Stories from Africa

Part 1: Sending Visual Tools to Africa
Part 2: Adjusting images for Africa

Part 3: Safe Passage to Motherhood 2010

The Safe Passage to Motherhood (SPM) team were met at the airport by Emily when they arrived in Kenya. Emily acted as a translator during training, and takes responsibility for much of the communication between Bware and Portland, OR. Annie is a midwifery student, and the boys are Maggie and Mari’s teens. Mari is a physician assistant and Maggie is a nurse midwife.

In Kenya with specific goals

The team was in Kenya to assess the results of the training they started the year before. They identified specific things to look at while they were there.

• Assess the number of communities and participants trained,
• Assess the quality of the ongoing training as they cascade down to more
  and more women
• Set mechanisms in place to track health outcomes in trained communities
• Understand barriers and challenges
• Determine ways to support the sustainability of the program
• Strengthen ties between youth and women leaders
• Increase the emphasis on education and prevention starting with the young and
  extending through child-bearing years

Beginning to gather data

The Home Based Life  Saving Skills (HBLSS) program includes keeping detailed records of training and births. The SPM team was thrilled to find that their contacts had kept detailed notes and tracked their progress.

On the wall behind Mari and Emily is a pyramid chart. Each trainer filled in information about how many people attended their training each month.

When the numbers were added up, there were 10,000 people who had heard about how to identify signs that a woman needed help birthing. With proper training, skilled attendants can recognize problems early and can intervene directly or stabilize the condition and help the patient reach specialized care.

One woman started spreading the word in 2009 by training 15 people. One year later, those 15 have reached 10,000 people.

Understanding Barriers and Challenges

Safe Passage to Motherhood is committed to working with the people in Bware to help them solve their own challenges. The process includes listening to stories of what they are already doing, identifying resources they can utilize or reassign, and partnering to learn skills that can make a difference. The organization here in the US operates on a shoestring, and the trainers are volunteering their time and medical skills. This is grassroots. People sharing knowledge to help one another.

There are real challenges to spreading the work. Money to get SPM trainers there, money to pay for supplies and transportation in Kenya, money to pay for the medical supplies. At the same time, the groups have been incredibly resourceful in how they spend the small amounts they do have. The goal is always to think about the sustainability of the approach.

What are the problems?

The first step to looking at  barriers and  challenges was to make a comprehensive list of things that had come up in the last year. Seventeen items were identified, the Kenyans picked the top five as the most important.

1. Transport
2. Umbrellas, rain boots, shoes
3. Bag for carrying materials
4. Money for transportation
5. Badges and uniforms

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6. Sickness
7. Work at home
8. No money for help
9. Food for trainers
10. Trainees being late
11. Equipment
12. Vacation from work
13. Cultural beliefs,
14. Different ages and belief systems
15. No light at night
16. New people at repeat trainings
17. Distance

Understanding more fully what this means

We created a set of VisualsSpeak images to be used specifically to deepen understanding of these challenges. The more the SPM team knew about what people meant when they said these things, the more effective they would be helping them come up with solutions.

Before they left for Kenya, I had a number of conversations with Mari about what prompt to use. She decided to use:

Find pictures that speak about a time you have succeeded at a challenge as a member of BUCHWA (the community health group that does the HBLSS training.)

What happened?

There was no hesitation with the VisualsSpeak process. The Kenyans were very comfortable with the images and process. There was no learning curve. Maggie reported,  “They are very metaphoric, it was like they had drawn the images themselves. We had no difficulty.”

Many of the stories that emerged were less about the challenges, and more about the empowerment. Stories about being lonely and only affecting their homes before learning all the skills, and now being a part of something bigger. Making a difference. Being someone.

Hierarchy is a large part of Kenyan culture. This is a poor rural village. There are not a lot of opportunities for women. The SPM team knew this, but until they heard all the stories, they didn’t realize how huge this was for the group. The uniforms and badges the Kenyans found so important? Very much about being part of, being someone special, being someone with knowledge.

The fifteen Bware United Community Health Workers Association (BUCHWA) members have shared information with 10.000 people. What has happened to them as a result of learning how to help others save the lives of women and babies may be even more profound.

Next up: More stories (and results) from Africa

Coming soon.

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