One Year with Maji Safi Group

October 7, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

Tanzanian Experiences

Susan carrying water on her head

It is hard to believe that I have already lived in Shirati and worked for Maji Safi Group as their Administrative Advisor for one year. It feels like I have been here for a long, long time, but also as if I just arrived – a strange feeling. The other day, I was watching a video that development worker Christoph Stulz from INTERTEAM recorded when I first arrived at the office. Someone had written on the whiteboard “Welcome home”. Now, Maji Safi Group in Shirati, Tanzania, really is home.

Busy days working in rural Tanzania

Sometimes, I still struggle with the language; however, I am able to handle daily business and support my co-workers in Swahili. After a few special projects, like our cholera intervention campaign and Maji Safi Group’s first health screenings, we are currently running our programs as planned.

During these special projects, I had the chance to support our Community Health Workers in their daily business, and I learned a lot about disease prevention and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) from them. I am deeply impressed with Maji Safi Group’s Community Health Workers, who are not only experts in WASH knowledge, but also know a variety of teaching methods and continue to improve. All of them are able to teach the lessons to many different audiences – families, large groups of students, or government officials. They are patient and able to motivate their audiences to take part in the lessons. At the office in Shirati, we work together in a friendly, cooperative atmosphere with great motivation.

Susan registering Health Screening participants

Since Hellen Mitwa started as our Program Manager in July, I have been able to focus more on organizational tasks, which has all along been the intended purpose of my stay with MSG. However, even though there were many different, unplanned tasks on my list during this first year, we have made improvements to the organization: Program Coordinators are now able to make budgets for their programs and write proper requests for money, and the Community Health Workers have a basic knowledge of planning and budgeting events and know our accounting system.

Susan working with the Community Health Workers on planning events

We, the management team, established and implemented a new accounting system with new accounting software that is set up, so it will pass Tanzanian auditing. I have had to learn a lot about accounting myself, as the “Tanzanian way” of bookkeeping is completely different from everything I knew back in Switzerland. The system is completely paper-based, and every single transaction needs several forms with two to three signatures on it.

Currently, I am supporting Helen Mitwa in her new role as Program Manager while she learns her daily business. Additionally, I am helping the MSG management with its recent transition to having Emily Bull instead of Bruce Pelz as the Director of Operations. In a very short time, Emily has found her place in the team and taken over the tasks of the Director of Operations, and it is astounding how quickly she is learning Swahili. For sure, we really miss Bruce here in Shirati, but we are very happy to have Emily in Tanzania while Bruce is able to do great work for the organization in the US.

During this transition period, I have started to focus on two important work tasks, which I started last year: an HR (Human Resources) handbook for all employees of MSG and an organizational manual for the company. These documents will make it easier to organize our daily work. Additionally, we will continue to teach our staff about various items like how to write grant proposals, how to use the monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems, and how to make budget requests.

Susan working with Health Screening participants

One of my favorite tasks is taking pictures of MSG’s activities: events, daily business, team events, etc. Because Christoph Stulz, INTERTEAM photographer and videographer, is not always available, we use these photos for social media and documentation purposes. That is also the reason why you usually do not see me in MSG photos.

Challenges

Working, as well as living, in rural Tanzania requires a special talent I quickly had to bring to my professional work: improvisation. Unforeseen circumstances are simply part of life here. There were times when stakeholders did not show up to meetings or events, because the car or bus they had planned to travel with was not available. Sometimes, there was no electricity for a long time, so we could not charge the phones we needed for the hotline at the office. There were other times where there was no water delivered to the office because of illness, or I needed to fix something, but the parts were not available. Being patient can be a big challenge for me. However, now I am much more creative in finding solutions than I was in Switzerland, and I usually have a plan B in mind before I even start with plan A.

Susan working during World Water Week

Another challenge is creating weekly work schedules despite absences. Not only the citizens of Shirati, but also our Community Health Workers suffer from several diseases due to the environment, and there are absences because of sick children at home or funerals of close relatives. In other words, as we are working for and with vulnerable groups, we have to deal with a lot of their personal challenges in our daily work. It is most impressive how the Maji Safi Group team transcends these challenges and creates such a welcoming, friendly, and motivated atmosphere at work.

Being a member of the community

Susan cooking for a funeral

Besides the good spirit we have within Maji Safi Group while we do our work, I have already had many chances to spend time with my co-workers at parties or team events. We always have a great time, and I am glad that the women taught me how to dance, because sometimes I am invited to weddings or family parties with friends in my spare time. During the first year of my stay, I attended three funerals in my landlady’s family. I worked with the other women to prepare and serve food for 400-500 guests. The funerals took place on farms, so we were preparing and cooking food outside on open fires. Did you know that the meat of a cow is extremely tender if you eat it about one hour after slaughtering the animal?

My social life is also filled with work, as I also sit together with the women from the neighborhood if there are huge piles of manioc to peel. These are the times for chitchatting, laughing, and learning. I get deeply into the village life. As you can see, even if I spend a lot of time working for Maji Safi Group, there is still time to make friends and meet people from Shirati. In general, the people I meet are very friendly and interested in getting to know me and have a lot of questions about living in Europe. In return, they seem never to get tired of all my questions about the Luo culture of the region. We laugh together when our points of view are extremely different, and many are open to learning from each other.

