful Sinkhani who provided comfort to untold mothers and babies over decades of service..

Old Tires

Old tires are worthless, right?  The HealthEd Connect health workers in Zambia would vehemently disagree with that!  Tire gardens are coveted because they work!  Requiring little soil, conserving natural fertilizer, hording water, and absorbing heat directly to plant roots make tire gardens a rock-star in our schools in Zambia.  The children are the big winners with fresh veggies produced weekly for school lunches.

The Kafwa health workers recently confessed they thought the tire gardens were a joke when they were first introduced.  In spite of their doubts, they dutifully acquired tires and planted seeds as taught.  To hedge their bets, however, they also planted a "regular" garden alongside the tires.  It didn't take long for the lush and fast-growing produce in the tire gardens to convince them to switch all of their efforts that direction.  They now have over 30 garden tires at Chipulukusu.

More free lunches!

We give thanks...

....for more free meals!


Thanks to all of you Amazon shoppers, we received another check from Amazon that pays for 656 more free lunches for our kids!!! If you choose HealthEd Connect as your charity of choice, Amazon will make a donation to us every time you shop.    Just remember to start with a Smile at Smile.Amazon.com and keep the free lunches coming!