Pinkey and Sangeeta help a family test their new cookstove! 

In Nepal, many families experience health issues caused by cooking smoke in the home. The resulting health issues disproportionately affect women and children, who spend the most time in the cook space. Volunteer community health worker and nurse, Sangeeta, and our Nepal coordinator, Pinkey, looked for long-term solutions. They connected with a vented stove manufacturer and found a cookstove they wanted to test in the community. In January 2020, two families in Biratnagar, Nepal received  cookstoves to test for everyday use.

This has been a great opportunity to put our promise of “evidence-based” work into action! After a year of improved health conditions, time savings and reduced resource usage, many other families in the community were interested in vented  cookstoves as well. Surveys were conducted to quantify and track the changes seen in families who were already using the stoves, and to help identify families who would benefit most from new stoves. Survey responses came back so quickly that within TWO WEEKS, twenty-five new cookstoves had been purchased and transported from Kathmandu to Biratnagar!

This fast-moving project does 3 important things:

1) Alleviates health issues felt most acutely by women and children.

2) Allows for real-time research that results in evidence-based decisions.

3) Provides an opportunity for families to contribute a small fee toward the purchase of their stove and thereby contribute toward a community fund that is controlled by community members for other community-led initiatives.

This advancement in community health is made possible thanks to donors like you! After big delays due to COVID, it’s now moving ahead by leaps and bounds!

Pinkey, Sangeeta, and Meena visit with woman at her home to discuss the cookstove

What will you “Choose to Challenge” this International Women’s Day? In the words of spoken word poet, Anisa Nandaula, “Gender is a pre-written book, but not all the girls’ stories end the same.” Even today, there are girls forced into early marriages or actively kept out of school. Girls remain uneducated about their bodies, or the possibility of a future outside of marriage and motherhood. Our community health worker colleagues and school teachers  choose to challenge these issues and empower women and children so that this is no longer their pre-written story.

In all 4 countries where we serve, community health workers educate girls about their menstrual cycle and hygiene in an environment where they feel comfortable and unashamed. Women are taught family planning so they can have more control over the number of children they have.  Children are weighed and monitored throughout their first five years of life, making sure they are developing on track and have the chance to thrive.  These are things that often can be taken for granted, but can make a world of difference.

In Zambia, our Girls Achievement Program (GAP) for grades 5-7 includes team building, female development and hygiene, and emphasizes how important it is for girls to stay in school and avoid early marriage. After completing 7th grade, HealthEd Connect provides GAP scholarships for girls to continue their education through 12th grade, while offering academic and emotional support from a life coach. The Keeping In Touch (KIT) Club connects the two programs, giving younger girls the opportunity to connect with and be uplifted by the older girls who have continued on to pursue their high school certification. This cycle of role models helps to encourage GAP students that their education is important and worth the effort.  

We choose to challenge the lack of access to health care and education - both at home and in the classrooms. What will you choose to challenge this International Women’s Day?

Link to video by spoken word poet, Anisa Nandaula

Brenda sits behind her friend at the Kafwa literacy class.

Denied the chance to attend school as a child, Brenda found a supportive community through the Kafwa (Zambian community health workers). She was first introduced to the Kafwa by her husband, Abraham, who was a Kafwa member himself. Abraham was blind, but a loyal and wonderful Kafwa member, navigating the village with the help of his daughter as he went to help his community. Sadly, Abraham passed away not long ago.

After the passing of her husband, Brenda was comforted by the other Kafwa. As they uplifted Brenda, the Kafwa challenged the older gender "norm" that only boys should attend school, and encouraged Brenda to start her education.

Now that she has begun, she is INSPIRED! Brenda shared: "It is of great joy that am in school for the first time in my life and this is all because of you friends!" Her excitement is contagious, and her profound desire to learn will be passed on to her children, and their children after. We are so proud to be supporting women like Brenda in their journey towards education and empowerment!

Psst... Important news! Our new website is launching NEXT WEEK on March 1st! We invite you to check it out! >> http://healthedconnect.org/

A man harvests tea from a field

A warm welcome in Biratnagar, Nepal

How often do you drink tea? In American culture, coffee reigns king, and tea seems almost an afterthought.

In Nepal and Africa though, our colleagues would tell you that tea is part of their everyday life! Tea is a drink offered to welcome guests, a way to start the day, and a staple "food" for many people.
When Dr. Sherri Kirkpatrick made her first trips to Asia and Africa, it was nearly impossible to convince people that tea did NOT count as a food. Since then, research has uncovered the many benefits of tea as a holistic agent. Unsurprisingly, tea has remained a staple that our colleagues can use to increase antioxidants, soothe common ailments, or comfort others.
It's an important part of both areas' agriculture as well. Lush, green fields create a stark contrast against the red soil in Africa, and Nepal has a government sector dedicated to their tea exports. Much of the tea that's consumed in the United States was grown in Asia and Africa.