Susan with her Shirati family

I guess Shirati has already changed me. You learn so quickly how to deal with all the problems and sad things that happen from time to time. Many people die young and from diseases that no longer exist in Europe or America. Friends and co-workers get really sick and suffer while recovering. People are really struggling to have a good life, but we sit together, share what we have, tell stories, and enjoy each other’s company. I am happy and thankful to have the chance to be here, and I am looking forward to having all the experiences awaiting me become memories for a lifetime. What do I miss? Sometimes my friends I have left behind, for sure. And some food I cannot get here. That’s it – kweli!

Susan Waltisberg

Shirati’s Got Talent

September 2, 2015/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Editor

Maji Safi Group’s first ever Shirati’s Got Talent!

The Maji Safi Group (MSG) team came up with the idea of “Shirati Wanavipaji” (“Shirati’s Got Talent”) as a community empowerment tool to draw attention to public health and disease prevention issues, while simultaneously bringing out pride in the immense talents the Shirati community has! After discussing the feasibility of the idea for over a year, MSG started the competition with a bang on February 7. Auditions drew more than 35 individuals and groups, including some of the more prominent singers and dance groups in Shirati. Hundreds of children were at the office that day trying to get a sneak peak of who would be the lucky 10 chosen to advance. To try out, all you had to do was receive four different Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) lessons from the MSG Community Health Workers (CHWs). This method gave us participants as young as seven and as old as 35.

After the judges had selected the 10 semifinalists, it was time for MSG to start preparing for our Valentine’s Day semifinal event – buy decorations, organize the songs each competitor was going to use, borrow a generator from a hospital guard, send someone to cut wooden poles for the stage area, check the sound system, etc. Additionally, our CHWs were busy finishing preparations with participants from our Female Hygiene Program and our Singing and Dance Group for their performances. When Valentine’s Day came around, we were excited to invite the community to check out this new and one-of-a-kind event in the Rorya District.

All competitors were on time and charged for the semifinals, and they did not disappoint in front of a crowd of more than seven hundred people. The show had an electric vibe with more and more community members continually trickling in throughout the show. In addition to their artistic performances, all participants had to give answers to questions about WASH, which the judges also factored in. The highlight of the show was an original song written by 12-year-old MSG Female Hygiene Program participant Joyce Thomas about the importance of staying in school. The song brought support and cheers from numerous women in the community! The judges, Susan Waltisberg and Consolata Ladis from MSG, Paulo Masweta from the local radio station, and community favorite Fred Chacha, had some very difficult decisions to make, but they were able to select the five finalists who would be performing at the Shirati Market on Monday, February 16, 2015 – competing for 215,000 Tanzanian shillings ($135). After a Valentine’s Day community dance party with the competitors, the semifinals had everyone leaving the MSG office with smiles on their faces and collective community pride in their hearts.

With the quick turn-around of only one day, the MSG team quickly shifted its focus to organizing the finals, which we anticipated would be our biggest event ever. The CHWs used the morning of the finals to promote the event by driving around Shirati with a public announcement system and by visiting market goers and teaching them about WASH and disease prevention. Meanwhile, the stage was being set, and the judges were arriving from the local radio and partner organizations for the inaugural finals starting at 4 p.m.

Community Health Worker, Diana Nguka, performing a Maji Safi Group original song

Once the finals started, over 1,200 community members came together to watch each finalist perform an individual and a Maji Safi Group-themed piece and answer two questions about WASH in front of a very enthusiastic crowd. The message of preventing disease and improving Shirati’s public health situation went hand in hand with celebrating local talents. With his stand out Maji Safi Group-themed performance, Double A brought the crowd to the point where community members were running onto the stage to give him tips. After much deliberation, the judges chose Double A as the proud winner of the first ever “Shirati Wanavipaji”!

“Shirati Wanavipaji” was a huge success for MSG. We were thrilled to have such great support from the community and to see that the MSG team’s innovative idea worked. Maji Safi Group is proud to be the only organization in the Rorya District that puts on events that provide a stage for local talent to bring awareness to public health issues! We look forward to making “Shirati Wanavipaji” an annual celebration of community talent that helps build momentum around MSG’s mission of preventing disease and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

A Practical Health Screening Experience

August 9, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

Hello! Dorothy and Michelle here!

Dorothy recently updated you on the health screenings that MSG has been working to implement over these past couple of months. Since the last update, we have hit the ground running and have tested and treated over 2,800 participants so far from MSG’s Home Visit, Singing and Dance, Female Hygiene, and After School Programs and new community members! This week we will wrap up the health screenings with our last school where we hope to see approximately 350 more people.

On our first day of health screenings we decided to trial run the program with our own Community Health Workers and their families. On that day, we saw 96 people in just over seven hours. Last Thursday, we screened 330 people in the same amount of time…you could say we’ve gotten pretty good at this.

A typical day for our health screenings starts before the break of dawn when we start moving equipment and medicine needed for the screenings, as well as transporting over 30 staff members who conduct the screenings. After all 9 stations are set up and ready, participants start the process at the registration table where one of our Community Health Workers registers the participant and any of their dependents. It is at this station ID numbers are assigned and urine and stool specimen containers are distributed. These containers are a centrifuge tube and matchbox, respectively. After registration, each participant is weighed and measured and may receive a Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test. At this time, Maji Safi Group is not screening everyone for malaria due to a lack of funding, but instead is gathering baseline data on infection rates in the surrounding communities using a random sample from our participants. In the coming years, MSG hopes to work with the government and find partners to support the screening and treatment of all our participants for malaria.

Some children just don’t like being weighed!

Participant gets blood drawn for a Malaria Rapid Test.

