Trading Countries

For numerous reasons I have moved my blog over to a different site so soon I shall delete this one and all future post can be found at

tradingcountry.wordpress.com

like this one http://tradingcountry.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/why-people-want-money/

Been home almost a week now and I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. You know yourself after an amazing trip or holiday it always takes a day to accept the reality of being back. Well imagine going away for 3 months and to a culture and landscape so different from your home. I know I am not the only one who has experienced this but this is the first time it has happened to me. I never believed culture shock to be real. I had been to Africa before and never experienced it and upon arriving in Malawi I didn’t notice it. (Though this could have been because I had mentally prepared myself for being somewhere different.) But I can tell you it’s real and very strange. I kinda walked around in a haze not feeling quite at home in the town I grew up in. Everything felt like a dream or film set and that it could all disappear at any moment. Anyway I put my western clothes on and faded into the anonymity of our culture and got the jobs done that I needed to. I avoided going into a shop for a few days though and when I finally did enter Tesco I was overwhelmed by the amount of food! And it was only a tesco metro! It reminded me of a question we were frequently asked whilst in Malawi, one which to begin with we found difficult to answer. ‘What is your staple food?’ in the end we just replied ‘we don’t have one.’ And it’s true, we may eat some foods more frequently but nothing like nsima which is eaten twice a day everyday from the age of 2 months. We are blessed with variety and choice even if that is partially due to GM! On a side note I have been appreciating this all week by eating a different type of cake everyday!
The culture shock is beginning to fade now and I think it is just because I have come to a point of acceptance. Honestly that sounds deeper than it is! It’s similar to what you do with lots of things when you realise you can’t change something you just accept it and then make the most out of the situation you’re in. Saying that I still can’t quite bring myself to watch British TV! Still feeling a little too deep for its trivialities. I have read a really good book though one which I recommend especially if you have ever visited sub-Saharan Africa or have ever tried to explain British culture to someone and realised it barely makes any sense! It’s called The Other Hand by Chris Cleave.
Experiencing this culture shock when I arrived home did further enforce how welcome and part of the community we were made to feel whilst in Mzimba and is another reason why my trip there was such a success and why I miss it so much. Being English and living in England has given me lots of opportunities and meant I have a had a good quality of life but life isn’t all about being comfortable is it? That’s not how we learn. I believe you learn through experiences and so I challenge you to try something new and step out your comfort zone. I have made some incredible friends in distant lands by doing that these past few months.
If you do want to go on a trip like I did look up ICS (International Citizen Service), the programme has been granted funding for the next 3 and a half years. So if you’re aged 18-22 years and to experience life in a developing country apply now! It is an amazing initiative by DFID and so means you might not have to pay a penny for the whole 3 month trip including flights. Also for people over 22 you can apply to a team leader on one of the trips. All the details are in the link below.
HERE!...

CD4 CELLS
What: A white blood cell which is part of your immune system.
Function of a CD4 cell: messenger of information
A CD4 cannot: fight infection
When you get any disease CD4 senses and sends info to other cells to multiply antibodies.

INFECTION PERIOD
<12 hours: HIV not able to enter CD4s
<72 hours: HIV looks for CD4 cells
If you receive PEP (Post Exposure Proplaxis) in this period, CD4 cells are protected.
PEP reduces the chance of the virus entering your CD4s but does not eradicate.
>72 hours: If HIV not entered CD4 then not able to survive

EXPOSURE PERIOD after 72 hours
HIV can only survive and multiply when in CD4 cells
HIV virus mutates and imitates CD4 in order to enter it
Once entered it will multiply until the cell bursts releasing more of the virus into your blood and reducing your CD4 count
The process will then repeat continually increasing the number of CD4 virus in your blood
As virus lives within your own cells it is difficult to find drugs able to permeate cell and kill virus without destroying cell
Therefore you always remain HIV+

ANTI-RETROVIRAL THERAPY
ARTs help send info inside to warn not to reproduce bad virus
Reduces the chance of new viruses entering new cells and therefore multiplying this prevents CD4 count from dropping anymore
To start ARTs CD4 count must be low enough that you cannot fight infection (350)
(For a healthy person count is 800-1000)

AIDS Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

If CD4 count goes below 200 this is classified as AIDS
As your immune system is very low it cannot fight other infections so you become ill very easily
It is due to these opportunistic infections that you become very ill and die

Safer practices
Availability of medication and services
Voluntary Testing and Counselling
Empowerment

Safer practices:
• Includes all aspects of the ABC model; abstain, be faithful and/or use a condom
• Sterilization of needles if before injections
• PMTCT (prevention of mother to child transmission)
• testing of blood before blood transfusion
• use of standard hygiene precautions such as use of gloves and clean needles for all patients.etc

