June 14, 2010

by Brande Jackson

We were greeted by enthusiastic fans and volunteers in Detroit, which made for a great night! We talked to lots of people, including several who were interested in volunteering and becoming involved with the campaign on a local level and on their campuses, something we always like to hear.

Our volunteers consisted of two ‘teams’ of people: Stephanie and Nicole, sisters on their summer break (from college and high school) and our team of enthusiastic high school girls: Erica, Emmy, Betsy and Marissa. Our crew did a great job, talking to lots of people and getting them excited about bringing clean water to people around the world. We were a bit limited in what we could do in Detroit due to the way the venue was set up, but our volunteer crew were true troopers, making the most of it and getting a record number of fans to take part in our text message fundraising campaign.

We loaded up our stuff and got on the tour bus bound for Pittsburgh the next day. Saturday morning we were greeted by the tour crew worried about thunderstorms that never actually materialized (we seemed to be blessed by the weather fairies this tour, knock on wood!) so we set up somewhat concerned, but forged ahead. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any volunteers joining us that night (Pittsburgh - we need some people, sign up and join! www.waterequalshope.com/volunteer) but we made the most of it, signing up lots of new supporters and raising money to bring a needing community a well. Fans are really excited about this idea, really responding to the notion of the Paisley & country music fan base being able to create clean water for those that need it through the combined small actions of many over the course of the tour. While walking the lawn before the show, I talked to lots and lots of people who were really excited about what Water = Hope is doing, so we are eager to get community efforts moving in Pittsburgh as well!

After loading out once Brad was finished Saturday night, we were surprised to find Josh Thompson and some of his band setting up for an impromptu midnight bluegrass session next to our bus! Josh is a big supporter of Water = Hope, not only taking part in our PSA but always ‘re-tweeting’ our Twitter posts and helping to spread the word on Facebook, and he’s a great musician and all around nice guy. It was a great way to end a wonderful weekend!

We’ll be back out again this weekend before we take a break while the tour goes to Europe. We will be in Darien Center (Buffalo and Rochester regions of NY) and Philly on Friday and Saturday  - as always, we’d love to have you sign up and volunteer!

June 8, 2010

by Brande Jackson

Photo: The Cincinnati Volunteer Crew!

Toledo proved to be a small but mighty show; though at one of the smaller venues on the tour, fans came out in force to support Water = Hope! We signed up hundreds of new supporters while also collecting donations for our very popular Water = Hope tee-shirts (you can soon buy them online as well - watch for updates!). We also got nice mentions in the local press, the Toledo Blade, and we were even featured on a local country radio station as well. 

After the show friday night, we headed out on the tour buses bound for Indianapolis, our Saturday show. Cloudy skies hung around all day in Indy, threatening to open up, but we set up our booth and moved forward with fingers crossed. We were joined by a great volunteer crew; Lea, Justin, Matt, Kayla and Chelsea all work together and came to the show together. It was one of their first volunteer experiences, and they did great, signing up lots of people AND getting a chance to meet and talk to Josh Thompson, one of the artists performing on the tour. 

Cincinnati turned out to be the best night we’ve had on the tour yet. Our amazing volunteer crew helped us sign up close to 800 new supporters for Water = Hope! Aaron, Andrea and Kaitlyn are all high school students, Michael and Ashlynn are college students, Karen and her husband David are local Cincinnati residents, and Gayenell brought her entire family to volunteer! The team did an incredible job, even engaging in some friendly competition (for a prized Water = Hope hoodie!)  to see who could sign up the most supporters; we were very amused of their ‘tracking method’ which involved marking off completed sheets on their arms! Ashlynn proved to be the final winner of the night, signing up an amazing 160 new Water = Hope supporters, though Michael was a close second with 135. All of our volunteers worked incredibly hard to make our evening in Cincinnati a huge success. 

Talking to the fans each night is always inspiring; the Paisley and country music community is eager to lend their voice and to invest in clean water initiatives. One of our favorite groups of people were the ladies of the “Waters of Dillsboro Retirment Home”; they all work together at the retirement community outside of Cincinnati and were super excited about the Water = Hope campaign, insisting several times that we promise to email them about volunteer opportunities they can do as a group! 

This week we’ll be in Detroit and Pittsburgh and are looking forward to talking to fans there. We already have some great volunteers signed up for those shows that we can’t wait to meet, but we do still have room for more volunteers to join us, visit our volunteer page to learn more: http://www.waterequalshope.com/volunteer/

June 7, 2010

by Beth O'Connell
Cygera, Rwanda
East Tennessee State University: College of Public Health

Hand Washing and Community Health Education

The hand washing campaign has continued with 78 high school students participating.