CHW Mereciana explains how to give urine and stool samples for the lab.

Next, the participants go to the bathroom to produce their urine and stool samples, which are examined by the lab technicians. All lab technicians, nurses, and clinicians that work with MSG are government employed and have come from the surrounding hospitals and clinics.

While the program participants wait outside, the lab technicians are hard at work analyzing every sample that comes in using a centrifuge and microscope. Lab attendants ensure that samples are not mixed up and that results are recorded properly. The participants are then called up to the clinician station, told their test results, and if sick, receive a prescription to be filled at the nursing station nearby. The nurses meet with each participant, pack the medication, and hand out medicine and a disease information sheet for the participant to take home. These sheets are full of helpful information that teach the participant about their treatment, as well as how to prevent getting each disease again.

Any participant diagnosed with Schistosomiasis (or Bilharzia) receives treatment on site after drinking a cup of uji (porridge), which is given to help reduce the side effects of the medication. Similarly, all children under five receive intestinal worm medication on site in syrup form.

CHW Jacob gives a participant worm medication.

When planning for this program, we talked with several doctors on MSG’s Board of Directors that recommended we treat everyone for intestinal worms regardless of whether they test negative or positive, since it is a widely accepted as being an effective intervention. Therefore, anyone under five takes the aforementioned syrup, while those who are six years and older get tablets to take at home. Finally, after receiving their medication and drinking uji (porridge), the participants are free to return home and begin their treatment.

Michelle and Dorothy taking GPS points at one of the schools.

Each health screening day is very full and exhausting, but is also so fun and a very rewarding educational experience for both of us. From planning all the way to implementation, we have been able to get firsthand experience of what it takes to create a successful participatory program that intersects both the public health and social work fields. While neither of us will be in Shirati for the completion of the program, we hope to be able to continue our work with MSG back in America by helping with the evaluation process. We have already collected GPS coordinates of the surrounding villages where MSG’s program participants live. These coordinates will be used in conjunction with the health screening data to help MSG understand disease prevalence rates by location and will impact how MSG tailors their WASH education in the future.

Community Art Coordinator Jacky shares a laugh with a participant.

With only a few days left in Shirati, we have been able to reflect on our time here these past 10 weeks. We are so thankful for all of the experiences we have had and memories that we have made while here. Leaving will be very bittersweet for us. We are sad to leave our new friends here, but are looking forward to the next chapter in our school careers. Shirati, you will see us again very soon (hopefully)!

The 2015 Maji Safi Read-a-thon

June 29, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

A Win-Win Situation

Second grader Lauren Ridgway

For the third year in a row, Maji Safi Group teamed up with the Wildcat Student Council and students at Whittier International School in Boulder to run our annual Maji Safi Read-a-thon – and what a success! The Read-a-thon is truly a win-win situation. The students find sponsors who pay them for reading books at their current literacy level, so the children greatly improve their reading skills, and the money helps Maji Safi Group run its on-the-ground programs in the remote and impoverished area of Shirati, Tanzania. In addition, the project helps children grow up with a sense of social responsibility and the desire to help those in need through personal effort. We call them Maji Safi Group’s ‘Young Global Citizens’. With support from Whittier’s principal, Sarah Oswick, and the teachers, the annual Maji Safi Read-a-thon is becoming an increasingly popular Whittier tradition with both students and parents.

Once I watched the video about how kids in rural Tanzania have to miss school sometimes to gather water, which often isn’t even clean, I knew I wanted to do something to help out. I love to read and was really happy to raise money for the Maji Safi Group to support the work they do.
— Logan S., 2^nd grade

Whittier International School

Since 1882, Whittier has provided quality education to the children in the heart of Boulder. With its International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program, it has an international focus and serves students from more than 20 countries. Led by former Whittier teacher John LeClair and kindergarten teacher Megan Proctor, the Wildcat Student Council is a force to be reckoned with.

Every other Wednesday at 7:15 a.m., the students meet to tirelessly pursue their four goals:

Take action in the world to help people in other countries.
Take action in our community to help others who live in the Whittier community and the City of Boulder.
Take action to help save endangered animals and their habitats.
Take action in our school and inspire a feeling of community and happiness.

For the 2015 Maji Safi Read-a-thon, Student Council members debated, voted, made posters, made announcement on the school speakers, and read books to pursue their first goal with gusto.

This Read-a-thon really got Alakai encouraged to read to and for us.

– Parent-Amber Garst

John LeClair

John LeClair and Bruce Pelz at Halloween in 1994.

John LeClair is an amazing educator who taught elementary school students academic skills, personal and social responsibility, and a love of life, literature, music and art at a level I wish all children would have the chance to experience at an early age. Bruce Pelz, co-founder of Maji Safi Group, had John LeClair in first and second grade. For years, John enthralled his students on a daily basis, not least at Halloween when he came up with amazing costumes to entertain his students. Now retired, John LeClair continues to run Homework Club and Student Council at Whittier on a volunteer basis. A true giver with a huge heart – always has been, always will be.

The Results

This year was the most successful Read-a-thon ever at Whittier in terms of participation, books read, and money raised. The reading logs were abundant, and the sponsors were generous!

Participants: 58
Books read: 750
Money raised: $5,191.60
Most books read by one student: 98 (kindergarten)
Most pages read by one student: 4,790 (fourth grade)

Reading log

It is worth noticing that we have two kinds of sponsors. Most students find personal sponsors – typically, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, family friends, neighbors – but we also have our ‘outside sponsors’ who sponsor the readers as a group, paying them a certain amount of money per book. This component especially benefits children who want to help, but are not in a position to find personal sponsors. This year, ‘outside sponsors’ opened their wallets with $2 per book and thus contributed $1,500 of the $5,191.60 raised.

