A week at the Zambia Project!

Hello Everyone! Julia and Sam here.

This past week, we were lucky enough to be placed at the Zambia Project. The Zambia Project consists of the Save a Life Center, a walk-in clinic, an orphanage, and an elementary school for vulnerable children. We both spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the Save a Life Center, which is a feeding program for severely malnourished babies and children in the area. When a malnourished child is admitted into this program, they are brought in once per week by their mother or guardian so that they can be weighed and assessed. The mothers are then provided enough food to properly feed their children for the week. The child’s weight gain and health status are monitored weekly for the 6-month duration of this program, and mothers are provided with education on how to properly feed and care for their children during this time. The Zambia Project also does home visits for certain children in order to assess their home environment and monitor their progress. We were lucky enough to be able to participate in multiple home visits, and we also helped out in the walk-in clinic by assessing patients with the physician, doing vital signs, and doing malaria tests.

Julia – I thoroughly enjoyed my time and learning at the Zambia Project and found it to be a very eye-opening experience. Although I had a hard time seeing so many young children very sick and malnourished, I was happy to see the positive difference that this feeding program is making by improving the nutritional and health status of so many children. My time at the Zambia Project also helped me to realize and reflect on the many reasons behind why these children are malnourished and helped me to examine the social determinants of health that are affecting these families. Some of the contributing factors I witnessed were little or no source of income, parental illness, lack of parental education regarding nutrition, and lack of access to a variety of food. Some children were malnourished due to another underlying health factor, such as a disability or another illness such as HIV. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had the opportunity to participate in the feeding program, and involved weighing children, rationing the food to the parents, and of course lots of play therapy with the kiddies, which I loved.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we had the opportunity to visit the homes of many children on the feeding program in order to assess their home situation. I found these experiences to be very valuable for my learning, as they really provided me with a first-hand look at the challenges these families are facing. Most of the homes I visited were made of sticks and mud, had no electricity, and consisted of one bed where the whole family slept. During our home visits, we ensured that the child was being fed properly with the food that has been rationed to them, and we also inspected the cleanliness of the house and the presence of a mosquito net. We also found ourselves having to advocate for a particular child in order to get her to the hospital so that she could receive medical treatment. I am very grateful that we were welcomed into these homes, and for the support of the community health worker that was guiding us through these home visits. I loved working with the passionate and knowledgeable staff at the Zambia Project, and believe this organization is making a big difference in the lives of many malnourished children in Mongu.

Sam - This clinical placement has opened up my eyes so much. I am so thankful for the new things I have learned and the experiences I have had. I really enjoyed interacting and playing with the children while their mothers/caregivers were learning the lesson for the day. When interacting with the children I was surprised about how evident it was to see the difference between the children who have been on the feeding program for a while and those ones who are more new to the program. The newer children who were more malnourished acted less energetic and didn’t talk or interact as much. After talking to the staff at the Zambia Project, they stated that it was common that the children who were almost finished the program were the ones who were the more energetic, couldn’t sit still, and were acting like a “normal” child. Seeing this first-hand really highlighted the importance of good nutrition in children.

Another aspect I enjoyed was going on home visits. Participating in these made me realize the number of obstacles these families must overcome to feed their children. For example, some of these families have to travel (usually by foot) far distances get food, they may not have enough money to buy food, they may not have access to clean water and may have a lack of education in regard to nutrition. While visiting with one mother, we found out that her top goal was to move somewhere where there was access to electricity so that she could cook for her child at any time of the day, especially at night when the child is hungry. I never put much thought into how easy we have it in Canada to keep our children nourished. Now thinking about it, making your child something to eat quickly at night without electricity would be such a struggle. You would have to find the supplies in the dark, try an start a fire, keep it going long enough for it to cook the food and then safely put out the fire. In Canada, if your child is hungry, you can just quickly warm up a bottle of milk or food in the microwave in less than 1 minute. I really enjoyed this clinical placement, and it has made me rethink and become more aware of the things we take for granted in Canada.