Our first “Training of the Trainers” was a success! HealthEd Connect is at an exciting point in preparing the next generation of trainers to facilitate our volunteer community health worker (CHW) curriculum. The best part is the selected trainers are indigenous to the country and culture in which our CHW programs are located. Twelve participated in the Training program – six Malawi Sinkhani CHW leaders, and six nurse scholars from Malawi and Zambia connected with our CHW programs – to learn and practice the training topics before facilitating lessons the following day with 52 Sinkhani volunteers who had traveled from various regions for several days of learning and community-building.

It was incredible to watch the newly trained facilitators lead the Sinkhani CHW training and address questions in their own language and context. Three of the nurse facilitators are even daughters of CHW volunteers!

We’ll be sharing more in upcoming weekly updates about these exciting days of training in Malawi, and site visits with our CHW teams and sister schools in Zambia. For now, we’re sharing with you two videos, linked below, of Vinjeru Banda and Jean Jere, both nurse facilitators and daughters of Sinkhani volunteers from Malawi, leading songs during the Sinkhani training. Songs are not only a fun part of the group gathering; songs are used as educational tools. We’ll share more about that in next week’s update!

Mapalo YPM courtyard before paving

Mapalo YPM courtyard after paving

At the Mapalo Young Peace Makers School, a happy new addition is nearly done! During rainy season each year, teachers can find their classrooms covered with muddy footprints as students make their way in from the courtyard. But now, thanks to a newly paved courtyard, this issue will be much improved! The school has also been newly landscaped, thanks to volunteer work by the teachers, community members, and the PCSC (parent/caregiver association). The PCSC board chair, Mr. Polycarpo, led by example, often coming to the school for hours after his own work day to help move pavers for the landscaping, and making himself available in any way to help with the effort.

With the second school term just beginning, we are thrilled that everyone’s hard work paid off to complete this task while the students were on break. The students were feeling happy and proud when they returned to see their “new” looking school!

Meet some of the volunteers in this video from Mapalo head teacher, Emmanuel Mumba.

Teachers at Kasompe Community School of Peace, dressed in school uniforms

We’re so proud of our teachers who lead by example! Upon coming back for the first day of second term, the teachers at Kasompe Community School of Peace in Zambia “switched places” with their students! Head teacher Loveness wrote about this day, explaining: “We had a 'back to school activity' in which teachers were to come in school uniforms and students in [teacher] clothes. The activity was to motivate & encourage them to be in school and achieve their goal. We wanted to remind them that we were at one time students. It was really wonderful.”

We’re proud to partner with teachers and community health workers who lead with empathy, dignity, and compassion, leading students with care!

Check your inbox! We’re starting a quarterly HealthEd Connect Newsletter! With the highlights from the last few months, we’re excited to share uplifting stories and news with you. As an organization, sometimes our emails get sorted into “promotions” or other filtered inboxes, so you may find us there. Adding us to your contact list or marking us as “important” can help make sure you don’t miss a thing!

If you aren’t on our email list, you can reach out at info@healthedconnect.org to be added. We’re excited to share with you!

We are just a few days away from traveling to Zambia and Malawi! We’ll be visiting with our colleagues from the Lupula, Zambia province and the DRC right away, eager to hear how the new community centers and garden programs are going. Then, we’ll travel back into the Copperbelt of Zambia to see how the schools are getting along with the new improvements that have been made over the last year. The bulk of our trip, however, will be spent in Malawi for the first Training of the Trainers!

Nursing students and Sinkhani health worker leaders will be taught by Dr. Sherri Kirkpatrick and Dr. Jeff Manuel in the special HealthEd Connect way that gets everyone on the same level, acknowledges each person as an expert in their community, and builds up confidence and skills in each community health worker. These new trainers will then be the hosts of a community health worker training for all 54 Sinkhani volunteers, so they can put their new skills into practice. Stay tuned for photos, stories, and updates that will be shared after visiting with our partners!

Luapula Kafwa Coordinator, Jane Chibwe, has planted her roots deep in her community. As leader of a trusted and respected group of women and men, Jane has shown her skill in community development, utilizing teamwork to build the Mulundu Community Center! Now that the center itself has been built, new projects are underway at the site, and community members of all ages continue to be passionately involved as vast gardens, latrines, water projects, and a soccer field take shape!

In order to make room for the soccer field so local children could organize teams, plant roots and stumps needed to be removed so the land could be flattened as much as possible. Community volunteers cleared the field by hand (no small task!). After removing the roots, it would have been simple to push them to the side, forgotten on the property. But Jane and her team saw an opportunity to make this useful, and turned the stumps into charcoal! Charcoal is used in the village daily for cooking, using a small brazier. Now they can keep this charcoal for use at the center, cooking porridge for the children who come for educational programs, and for mothers and families who visit the center for health programs to take home if they need it. We’re thankful to partner with leaders who show such resourcefulness and compassion for their community!

Kafwa community health workers cooking lunch for students at Zamtan Community School of Peace

Today, on World Health Day, we uplift the important work of our colleagues as they advocate for the health, education, and empowerment of the women and children around them.

When we consider what it means to be healthy, it becomes clear that many issues are rooted in nutrition. If a mother or young child is malnourished, the risks of stunting or underdevelopment are much higher. If a patient receiving medicine cannot afford or access food, their medicine may not work properly, or make them feel even sicker. Barriers to access nutritious foods are barriers to healthy families and communities. 

Our colleagues in Africa see this issue and have identified ways they can address it in their communities. At the community centers in Malawi and the Luapula province of Zambia (and soon the new center in the D.R. Congo), gardening programs have begun in earnest, bringing community members together to clear land, plant crops, and share in the harvest. These serve as “outdoor classrooms”, where people can take what they’ve learned home to start their own small gardens. Our colleagues have also built garden sheds to store tools, seeds, and future harvests that can be distributed to clients or community members during parts of the year that have little food available. 

For years in the Copperbelt province of Zambia, the health workers have been tending to school gardens that augment the school lunch programs, adding nutritious greens to support healthy development. Now, they are looking at opportunities to expand their gardens to provide more food for some of their home-based clients who may be too sick to access it themselves. 

Hunger and malnutrition are major players in barriers to health, and we are grateful that our colleagues continue to provide improved access to nourishment for children and families, and loving support for the most vulnerable.

Water is life-sustaining, and our need to protect it is critical. World Water Day centers on the Sustainable Development Goal of universal access to safe water and sanitation by 2030…but we’re off track. Overuse and pollution are causing issues that extend far past local areas. Communities we partner with have seen decreased water availability, and climate change only exacerbates this issue. As water sources deplete, families must use precious time and limited resources to collect life-sustaining water. Families already at risk of inequity will feel these impacts first. Community education, collaboration, and governance are needed to protect our water and balance the needs of people and the planet.

HealthEd Connect is partnering with community health workers in several communities on water projects they have advocated for to improve health. Access to potable water is a missing link in many communities, exposing people to preventable health risks. Providing a potable water source closer to the heart of the community, and educating community members about proper maintenance and conservation of the water source, will improve health and sustainability. 

This World Water Day, we invite you to learn about the importance of water resources and how to be good stewards. Access to safe water is not guaranteed and should be protected to the best of our ability!

To find more resources and to learn about World Water Day, visit:https://www.worldwaterday.org/learn