Thanks for such a wonderful opportunity to help!
-Parent-Kirstin Jahn

Honoring the Students

The week of May 15, all Maji Safi Read-a-thon participants were honored at an all-school assembly, and each students received a certificate along with a coupon for a free ice cream cone donated by Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder.

Our After School Program in Shirati

In Shirati, Maji Safi Group’s Community Health Workers provide Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) education to schoolchildren in our After School Program. Since July 2012, MSG has partnered with nine schools and has directly taught 1,000 children about disease prevention, while also allowing them to have a creative, fun experience. By learning how to properly care for their own health, students stay healthy, remain in school, and can therefore achieve their full potential. Using the students’ creative, artistic, and critical thinking skills, Community Health Workers teach disease prevention education about waterborne and water-related diseases, proper water treatment, sanitation, hygiene practices, and the fecal-oral disease cycle. MSG also donates hand-washing stations and ceramic drinking water filters to enable proper WASH techniques at the schools. Finally, as a reminder of the lessons learned, a local artist paints a WASH-related mural to teach future students about proper disease prevention. Recently, we received approval from the District Education Office to operate the After School Program in all 125 primary schools in the Rorya District.

Thank you Read-a-thon participants for your support!

I had such a great time doing the Maji Safi Read-a-thon at my school! It was such a cool experience! I read so many fascinating, captivating books while I knew all the money would go to the charity! I think the charity is an amazing cause that is more urgent than we think! It felt so good to know I was part of helping an organization that really made a difference in so many people’s lives! Because water is SO important, and it is really vital that it is clean and people are educated about hygiene and being sanitary! The Whittier Maji Safi Read-a-thon is such an amazing, caring thing, and I would like to thank the people that made it happen.

— Sydney F., 4^th grade

It costs approximately $15,000 per year to run Maji Safi Group’s After School Program, so the Whittier students just enabled hundreds of children on the other side of the globe to learn how to stay healthy and have a better chance of succeeding in school!

Young Global Citizens

Third graders Amanda Kohla and Calder Leland

It is our goal to expand our ‘Young Global Citizen’ program in Colorado. So far, we have worked with students at Whittier International School, Casey Middle School, Alexander Dawson School, Fairview High School, and CSU. We are currently working on connecting with other schools, including offering practicum opportunities for CU and DU students. In addition, we intend to add extracurricular activities, especially art classes and the opportunity for Boulder youth to help create learning materials for the children in Shirati.

To participate in our ‘Young Global Citizen’ program as a school or on an individual basis, please contact [email protected]. You may also do a Read-a-thon on an individual basis; we will gladly provide a reading log, a sponsor sheet and a presentation (PDF format) about the children and Maji Safi Group’s work in Shirati. It would be the perfect way to keep your children reading over the summer!

Thank You for Making a Difference
A huge thank you to everybody who participated in and supported the 2015 Maji Safi Read-a-thon: students, parents, sponsors, teachers, volunteers, etc. Thanks to your support, the people in the rural community of Shirati can continue to improve their public health situation and learn how to be healthy to reach their full academic potential!

Martina loved reading the books and participating in the Read-a-thon. Thanks for having it.
-Parent-Arsen Kashkashian

SIT Independent Study Project with Maji Safi Group

May 28, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

Mambo! I am Sarah Muskin, and I have been in Tanzania since January 2015 as a study abroad student at the School for International Training (SIT) in Arusha. As I am an Environmental Studies major at Vassar College and interested in water issues, my program’s academic director introduced me to Max Perel-Slater and Bruce Pelz. Both Max and Bruce were SIT students in the Arusha Program in 2009; since then, they have co-founded Maji Safi Group (MSG), where I completed my SIT independent study project. MSG is a disease prevention and health promotion organization located in the rural Rorya District of Tanzania.

After working with Max over the phone for a few weeks, I decided to collect data on the perspectives of community residents, hospital employees, and the MSG Community Health Workers on the effectiveness of the Maji Safi Group Disease Prevention Center at the Shirati KMT District Designated Hospital. I arrived in Shirati on April 8, looking forward to nearly three weeks of learning about Maji Safi Group, the hospital, and health care in Tanzania, meeting people in Shirati, and running under the sky of this northwestern Tanzanian landscape. However, beginning my own research proved trickier than expected, because the day after I arrived in Shirati from Arusha, the first case of a cholera outbreak was confirmed in the Rorya District.

The first thing I needed to do when I heard this news, embarrassingly enough, was google “cholera”. While staying with Maji Safi Group, I had the luxury of having access to satellite Internet. Although I often had to wait up to a few hours for the Internet to work and be patient as pages loaded, the information about this disease was easily accessible to me. I was able to learn quickly about the symptoms of cholera, how it is transmitted, and how to treat it. I learned that I was not at a high risk of getting the illness since I drank filtered water and used a toilet. In contrast, people in the Rorya District are at risk of getting this disease because they do not know what it is, nor do they have information about the disease or basic hygiene and sanitation available to them. In fact, during this outbreak, the only people or organization doing any sort of education about this preventable disease was Maji Safi Group.

