Health Day with Luke Commission

We just finished a health day in our community. It all started when one of the Rural Health Motivators asked me to call Luke Commission, a non-profit group that is from America. They go to rural communities all over Swaziland and do a mobile clinic complete with doctors, dentists, ophthalmologists, and pharmacists. They even gave out wheelchairs!

We were extremely impressed with their organization. They came and did not leave until the last patient was seen (which was at midnight!) and they didn’t run out of ANYTHING. Also, a family planning organization came out (Family Life Association of Swaziland, or FLAS), and Samaritan’s Purse came and gave gifts to the kids.

We worked with Peace Corps to organize transport for those who could not walk. I haven’t seen the official numbers, but I heard that over 200 people did HIV testing. How did they get these numbers? Well, they have a holistic approach, meaning they don’t separate out HIV testing from eyeglasses or whatnot. And if you want to see the doctor about something, they require that you get blood pressure, blood sugar, HIV and TB testing before the doctor will see you. I mean, that really makes sense, since any of these test results can change a diagnosis, right? It is a novel idea here to treat HIV the same as other sicknesses, but for Luke Commission, it works. And people don’t seem to be as afraid to test. Also, the fact that they stay so late brings in those who would rather not be seen going to the doctor during the day (young adults that are at the highest risk for HIV and are generally more afraid to publicly test).

We also had two of the nurses from our local clinic come out to help. It was really neat to see the community coming together about health issues. And there were lots of people happy with their new glasses!

I am now starting work on organizing the next library project with Books for Africa. It should be taking off soon, and it will be really awesome to be part of starting new school libraries all across the country.

Monday is the Swear-In ceremony of the new group, Group 8. Crazy that we have been here a year, huh? And I can say I have been living without running water or electricity for a year now. I miss everyone dearly.