Field Update May 19,2014

Its been a great week full of visitors and visits, which always spells “collaboration”.

Some of my Canadian compatriots were out to visit  Panzi from Manitoba this week, hoping to help the Panzi Hospital with its electricity concerns. We had a chance to sit down with them to ask them a bit about some of the power concerns at CH Mulamba and with regard to our future plans in Mwenga.

We also had the head of the Panzi Foundation USA to visit and we had a chance to talk to him about ways we can try to coordinate our fundraising and advocacy efforts in order to maximize the results for the people here. On Friday afternoon we had an impromptu meeting with them outside the hospital while waiting for their vehicle to arrive. A few boys were also there with us and were happy to pose for some pics.

Visitors from Holland were also here to visit CH Mulamba as they have been a large supporter of the work there and wanted to get an idea of what the current needs were and how things were going. So on Saturday, we all went together for another visit to CH Mulamba.

There were eight people on the trip, each with their own reason for visiting Mulamba, but as for Dominique and I, we were there to discuss needs again with the doctors and staff and to explore the possibility of helping the unpaid staff and patients there with their food problems. In fact, when we entered the maternity waiting hall that I spoke about in the last post on Mulamba, the first thing several of the pregnant ladies sitting on the floor said was “we’re hungry!” in Swahili. We spent some time trying to determine whether it might be feasible to use a small plot of land behind the main building to plant food and possibly house chickens for both the staff and patients to be able to take advantage of. It looks like it would be a real benefit to the people there if we could do it, but we need to do some more research and consulting about the idea to find out whether it would really work for Mulamba and whether we would be able to do it.

This week I also got to spend a few days over at the Clinique Juridique in meetings with Yvette, the coordinator over there, about how best to help them in their work of providing legal advice and support to survivors of sexual violence. On Friday I got to attend one of the their conferences/trainings on women’s inheritance/property rights which was great because that was what my project was on in Ghana. They had about 70 people there, leaders from various local regions who were there to learn and discuss about the rights of women to inherit and own property in the face of competing claims from other community members and, at times, their own children and relatives. Here is a picture of Yvette explaining in Swahili the complicated succession laws of the Congo (essentially, when a husband dies and owns property with his wife, the property is divided into 12 shares, 6 of which go to the wife, 3/4s of which go to the children, and the rest of which goes to other close relatives. This can case huge problems for the wife who is trying to raise her family in said property – what with now having to share ownership of it with other relatives as well as her own children).

Here you can see a picture of the head of Clinique Juridique explaining and debating about some of the finer points of law with the participants during the debate period. Unfortunately for me, most of the conference was in Swahili, but that really helped to facilitate the discussion amongst the participants, some of whom were not comfortable participating in French.

This week we also had two meetings with Dr. Imani with regard to the plans for MSD (don’t forget about our fundraising rally going on this month to help equip the MSD team to set up a functioning health clinic in the rural area of Kavumu! Check it  <<here>>) Here is a picture of us delivering the good news to Dr. Imani that we believe we have located a donor for a small amount of solar power to help with the operating room other emergency obstetric procedures at the new clinic (unfortunately I was not quick enough with my camera in order to catch his initial look of surprise and joy!)