Just days after the first cholera case was confirmed, every Maji Safi Group Community Health Worker had been trained to educate the community about cholera (kipindupindu), and thousands of illustrated pamphlets were ready to be distributed. In the following weeks, most of the Community Health Workers, along with Maji Safi Group’s directors, traveled to the areas where kipindupindu cases were most prevalent and had claimed the most lives in order to educate in public areas, conduct home visits, and give out information about kipindupindu.

Personally, I spent most of my time gathering data for my own project at the Shirati Hospital, which currently does not have any cholera patients. However, the hospital center, which I was told would have about 6-10 drop-in visitors a day, had 55 visitors stop by the first day the Maji Safi Group Community Health Workers began educating about kipindupindu. What I found is that Maji Safi Group plays a crucial role in doing exactly what they are trying to do: promote health and empower communities to fight waterborne diseases like cholera.

As for my research at the center and in the hospital, I had fun and learned a lot. I roamed around the hospital with Bena, who was my interpreter, my friend, and a Maji Safi Group volunteer, finding medical staff to interview when we were not at the disease prevention center. At the center, we had our laughs with the MSG Community Health Workers, primarily Aska and Mwanvua, and filled out as many of my study questionnaires as possible. Though I have yet to study the data in detail, I am excited to see if my research shows any trends, and hopefully my work will turn out the way I had hoped and will be useful for MSG!

Being in Shirati has been a great experience. Though I have heard people say it is in the middle of nowhere, to me it feels like it is the center of everything when I run down the dirt roads with the sun reflecting off Lake Victoria before sunset, when clouds and thunder are rolling in, or when I see the Kenyan hills in the distance. The image I have in my head is beautiful with the people shouting “Mzunguhowareyou!” (white person how are you) or “kimbia kimbia haraka haraka!” (run run fast fast!), and the cows and the sheep butts only add character to the landscape. I have learned about global public health and gained so much perspective on what is really lacking in a place like the Rorya District in Tanzania. I feel so lucky to have spent my time here with Maji Safi Group, an organization dedicated to filling the gaping holes in health care in the form of disease prevention, particularly for waterborne and related diseases. I can only say asante sana (thank you so much) to the entire Maji Safi Group team for making me feel so welcome and helping me with my independent study process. I will miss this place a lot. So, asante sana!

If you are interested in getting involved with Maji Safi Group’s fight against Cholera, please contact us at [email protected] and consider donating.

Responding to a Public Health Crisis

May 14, 2015/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Editor

Max Perel-Slater, Maji Safi Group Co-founder and Tanzanian Executive Director, grew up in Berkeley, California, and graduated from Berkeley High School. He received his BA in Environmental Studies & Earth and Environmental Science from Wesleyan University. He also studied abroad with the School for International Training in Arusha, Tanzania, where he did an independent research project about the water situation in Shirati, Tanzania. He continued this research the following summer as part of his Senior Capstone Project at the Wesleyan College of the Environment. Max has worked on water projects in Shirati since 2009. He was selected as a World Learning Advancing Leaders Fellow in 2013 for his work with Maji Safi Group.

In early April, Maji Safi Group began hearing rumors of cases of cholera in the Rorya District. As a public health and disease prevention organization, we took these stories very seriously and started to contact the district health authorities, including local government officials, health officers, officials from the district hospital, and the district medical officer. Unfortunately, at this point there were no clear answers regarding the situation.

What is Cholera?

Cholera is a type of acute, watery diarrhea and vomiting caused by a bacterial infection. In its most severe form, cholera is one of the swiftest lethal infectious diseases known – characterized by an explosive outpouring of fluid and electrolytes that, if not treated appropriately, can lead to death within hours. In places where drinking water is unprotected from fecal contamination, cholera can spread with stunning speed through entire populations. These two characteristics of cholera have yielded a reputation that evokes fear and often panic. However, with prompt and appropriate treatment, mortality can be kept low. Furthermore, cholera outbreaks can be prevented or controlled through a combination of public health interventions, predominately through disease surveillance and early warning, safe water, adequate sanitation, health and hygiene promotion, and education campaigns on the use of oral rehydration solutions. (UNICEF Cholera Toolkit 2013)

Due to the severity of a potential cholera outbreak, we readied our team for a large-scale response, if needed. Although cholera awareness, prevention, and treatment are part of the MSG Community Health Workers’ standard training, we felt it was important to conduct a short refresher workshop with our staff to discuss the specific characteristics of the disease, methods of prevention, and home-based rehydration and care for people already suffering from cholera infections. We also found that there was a serious need for learning tools and handouts about cholera in Swahili. Consequently, MSG’s Community Art Coordinator, Jacky Lucas, and the team began developing a pamphlet on cholera prevention and rehydration of patients.

On April 15, we received word from the District Health Officer that there were 30 confirmed cases of cholera in the Rorya District. Cases had been reported in seven villages, which led to markets and public gatherings being prohibited as a precautionary measure. MSG had not previously been active in the villages affected by the cholera outbreak. These villages are about 30 km from our office and center of operations.

Cholera in Tanzania

While cholera has been eradicated in many areas of the globe, countries with poor sanitation and hygiene conditions are still devastated by the disease. In fact, cholera is known as the sanitation disease. Tanzania is an endemic country, meaning that over the last five years, one or more cholera outbreaks have occurred each year. Official numbers report that there have been over 9,000 cases of cholera in Tanzania in the last 4 years, with over 160 deaths. However, some community organizations suggest that these government figures may be significantly underestimated.