Availability of medication and services
• People living with HIV have the right to medication and treatment. ARVs should be easily available and easily accessible. Remember ARTs may reduce viral load and hence reduce one’s chances of infecting others
• Medications that fight opportunistic infections that may attack people living with HIV and AIDS such as TB, pneumonia, fungal infections, should as well be available and easily accessible.
• good nutrition and clean water
• Transport should be available to those receiving ART’s or for pregnant women who are positive so they can give birth in a hospital
VCT
• VCT (HTC) is important because knowing your status is the gateway to prevention and positive living. Knowing your status will enable you to access the right advice on how to live your life now that you are positive, to get the treatment you need if required and to avoid transmitting HIV to others.
• Therefore everyone should access VCT. However, since VCT is not compulsory the most important thing is to create an environment that will encourage people to go for VCT, be able to accept results and continue with life as normal and continue with life as normal while following medical advice on how to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS if found to be positive and to remain negative if found to be so.

Empowerment
• HIV is all about information, ignorance and power. People who know about HIV and who can make informed decisions
• People who are uneducated about HIV and AIDS are at higher risk of contracting HIV as compared to those who have information.
• Therefore, empowerment, especially of women and children who are more vulnerable to HIV is key to stopping the further spread of HIV. They should be empowered to say no.
• Women and children should also be economically empowered so that they do not become enticed to indulge into sex for money this can be by teaching them skills.

For more information:
http://www.inerela.org/english/save-prevention-model

1. 150 people living with or affected by HIV / AIDS knowledge improved and livelihood skills improved.

This first output is also covered by the other 2 as we did not specify age however we feel this has mainly been achieved through our close work with volunteers running already existing organizations/projects. We have had a couple of meetings with a local support group where we engaged in discussions and some local cooking with them which can be used as an IGA (Income Generating Activity.) We also worked with them by planting some Maringa seeds, when cooked with these are very nutritious and can also be sold. Through this support group we have reached approximately 20 people effected or affected by HIV. We hope that this can be further built upon by creating a skills exchange with another CBO we have worked with who create products from old chitenjes.
We have also improved the knowledge and livelihood skills of volunteers at the CBCC in Kaulira we have been working with. Through discussions and practical examples we have imparted new styles of teaching and introduced a new routine for the children at the centre. We feel this should reduce their workload and make their time volunteering a lot easier.
Future ways to achieve this output would be to continue work with the local support group and try engage them in outreach programmes to attract more members. Also we could work through the local churches to identify members who may not be aware of all details relating to HIV and create a training programme.

2. 200 youths attitudes and behaviours towards sexual health improved and stigma towards HIV / AIDS reduced.

Over the past 8 weeks we have closely worked with a local youth group aiming to improve their knowledge of sexual health, reduce stigma linked with HIV and to improve their general functioning as a group. We have achieved this through a series of workshops focusing on MANERELA’s SAVE model. These workshops consisted of practical activities, discussions and then making sure each participant creates a response whether through poetry, group drama or participating in the group mural. To collate these achievements we have created a scrapbook with photos, copies of the poems and news stories focusing on HIV/AIDS. The scrapbook can also be used if ever meeting potential donors or as an outreach activity to educate others or attract new members. An initial training session of HIV infection and exposure was also conducted within which we dispelled many myths surrounding contraction of the virus. We feel this greatly reduced much of the stigma and discrimination linked with HIV positive member of the local community. We also aimed to improve communication within the group by introducing an anonymous suggestion box, working through trust exercises and creating more of a forum atmosphere in meetings by sitting in a circle rather than rows with one person speaking at the front. Through working with this youth group we feel we have directly affected 30 youths yet we have not recorded the impact they have had on their peers.
Further work with youth has come as a result of setting up Future Vision (a new children’s centre in the Boma). During our time here in Mzimba we have observed that many youth who have either finished their education or did not complete secondary education still cannot find employment this has meant they have a lot of spare time. We have aimed to mobilize and utilize their already existing skills and knowledge so they can be leaders at the new children’s centre. Not only will this mean the project will be able to be sustained when we leave Mzimba but the youth will gain new skills such as commitment, leadership and communication. One youth we work have been working with said “I have really benefitted in the sense that I am getting new skills in how to care for children and teach them how to develop good manners. In addition to that I spend much of my time at the centre thereby reducing my chances of involving myself in immoral behaviours that can put my life at risk.” These new skills should improve their chances of future employment as many employers will see that their character is one which looks further than themselves and that they are people willing to use their
time to help others for no payment. To get to this stage we ran a number of training sessions and meetings. Our first was to a local netball group where we spoke to about 20 girls about our ideas for the centre and giving examples of activities we hoped to run. We also had a further meeting with 47 youth all from the faith community (Christianity and Islam) where we again introduced MANERELA and informed them about the centre. More volunteers have come from the youth group we have been working with.
We feel this project and training scheme relates to the output as by bringing youth from all areas of the Boma together to help improve the lives of those effected or affected by HIV/AIDS we are working to reduce stigma and discrimination between the youth of the community. However we realise we have not reached directly the full 200 youth initially proposed but indirectly we feel many more have been impacted through a change in attitude witnessed and we can see how the number of volunteers at the children’s centre will increase over the coming months. Also if we had more time we would aim to use the dramas/poems/songs/art produced by the youth group as outreach tools and create presentation which would be directed at secondary school children to educate them about HIV and prevention methods.

