|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ACTIVITIES continued... Fumigation On the 18th of April, 2007, the Ahadi group returned to Murang’a to carry out the fumigation of the affected homes and restock the centre with more equipment. The exercise was successful and a good report was given since the opening of the centre. Tremendous change was witnessed and it is confirmation that the therapy recommended by Ahadi Kenya was working.
The centre was opened on 11th April, 2007 at Karunge centre in Gitugi location. The centre opening was a great success with combined efforts of both the villagers and the party from Nairobi who included Cecilia Mwangi, the 2005 Miss world Kenya, Nelly Gathii, 1st runner’s up Miss World Kenya, 2004 and Catherine Wainaina, Miss Global 2006. The Ahadi personnel was well represented by their Executive and Programmes Directors, Mr. Stanley Kamau and Joseph Mathai respectively who came with friends of Ahadi who have been touched by the plight of these people. Cecilia Mwangi duly opened the centre after giving her speech and thereafter gave a demonstration of how to clean and treat infected feet. This is the initial centre and another should be opened in June this year to cater for the upper region of Gitugi location.
The centre objectives shall be as follows: 1. Rescue and referral of jigger infested persons to health centres: This will involve community mobilisation, identification of jigger infested people and referral to health centres for treatment. 2. Facilitate youth groups to come up with ways of educating the community on prevention and treatment of jiggers: This will involve mobilisation of youth groups, training on causes, prevention and treatment of jiggers, facilitation of meetings and development of plays around certain issues related to jigger infestations affecting the society. 3. Facilitate theatrical performances at community meetings: This will involve facilitation of theatrical performances at different places in the community including schools, market places, churches etc. 4. Facilitate health training in schools: This will involve mobilisation in schools, formation of health clubs and facilitation of training of club patrons and leaders. 5. Use different fora to train the community on hygiene: This will involve development and distribution of flyers on jiggers and going to different community meetings to give talks on jiggers.
6. Facilitate community jigger eradication campaigns. 7. Facilitate clean up campaigns. 8. Facilitate training of health workers to change attitude towards jigger infestation: Jigger infestation is commonly seen as an embarrassment in society and many people will be shy to come out and visit health centres as the same attitude is held by health workers. It is therefore important to organise workshops for health workers in order to change their attitudes towards jigger infestations and encourage the community to seek for medical care in case of heavy infestation. 9. Support health centres with simple surgical equipment and material for treatment of jigger infested people.
10. Facilitate workshops to train target groups on causes, treatment and prevention of jigger infestation. The community groups will be facilitated to be community own resource persons meant to continue with the trainings even after the project closes. 11. Hold discussions in the media to come up with best practices in the prevention and treatment of jiggers.
12. Run and manage a jigger centre. 13. Monitoring and evaluation of the project. 14. Documentation of the project and dissemination of information to stakeholders and community.
Media Launch On confirming the magnitude of this problem, Ahadi Kenya went a step further and organised a media launch for the project. This was on the 30th March, 2007 at Panafric hotel, Umati Hall and was well attended by Citizen TV, Nation Newspapers, The People Daily, STV and Kenya Times. A graphic presentation was made and the pictures that had been collected from the two visits were used. The reactions on the attendees faces were enough to tell that this was something that needed to be rectified and fast. The presentation was followed by an open discourse that gave everyone an opportunity to air their feelings on the issue. The revelation that this is a problem and a big one at that heralded for Ahadi to take another step in trying to assist this villagers combat this crisis. It put its head together with other friends, together with Cecilia Mwangi who took up the initiative of ambassador of the project that was dubbed, 'Help remove my jigger'. The quickest and most impacting way to help was to put up a centre where the infected people would get therapeutic, managerial and counselling help. Most of the journalists present at the launch promised to accompany the Ahadi group on the centre opening trip to get a feel of this pandemic.