Due to understaffing, the Rorya District government did not have the capacity to operate a cholera education campaign without external help, so Maji Safi Group was asked to mobilize our Community Health Workers and step in. Rorya District Head Health Officer, Mr. Maimbo, commented, “Maji Safi Group has a very important role in teaching the community how to protect their families and neighbors and how to get treatment for sick people. People need to know to treat their water, wash their hands, and use a toilet.”

In cooperation with local government officials, MSG developed a plan for providing communities with crucial information about the outbreak, teaching students at primary and secondary schools, visiting families, and making public announcements in the affected villages. Our CHWs were also available at the MSG Disease Prevention Center at the KMT District Hospital to provide information and teach families of patients. Additionally, our hotline and radio program supported our on-the-ground initiatives with updates, allowing community members to ask questions and discuss the outbreak.

Local government officials in the affected villages were very supportive of MSG’s work and frequently wanted to walk with the CHWs to direct them to the families in the greatest need. After spending the day visiting families with the CHWs, Utegi village leader, Mr. Odhiambo, said, “It went well. It is helping us prevent the spread of the cholera disease. The community said these lessons had not been available before. They want you to come back and teach them and their neighbors more.”

Since the start of the cholera outbreak…

MSG has conducted home visits with

396 families

and

22 cholera patients

MSG has taught

754 people

at local markets about cholera prevention

MSG has aired

8 radio shows

about cholera with

169 callers

and

24,000 estimated listeners

MSG’s Hotline has sent disease prevention text message alerts and lessons to hundreds of community members and has had

92 callers

interested in learning more about cholera prevention

MSG’s Disease Prevention Center at the Rorya District Hospital
has been visited by

136 patients, medical staff, and community members

MSG has taught

1,646 students

at primary and secondary schools in villages with cholera

MSG has learned that only

7%

of the community members taught by MSG
had previously received education on cholera

MSG has learned that only

9.6%

of the community members taught by MSG
already knew all of the symptoms of cholera

The village of Nyanduga has been devastated by the cholera outbreak. During home visits in the area, we found that in certain neighborhoods, nearly every family had someone who was currently sick or had been sick within the last two weeks. The recurring risk factors with these families are no treatment of drinking water, no access to toilets, and no knowledge of disease prevention. As MSG Director of Operations, Bruce Pelz, said, “I sat with two 80-year-old women while Community Health Worker Prisca taught them about cholera prevention. I realized that this was the first time in their lives that they had ever received education about preventing disease.”

The lack of knowledge about disease prevention in villages like Nyanduga has devastating consequences. This became abundantly clear while CHW Jacob and I visited a large family in a neighborhood devastated by the outbreak. A neighbor told us to visit this family because at least one person had been sick. The family greeted us warmly, and they all stopped pealing cassava to gather around and listen to what we had come to say. They told us that their seven-year-old son, Peter, had started to have watery diarrhea and vomit three weeks ago.For two days, he got worse and worse until he was no longer able to get out of bed. They took him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with cholera and given an IV and antibiotics.

Two days after returning home from the hospital, Peter’s four-year-old younger sister, Linda, also began to have watery diarrhea. She was still recovering from a malaria infection and quickly became very weak and dehydrated. Her parents rushed her to the hospital on her father’s bicycle. She was given an IV to rehydrate her and was sent home. Linda’s diarrhea continued, and the next day she passed away. The night before the funeral, Linda’s 17-year-old aunt, who lives with the family, began to have cholera symptoms. Linda’s parents said they felt terrified and helpless – they did not understand why people in their family kept getting sick and felt powerless in preventing cholera.

As Jacob explained the methods of preventing the spread of cholera (treating drinking water, hand washing, toilet use, etc.), the family looked relieved to have the disease demystified, but at the same time frustrated. “Why did we not receive this information before? We went to the hospital three times, but no one told us about the disease.”

One person being sick with cholera can lead to many family and community members getting infected. The spread of cholera can be stopped at the household level, but families need information on how to do it. It is clear that while sick people are getting treatment at the health centers and dispensaries, there is also a huge need for prevention information.

The next day, we visited the Utegi Health Center, where the majority of the cholera patients had been treated. The staff was very happy to see us. They talked about how understaffed the facility was, and that the cholera outbreak had stretched them to the limit. The MSG Community Health Workers began a discussion about cholera and the challenges the community had expressed. It became clear that the staff knew about the disease and how to prevent it, but did not have the tools or the training to teach people how to stop the disease from spreading. We did a role-playing exercise where staff members played both community members and health care providers. We empowered the health center with pamphlets and asked them to inform us if a new patient arrived and needed additional prevention education.

Further Need of Support

The Community Health Workers’ efforts have been truly inspiring. Early in the outbreak, it became clear that Maji Safi Group is the only organization providing disease prevention education. The CHWs have worked tirelessly to reach as many community members as possible in the affected villages. The CHWs have consistently looked for ways to improve our intervention and to target the groups with the greatest need.

MSG will continue to work in the villages affected by the outbreak to gain ground in preventing future outbreaks. The community continues to embrace our message. MSG is also working to make WASH products more accessible by making agreements with local agents to sell these items at reasonably rates. Additionally, we are creating a plan for future outbreaks, including having a network of health providers in villages, so MSG can get quick alerts about developing situations.

As Maji Safi Group and the CHWs continue the cholera education campaign and develop an early warning system for future outbreaks, we need your support! We have set a goal of raising $10,000, needed to offset the costs of this response and prevent future outbreaks of this dangerous disease. To date, we have raised $3,500. If all of our 550 e-newsletter recipients and other supporters donate $10 or more, we will be well on our way to the goal! Please consider supporting MSG’s important work, so that more than 7% of the local population will have education about a disease that takes their friends and family every year!

