World Health Day : How are we helping?

I have decided to focus on an important and timely topic this week, seeing as World Health Day took place just this Tuesday! Good and easily accessible healthcare is something that a number of us take for granted (myself included.) For the families of Flora Tristan this is something they could only dream of. Healthcare in Peru for those with little money does not have a great history; with those with money seeing a much higher standard of healthcare. We are however seeing a number of positive strides taken throughout the country. 

Giving Aid

Making the water safe for drinking!

In our last Health Report, HOOP parents expressed concern mostly about the access to clean water and nutrition which is still a problem for a number of Peruvians.

At HOOP we use the support of a number of doctors, dentists etc. to help out when possible, and in 2014 we received aid from a variety of sources. Through our collaboration with Dentists without Borders, 240 individuals were treated, providing 329 free dental procedures.

Additionally, 63 health checks were made by a doctor. The most common problems of the HOOP kids are fever, dental and eye problems and stomach pain. Due to donations, we were able to provide stomach medicine to 103 different people. Every donation is so important to the community!

We also helped arrange six workshops, conducted by nurses in 2014. Nutrition is so vital for the members of the community since a number of health issues can arise from a poor diet. 

Dr Chihhao Chen, helping one of the HOOP kids

Throughout 2015 we hope to continue to support our HOOP families in ways that are most helpful to them.  

Just a few weeks ago we had a great doctor from Taiwan come out to Flora Tristan. He made a number of check-ups on the children and then followed this up with recommendations for the parents. We really appreciated him helping with our project and would just like to thank him again for his help!

Physical AND Mental well-being.

Mental health is just as important as physical well-being, so having someone to be there for the families regarding a number of issues is a vital part of what we do.  Marisol, who is our HOOP resident Psychologist knows the community really well and has a wealth of experience. As we begin our programme next week, our collaboration with her will be an important part of this.

If you are reading this and you like the idea of coming to Arequipa to volunteer your time and skills, we would be really glad to hear from you! Your help would be truly appreciated out here by the families and us. Keeping the HOOP families healthy and happy is truly our number one priority.   

Clean water is not self-evident

The first thing I do in the morning is to go to the bathroom, wash my hands, brush my teeth, and then make a coffee or tea. For all of that I need water. It is an essential resource to start my day comfortably.

I can access water very easibly, but imagine you have to worry about access to clean, drinkable water every morning. In Flora Tristan the only water that is accessible, is contaminated water in various water stations throughout the community. None of the houses have water, so the families to need to walk to these stations to collect water. Contaminated water can cause health problems including Cholera, Hepatitis A, Typhoid Fever and Diarrhoea. The families we work with have to use this contaminated water every day, because authorities are not taking care of improving the quality of the water. That means, that the families need to boil the water every time before they use it for drinking or teeth brushing, in order to kill all the harmful bacteria.

At our school we use water filters that make tab water save to drink. Those filters also ensure that the kids learn the importance of clean water and how it can affect their life. For HOOP volunteers filtering water, is part of the class preparation. To carry the message of clean water to the whole community, HOOP´s health classes teach about the dangerous affects of contaminated water to the mothers as well as their children. Getting such filters though is a big expense that most families could not afford. Their only solution is to boil water which uses up a lot of fuel, so even boiling water is fairly expensive for most families.

HOOP would like to say thank you one more time to the Taiwanese Embassy. Through their generous grant we will be able to continue with medical treatment to the children affected by contaminated water, as well as hygiene classes which will help the children avoiding getting sick in the first case.

Written by Charlette Voss

Healthy Body - Healthy Mind

This month we will focus our media and blog posts on health. Since many of the families living in Flora Tristan have nutritional deficiencies and no access to health care, HOOP is organizing several nutrition and health workshops to learn about healthy diets and mental health. Seeing that it is easier to learn in action than from books, we have organized various workshops with the children and the moms this year. This way it is more certain that the ideas are also implemented on an every day basis in their private homes.

The workshops are informing the community about unhealthy drinks and how many spoons of sugar for example fit in just one small bottle of Inka Cola, amongst other things. Furthermore they get to know, what can happen to their teeth, if they do not keep up and follow through with their oral hygiene.

It is very important to HOOP that the community learns about healthy nutrition and health in general. This for example includes simple things like having three daily meals, because if the kids do not eat well, they can often not focus during class or achieve good grades. 

Since the workshops got initiated, there has definitely been an increase of the awareness towards health matters. For that reason we would like to extend our health program next year and are pleased to announce a partnership with the Taiwanese Embassy (Oficina Economica y Cultural de Taipéi) who kindly provided us with a generous grant to extend our program to include psycholgical support, nutrition classes, hygiene classes, health assessments and treatments. We would like to thank the Taiwanese Government for their generous support und we can`t wait to implement the program next year.