Home Visits The next stop the group made was at Hannah Wangechi’s home. She is a woman who is probably in her mid to late twenties; she is not sure when she was born. The first impression one gets as soon as they encounter her is her timidity – this must be as a result of her condition, she is very aware that she is different. This must be due to the stigma that has come with her condition. She is married and has two children. Her husband works at a stone quarry a few kilometres from her home. She is the only one with the problem in her family and this began even before she got married. This brings about the fact that there are people that are prone to be attacked by jiggers while others will not be attacked. Wangechi of course cannot wear shoes – her feet have been badly disfigured by the jiggers and would not fit into shoes let alone the pain she would have to endure during this feat. Wangechi confirms that she shares her sleeping quarters with chickens. These are the perfect carriers of this pest and they easily pass them on to humans.
Gladys Wanjiru is a mother of two, a four and 1 and a half year old. Her husband Bernard Githere including her two children Gitumbi and Irungu have been intensely attacked by jiggers. Githere is not mentally stable and has this problem for some time now. He says it is seasonal and the jiggers are at their peak during the hot season. Irungu, the younger of the two boys can hardly crawl or walk, his legs are too weak and his growth seems to have been affected by this problem. Poverty is also apparent and the whole family lives in a tiny tin shack that can hardly house a single person. Birue is approximately 45 years old and lives with a distant relative. He has a dark past - both his parents are dead and he lost his only brother in an unfortunate incident. Both his feet have been extensively damaged by the jiggers and his hands have not been spared either. Birue lives in a one roomed shack that is in a state of neglect and it is obvious how the jiggers have been able to make a home of his feet. He exhibits a slowness of the mind and this is notably common in most of the people infected by jiggers.
Schools affected The first stop was a school called Kiangage primary school. Kiangage is a kikuyu name that means a place of the jigger. This place was named after the jigger due to the magnitude of jigger infestation of these villagers. There were so many jiggers that the only way one would identify or describe this place was with the jiggers – thus the name. The Kiangange primary school headmaster Mr. Maina stresses that this is a problem that still reins. He believes the jiggers must have come with the Indians who constructed the railway (it passes just next to the school) – at least that is what the villagers believe. The school has a several pupils who have been attacked by this bug and have to endure excruciating ridicule from their fellow pupils not to mention the discomfort of having these bugs in ones toes. Mr. Maina cites one pupil who is worst affected. Kamau comes from a very poor family. This is evident from his tattered school uniform and the fact that he cannot afford to bring lunch like the rest of the pupils, his class teacher confides. He does without lunch and in the evening has a meal of ugali with nothing or hard boiled maize for dinner. Mr. Maina discloses that his school is in the process of starting a health club and this shall be involved in observing the hygiene of the pupils and cases like Kamau’s can be taken care of at school since it is also very difficult for him to observe hygiene in the dire straits at home.
Karunge primary school is in Gitugi location in Karunge sub-location. The jigger pandemic has not spared these pupils either and at least 6 girls and 9 boys were easily assembled ranging from intensely to mildly attacked. Joseph Githira is a dire case and has had both his feet, on his toes including his heels attacked. His feet are disfigured and one can sense some consciousness about this condition even though he is only 9yrs old. Other schools affected by this pandemic are Chui, Githendu, Kanjahi and Ngutu primary schools. A visit to a village in Murang’a district by personnel of Ahadi Kenya found shocking and unbelievable levels of jigger infestation. The visit’s sole purpose was to find out exactly if the jigger was still a pest in the village. A visit to a few homes just confirmed this fear. The jigger is as rife as it was decades ago and is causing magnitudes of misery to its victims. This visit was finalised with the commissioning of people on the ground to further carry out investigations on those affected by the bug. This birthed a consequential visit on the 21st of March, 2007.
Before this second visit, members of Ahadi Kenya interacted with some celebrities and intimated the jigger dilemma in Murang’a. Cecilia Mwangi, Miss World Kenya, 2005, was moved and decided to accompany the group that was doing a follow-up visit which included the Ahadi Kenya Executive and programme directors and media crew from the KTN TV station.
^ Return to top I Return to home page
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