St. Louis Earth Day Goers Combating Cholera

May 9, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

The day started off cold and cloudy, but shortly after unloading the car and setting up the table, the sun came out, and April 26 turned into the most perfect spring day imaginable. On this particular morning, Maji Safi Group was a vendor at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival at Forest Park. St. Louis is known for having the second largest Earth Day festival in the United States, which made it a prime location to interact with people from the Midwest region and educate them on the work MSG does in Tanzania.

More than 250 vendors participated in the event and drew a festival crowd of more than 50,000 people from all over Missouri and Illinois. With three different types of handmade soap for sale, visitors flocked to our table, and MSG informational brochures disappeared like hotcakes. Furthermore, festival-goers were able to learn about the current cholera outbreak affecting the Rorya region and how their donation or soap purchase would make a direct impact on the work MSG has been doing to combat the spread of waterborne diseases in Shirati.

Overall, more than 200 bars of handmade soap were sold, and many more informational conversations were had throughout the day. This event was led by practicum student, Michelle Dunajcik, who will continue to work with Maji Safi Group in Shirati, Tanzania this summer. Additionally, MSG was able to partner with and recruit volunteers from the “Global Health at the Brown School” student group at Washington University in St. Louis. Without these volunteers, this event would not have been possible. What started off as a cold, dreary day turned into a fun and impactful day for both the visitors and MSG staff at the event!

If you are interested in getting involved with Maji Safi Group’s fight against Cholera, please contact us at [email protected] and consider donating.

Women’s Day Out

May 6, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

What a wonderful day…

It was a warm, beautiful day under a cloudless Colorado-blue sky when a group of women met in Boulder, Colorado, on the morning of April 29 for the first Maji Safi Women’s Day Out. Thanks to their interest in supporting Maji Safi Group’s work in Tanzania and the generosity of the Boulder business community, we exercised, enjoyed lunch, and participated in a fun art class.

Erna Mai, Maji Safi Group Board Member and organizer of Women’s Day Out

The day started at 9:30 a.m. with an hour exercise class at One Boulder Fitness, arranged by General Manager, June Lantz. Our instructor, Rhiannon McClatchey, led us through a multi-faceted workout where experiencing the fun of TRX equipment was the highlight. Apparently, the military invented the concept of ‘suspension training’, and while we were hanging in those straps, it definitely felt like we were ready to be the next group of female recruits for the US Marines. But alas, it did not quite feel that way the next day when muscle soreness had set in.

June Lantz, General Manager of One Boulder Fitness

Our fitness instructor, Rhiannon McClatchey

Having worked up a nice appetite, we continued to The Kitchen, where Manager Geoff Barrett treated us to a delectable lunch made from fresh local produce. We thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and community spirit of this popular downtown Boulder restaurant. Delicious food filled our stomachs, and a glass of wine released our creative talents.

Manager of The Kitchen, Geoff Barrett

Basking in the warm midday sun, we then moseyed down Pearl Street to Two Hands Paperie where the owner, Mia Semingson, hosted a four-hour ‘soul collage’ class taught by Rosemary Lohndorf. Two Hands Paperie is a mecca for art and especially paper lovers in Boulder. Engulfed in hospitality, art, color, paper, and beautiful art books, it was virtually impossible not to feel just grand. Many of us were new to the medium of soul collage and realized what fun it is! Rosemary shared inspiring poetry with us and taught us how to make soul cards from magazine pictures. We were hardly professional by the time we left, but each one of us went home with a treasured card that expressed a little piece of our inner self.

Synergies and enthusiasm characterized the entire day. We shared as women can share – our thoughts, our concerns, our dreams, and our desires – as well as our involvement in the nonprofit world. At the end of this first Maji Safi Women’s Day Out, together we had made an impact on each other while supporting women in Tanzania to change their communities’ public health situation.

There was a distinct call from the group for more days just like this! Those will come – as an integral part of Maji Safi Group’s efforts to spread awareness of and raise funds for our important work with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in rural Tanzania. If you are interested in participating in this kind of experience and meeting some wonderful people in the process, please watch for announcements in our monthly newsletter or contact:

Erna Maj
Maji Safi Group
Board Member
[email protected]

“Thank you for such a memorable day, Erna! It was so meaningful from start to finish. I feel so lucky to have gotten to know each of you and to have the opportunity to laugh, stretch and grow together. I look forward to keeping in touch, continuing to support Maji Safi, and to getting together again! Hugs to you all!” — Wende

“What a delightful day this was. Thank you so much, Erna, for creating such a diverse, bonding, interesting and rewarding day. I enjoyed meeting each of you and hope to see you in the future.” — Alice

Wiki ya Maji 2015: World Water Week

April 3, 2015/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Editor

From March 18-22, Maji Safi Group represented the Tanzania Water and Sanitation Network and the Lake Zone WASH Forum at the 27^th annual National Tanzania Water Week celebration, which was held in Musoma this year. The Tanzania Water and Sanitation Network (TAWASANET) was founded in 2008 to create a network of Tanzanian civil society organizations that work in the water and sanitation sector. It strives to increase sharing between civil society organizations, promote partnerships between civil society and other sector stakeholders, build the capacity of civil society in the water and sanitation sector, and strengthen the voice of civil society in national policy debates. Furthermore, TAWASANET is promoting the formation of local WASH networks to strengthen impact and efficiency. Maji Safi Group serves as the representative for the Mara Region in the Lake Zone WASH Forum.