Our two Taiwanese volunteers Nicole and Nikky, the Taiwanese Ambassador Jaime Wu, and our staff members Ali and Tammy in the Taiwanese Embassy

Written by Charlette Voss

Dental Week - All people smile in the same language

With the great help of Odontologos Sin Fronteras/ Dentist Without Borders, we had the opportunity to provide free dental aid to the community of Flora Tristan from the 15th until the 20th of September.

Dentist Without Borders is an organization with a multidisciplinary team of oral health professionals. They are providing social projects, tools and consulting services, as well as giving advice to companies, institutions, municipalities and regional governments in order to improve dental health and the quality of life of citizens around the world. 

Photos by Robert Els

During the dental week our classrooms were turned into a dental practise and with the help of Dentists Without Borders we were able to provide 329 treatments during 240 dental sessions. Almost 45% of the treatments were dental restorations and 17% were extractions. While the afternoons from Monday to Friday were used to provide treatment to our students and their family, on Saturday we opened up the free treatment to whole community of Flora Tristan as well. It was so exciting to see so many children and their families benefit from these dental outreaches, which was only made possible through the help of the 22 volunteer dentists from Dentist Without Borders.

Photo by Robert Els

The myth that dentists are scary were not confirmed by our children. The wonderful dentists just knew how to break the ice with the kids.

Photo by Robert Els

This little girl for example didn`t show any fear before or during the treatment. We are so proud of our students for being so brave and really excited to see the new, healthy smiles on their faces.

These are just some of the wonderful dentists who volunteered their time to help our community

We want to give a big thank you to all the volunteer dentists, coordinators and other participants for helping implement this extremely important project. And to keep our students` teeth healthy we implemented a daily teeth brushing routine into all of our classes as well.

 - Written by Charlette Voss 

Mind and Body

The students of HOOP in Flora Tristán come to class every day waging an invisible war against illnesses. It is nearly impossible for us to imagine, but many of them come from homes where clean water and toothbrushes do not exist. As a result, they often come to school baring battle wounds from their constant war: stomach aches and toothaches are rampant.

After oxygen, water is the second most important need for human life. For our students, this necessity is contaminated. As I recently found out first hand, unsterilized water can lead to brutal consequences. After being bedridden for four days, I took a trip to the hospital for a moderate case of dehydration and both bacterial and amoebal infections. I am lucky enough to be able to afford a trip to the hospital and the medications prescribed, as well as bottled water to avoid further infection. Most of the residents of Flora Tristán are not so lucky.

Providing safe drinking water for our students is a big priority

Mirian, one of my students, has been complaining of a toothache for my entire time as her teacher. One of her teeth is nearly gone - decaying away in her mouth for at least a month. She often stops mid-laughter to wince in pain and hold her jaw. It is difficult to watch, knowing there is nothing I can do about her pain. What we can do, however, is prevent it from happening again. We do our best to help the children of Flora Tristán by broadening their capabilities, and thus their opportunities, through education. As we so often hear, education is the best way to overcome the hurdles of poverty. But when the children are faced with a hurdle that education cannot overcome, what can we do?

 

Solely as volunteers teaching English, the answer is not much. However, if we step outside our job descriptions, we can improve their lives drastically. We have begun a series of health initiatives to try to alleviate some of the biggest problems facing our students: dental hygiene, clean water and nutrition.To start our campaign, Calvin, a doctor from Taiwan, came to Flora Tristán to give a full physical to each of our students and some mothers. He checked critical health measures and gave some of the students their first comprehensive check up.

Conducting a sight test with our students

Dental groups have come to the school to teach our children how to brush their teeth and the dangers of a high-sugar diet, which is unfortunately all too common. Soda (pop) is usually the beverage of choice, and when shown how much sugar is in a single bottle of Inca Kola, the students were audibly surprised. There was a clear lack of knowledge about the sugar content of food and the effects of sugar on teeth.



To help prevent tooth decay we have now started a daily tooth brushing regime at our school

The popularity of sugary drinks may be related to the lack (and cost) of potable drinking water. Thanks to generous donations and the organization Waves for Water, we now have a water filter in every classroom and can provide clean water before and after class to every student. Water, however, is but a single part of healthy diet. Jodi, one of our teachers, and Nerissa, a volunteer with a health-related NGO, organized a “health day” where they taught the students about nutrition and a balanced diet. The students were introduced to peanut butter, which they hated! It was apparent that fruits and vegetables are also not a large part of their diets.

Demonstrating to the community how to use water filters

Our hope is to not only be a place for learning English, but also to be a focal point for the community. Our goal is to tangibly improve the lives of those around us, both physically and mentally.