Today, we invite you to pour a cup of tea and consider a small piece of the culture that's shaped some of our dear friends!

Karen Mulubwa in the nursing skills lab

Karen Mulubwa in the nursing skills lab

February 11 is International Day of Women and Girls in Science! This week we have been highlighting several recipients of our nursing scholarship this year, recognizing their study of health sciences and service to improve the health of people in their communities. 

“I decided to train as a nurse because of my experience from my immediate environment, my community which is actually flooded with alot of helmets (diseases) and the presence of many vulnerable people who sometimes do not get utmost attention and support due to their  social and economical status. I thought my training will enable me to provide a service to all these people and possibly volunteer to those who  are in my reach. Furthermore, I am interested in engaging myself in community health groups such as the Kafwa helping the women cleaning wounds of clients with no relatives.” -Karen Mulubwa, Zambia

Fun fact: Karen was one of our amazing teachers at Mapalo Young Peacemakers School and she loved teaching. She struggled to decide whether to pursue nursing or teaching and finally followed her heart to nursing. Karen has long watched her mother, Grace, a Kafwa community health worker leader, tending and supporting the health needs of community members in Mapalo. Based on her experience in her community, and watching the Kafwa, her heart was led to pursue nursing and we know her compassion and skilled care will impact many lives! 

To empower other aspiring nurses who wish to serve their communities, click the link below and choose “Nursing Scholarship Endowment” to give others the same opportunity as Karen! 

http://bit.ly/Okagy1

Hats off to the graduates! Left to Right: Linda Mutalala (teacher), Memory Namonje, Helen Mukuka, Kennedy Muteswa, Loveness Mulemba (head teacher)

Graduates share how they feel about graduating! "Thank You", "Excited", "Thankful"

We are so proud of our Girls Achievement Program (GAP) and General Scholar graduates! From our primary schools to high school and now beyond, they've worked so hard to receive their high school certifications. They have big dreams for their futures, and we have no doubt they’ll achieve them! 

Kasompe Community School of Peace held a ceremony to celebrate the scholars from their area. It was so exciting to see these scholars - previously students at our primary school and further mentored through the GAP weekly program - now graduating from high school! Head teacher, Loveness Mulemba, reported: “It was really an exciting moment to have the first fruits of the grade 12s at our school. We had to invite the parents to the graduates, the kafwas, school board and the teachers at large. This was awesome, we enjoyed the speeches from our graduates in which they thanked everyone and especially our sponsors the HealthEd Connect who made it possible for things to happen.”

To say we are THRILLED for the graduates would be an understatement! We are beaming with happiness and celebrate their achievements! And we feel grateful to supporters like you, who helped make this milestone possible!

Helen wants to become a medical doctor

Celebrating the Graduates of 2020! 

Kennedy wants to become a medical doctor

Memory wants to become a nurse

Community health worker, Ramprasad, giving soap and masks to a young girl.

Community health worker volunteer, Ramprasad ("Ram"), is our hero of the week! Ram ensures that children in his village have access to health care, no matter the obstacles.

In remote Gorkha, Nepal, where he lives, Ram has been providing health education for women, children, and families for years. Ram has also built 25 latrines to improve sanitation for the community. And he's been providing soap and masks to families in the community for COVID-19 prevention, thanks to the generosity of HealthEd Connect donors.

Recently, a child needed to go to the hospital, but it was a four hour walk. The child did not have a father or a family member strong enough to make the trek. So, Ram volunteered to carry the child the four hours to reach the small hospital in town. Upon arriving, the hospital referred the child to a larger hospital in Kathmandu for treatment, several more hours away. Ram escorted the child the rest of the way to Kathmandu to seek treatment. Ram went to extraordinary lengths to help this child, and he would do it all again for anyone in need!

These are the types of actions that make our community health worker colleagues so amazing. Their drive to ensure people in their communities are given the best care is unmatched!

A recent message from the Kafwa community health volunteers in Mapalo, Zambia, showed the amazing impact made by donors like you in response to rising COVID-19 numbers.

"We have noted that it is of great importance that we help in educating our clients in mindset change to live well in this new normal. Our visit was not short of sensitizing clients about how they need cope with the current change in our usual way of life. This saw us distributing face masks, tablets of soap, a basin and Jar to helping them maintain the hand washing and masking.

Our clients...expressed gratitude toward the items received as this is making them feel part of the community as with the struggling way of life its difficult to access soap at the expense of buying food."

Because of your generosity, clients no longer need to choose between food and soap. They were able to receive everything necessary for a hand-washing station and a mask sewn by the health workers. Thank you for all you do to empower women and children during this pandemic!