The MSG team that traveled to Water Week included three Community Health Workers (Diana Nguka, Mwamvua Saba, and Jared Owaga Ongati), MSG Community Arts Coordinator (Jacky Lucas), MSG Programs Manager (Susan Waltisberg), MSG Director of Operations (Bruce Maj Pelz), and MSG Executive Director (Max Perel-Slater). The team was busy all week teaching lessons on how to prevent disease and giving practical demonstrations on AfriPads, hand washing, and household water treatment methods like chlorine, Solar Disinfection (SODIS), and ceramic filters.

As always, MSG made disease prevention very engaging by combining creative and artistic activities with our health education. Jacky created an amazing banner for the Maji Safi Group tent that depicted possible contamination routes of water sources and potential treatment options. Throughout the week, Tanzanians from all over the country stopped by to check out the artwork and even take pictures! The CHWs and staff also used songs and interactive art projects to make our message resonate with our young visitors. Children of all ages waited, sometimes in long lines, in front of our pavilion to get the chance to draw and paint with Jacky and the CHWs. Meanwhile, the other staff members were teaching adults about water treatment and disease prevention. During Water Week, MSG’s booth reached 2,013 adults and 1,799 children from all over Tanzania who were thrilled to receive our health education.

The CHWs and Jacky also took many pictures of Water Week. It is great to see how our staff can now transfer the knowledge they get in our workshops to their photography. Our CHWs took all the pictures in this blogpost, except the group picture.

Water Week was also an amazing opportunity for the MSG staff to network with other organizations in the Tanzanian water sector and learn about new household water treatment methods. One organization that MSG had particular synergy with was the District Council of Temeke who does disease prevention work similar to ours in the Dar es Salaam area. While the two organizations work in very different settings (urban compared to rural), we were able to compare experiences with teaching the community and make plans to visit each other’s programs.

Furthermore, the MSG Community Health Workers and staff were able to check out new products for household water treatment. We heard about a new ceramic filter design from Davis and Shirtliff that uses low-cost filter elements. Additionally, we learned about a new type of chlorine tablet that uses sodium chlorite and does not leave a taste or smell in the water after treatment. The MSG staff took home samples of these products for testing to assess if we should integrate them into our lessons.

On World Water Day (March 22), the Vice President of Tanzania, Mohamed Gharib Bilal, visited our booth and commented that our work is crucial for the health and development of Tanzania! Overall, the week was an amazing opportunity for MSG to teach community members from across Tanzania, get significant exposure in the water sector, and create opportunities for cooperation with other WASH organizations.

Bikes for Clean Water

February 14, 2015/in Uncategorized /by Editor

Bicycles are instrumental to the implementation and growth of Maji Safi Group’s (MSG) programs. With bikes, our Community Health Workers can reach remote areas in the Rorya District more easily and teach more families about clean water and the importance of sanitation and hygiene. This year on January 25, Emily Bull, President of Maji Safi Group, and Michelle Dunajcik, a Maji Safi Group MSW practicum student, were invited to represent MSG at Trailnet’s annual Bike Expo in St. Louis. Throughout the day, they raised awareness of the critical need for bikes worldwide. Michelle started her practicum with MSG on January 12 and has already proven that she is up for the challenge of working with a fast-paced developing nonprofit. Below, is her account of her first event with Maji Safi Group.

With my arms full of printed materials and a travel mug full of coffee, I walked into the 55,000-square-foot Gateway Conference Center. It was a room full of bikes and bike-loving people.

Two weeks into my practicum with Maji Safi Group, and I was already working on spreading awareness for MSG and fundraising. Did I remember all the information about Maji Safi? Did I know how to get people’s attention? What was I supposed to say to people to get them interested and aware?

I looked down at everything in my hands. Thank goodness I brought coffee, I thought.

As the doors opened, and the Trailnet Bike Expo officially began, people started to meander around and peruse the different booths that were set up throughout the Expo space. Our goal that day was threefold: spread awareness of Maji Safi’s mission and the global WASH crises, raise money to buy new bikes for our Community Health Workers, and create new connections. Our table was covered with several pieces of Tanzanian fabric and decorated with pictures, an informative trifold, a donation jar, print materials that gave more information about Maji Safi, and stickers and bracelets for the little kids. We also set up a water carrying demonstration with ‘jerry cans’ next to our booth for Expo goers to better understand the conditions the people in Shirati face when getting water.

As people walked by, Emily and I began to engage them in conversation.

“Good morning, we’re trying to raise money for bikes for our organization in Africa. Every little bit helps!” I chirped at the next passerby, a woman who politely declined and began shopping for bikes at the display across from ours.

Oh no! Is it going to be like this all day? I worried internally. Quickly, the tide turned, and I no longer had time for internal monologues. Soon, a steady stream of new arrivals and interested individuals stopped by our table wanting to learn more and donate to the cause.

The day went so well. We connected with several interested people, AND we ended up raising enough money for FIVE new bikes and much needed repairs on the old ones in Shirati! The people at the Expo were so generous and loved learning about Maji Safi Group and the impact we are making on WASH behavioral changes in the Shirati community. I went home that night exhausted, but smiling and excited for the rest of my time with Maji Safi Group.

For a better insight into the life of a ‘Water Carrier’ and the need for bikes in Shirati, Tanzania, check out the short video below, filmed and edited by Maji Safi Group volunteer Paul Horton.