3. To improve the support of 300 vulnerable children who have been infected or affected by the HIV virus.

We have had 6 visits to Kaulira and feel over that time we have reached over 50 vulnerable children. This has been achieved through looking at their curriculum and have introduced to their teachers new styles of teaching which we feel will be more effective. In the classroom we also created two new blackboards and some flashcards. To combat the issue of lack of food for the children we worked closely with the village
headman and chair of the CBCC to identify an area of land which can be used as a garden. We have begun to plant some seeds (molinga trees, cabbages, onions) which can both be sold as an IGA and used as part of a balanced meal at the end of each session for the children.
In our first few weeks here we visited a project with a partner oganisation, Everychild. We visited a CBCC with 69 children present and observed their teaching methods. We also witnessed a children’s corner which has proved a very useful visit when setting up our own and so has impacted a further 200 children. In the later weeks of the project we made a return visited to Bulala where we met with the leaders and staff of the CBCC and answered questions that they had regarding child care in the UK. The staff found this very helpful and enjoyable. We also gave feedback, based on our observations, to both projects visit ed in the area which were received openly. As a team there were many good skills and ideas that we were able to take from both of these visits and apply them in our own work.
We have also been working alongside a local CBO in Kasomba-Trees For Life. They run activities on Saturdays which caters for 10 surrounding villages. To improve the support of the children there we help rejuvenate their garden, again this will help provide more food for the children coming and created a swing out of local resources. We also spent a day playing with the children (over 135) teaching them new games and songs that the volunteers observed so they could be repeated at another time.
A further 200 vulnerable children have been reached by a visit to St Paul’s, a local primary school. As volunteers we were split into different classrooms and assisted with teaching for a morning and well as observing teaching methods.
Working with partner organization COIDA we travelled to Jenda and met over 150 children who have been forced into child labour but have now been taken out and placed into schools. We also visited multi-learning centre’s which provide teaching of practical skills (tailoring/carpentry) for those who do not feel they could return to a school environment. We have learnt that child labour does relate to HIV as many children have to work as a way to support their families if one parent or both are ill or have died as a result of the virus.
Our main indicator that we have achieved this objective has been through the setting up of a new children’s centre here is Mzimba Boma. It is called Future Vision, under the umbrella of Manerela+ and combines aspects of all the work we have seen through our partner organisations and some of our own personal experiences from work in the UK. We meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2-4.30pm in an old school building at LEA primary school. So far we have over 240 children registered and on our last afternoon 194 children were present. We have created 3 main playing/learning areas, these include creative, sport and quiet. The idea behind Future Vision is not only to provide a safe space for vulnerable children in the area to come and play and have fun whilst socializing but also to provide psycho-social support and teach them new skills. These skills have a large focus on HIV prevention, discipline and dealing with the challenges of life. Every activity has a lesson behind it and the volunteers are responsible for introducing this and communicating with the children whilst the activity is being carried out. We hope relationships will form between the volunteers and children so that if a problem arises with a child they will feel comfortable sharing it with a volunteer so that it can be resolved. To reach more children we have recorded a short interview with some of our volunteers in conjunction with Mzimba community radio which we hope will be aired in the coming weeks. (For further information a copy of our mission statement can be sent.)
As a team we feel we have succeeded in achieving this output however we realise there is still so much work that can be done to improve the support of vulnerable children in the area. If time was no longer a limiting factor we would continue to work with the volunteers at Kaulira and provide more specific teacher training and work with them to ensure the new routine suggested is creating a positive impact. We would also liked to have made a subsequent visits to St Paul’s primary school where we would have assisted the teachers in their lessons to ensure all children receive adequate help. In addition to this we would carry on our work with Future Vision; training new volunteers and strengthening the existing structures and teaching programmes.