I was given a very challenging task of educating high school students at the local Kiruhura Christian College on health topics. This proved to be a challenge because of the language barrier and lack of resources- the students had no text books and there is a very limited supply of pens, paper, and chalk.   Nonetheless, the task was accomplished successfully and  I was asked to teach during Biology for the Senior 3, Senior 4A, Senior 4B, and Senior 5 classes.   In these classes students range in age from 15 to 38 years of age.   Biology class meets for two hours per week, one hour on Tuesdays, and one on Wednesdays. I chose to teach the Germ Theory of Disease with hand washing during the first two classes.  To evaluate understanding and effectiveness, they took a quiz whereby six of the eight students scored perfectly, and two answered three out of five questions correctly.   I believe that the students understood the topic well and their incorrect answers were due to language barrier.  

The second week, I taught the same students about HIV/AIDS. This discussion included general information including how HIV is transmitted  and ways to prevent transmission.

Because of attending an organizational meeting in Kigali on June 2, I have not given the HIV quiz yet. I plan to do so during next week’s class. I was pleased that the students asked many questions and I plan to continue teaching about HIV/ AIDS next week.  Handouts and quizzes were kept simple due to language and cultural barriers.   Also, printing resources are limited so materials were limited to one page or less.  

For the General Paper classes, I asked each student to choose from a list of health concerns in the community, or to propose a health related topic of their own.   The list provided included Malaria; HIV/AIDS; hand washing and hygiene; clean water; food contamination, and community safety. They were to include definition of the problem, causes of the problem, importance, how to prevent the problem, and any personal experience they have had with the problem.   These classes meet for two hours per week, but it is common in Rwanda for students to be absent frequently.   I left materials with the teacher of each class to give to absent students. These students were required to take quizzes and turn in assignments the following class.

Despite these challenges, I  anticipate excellent results from these classes.  These students are the future of Rwanda  and educating them on health will improve the health of the community for years to come.  I also expect a ripple effect as the student share their knowledge with their family and friends outside of school. I have no means of assessing this ripple effect, only the assessments of the individual student’s knowledge after each education session. These assessments are the quizzes given in the biology class and the essays written in the general paper class. I plan to continue teaching on health topics in the school.

Bio-sand Water Filtration

On June 4, the Rwandese Health and Environment Project Initiative (RHEPI), installed five bio-sand water filters and educated those who would be using it on proper use. At the advice of RHEPI representative James Rubakisibo, three filters were installed at the Faith and Hope Children’s Home, one at the girls boarding quarters at the Kiruhura Christian College, and one in the school cafeteria. 

There are currently thirty girls and no boys at the school’s boarding quarters.    I am happy to report that all the students will now be able to drink clean water at lunch due to these filter systems.  Installation of these filters is the product of my research, contacting filter providers and on-going communication since December 2009.  This began with researching types of filters with  Bio-sand filters removing 95-99% of bacterial, viral, and protozoan contaminants. If you are interested,  you can learn more at http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/index.php/item/301.

While bio-sand filtration is not very effective in removing chemical contaminants, the primary concern in the community of Cyegera is microbes.  Bio-sand filters are very simple to use and require little maintenance and for these reasons seemed the best choice for this community.  I then began contacting organizations that build bio-sand filters; CAWST of Canada responded to my request for information with clarification to determine if bio-sand filters were truly the best option for Cyegera.

Once they were satisfied, they referred me to RHEPI and  James Rubakisibo. James and I discussed pricing, when the filters would be available for the instillation, education, and other details of a contract.

The filters require one month of daily feeding before the bio-layer is completely functioning. RHEPI provided education about bio-sand filters prior to installation to those who would use them.  Staff of both the school and children’s home assisted in the installation so that they have an understanding of how the filters function.  Unsafe water has been a serious problem in this area, and I look forward to seeing a reduction in water-related illness at the school and children’s home.

Other  activities

In addition to the health education and water filtration, I have been busy with community and organizational events.   As mentioned, I went with the site administrator, to a meeting in Kigali. The meeting was a strategy and information-sharing meeting among administrators of various sites. I also participated in a government mandated community work day.  These work days occur the last Saturday of every month. This work day was spent breaking ground for an additional building at the local school. 

Metrics     

I have reached 259 participants in my hand washing education campaign; my original goal was 300 participants so I am well on my way to meeting this objective.  I met my objective concerning environmental analysis and interventions during the first week and described in my May 25 report. I have also educated a total of 112 students on several of the major health concerns of the community.

I have met the objective of installing five bio-sand water filters and will continue to look for opportunities to expand these objectives as most have already been achived.  

Please view the chart below for a  summary of the work the Hope Through Healing Hands Foundation and the Niswonger Foundation are helping make possible in Rwanda.

by Brittany Cannon
Roatan, Honduras
East Tennessee State University: College of Public Health

My first week in Roatan, Honduras  has been was quite an eye opening and educational experience.

The first day there I met with a dentist to discuss a dental hygiene educational program and I discovered there was basically "no such thing" as preventative measures regarding dental health here. As with many other countries, dental health is of no concern to the people.  If you have to choose between eating rice for a couple of days or having your teeth cleaned, you would most likely pick eating.

A significant dental health issue among the children here is maintenance of of their primary molars. I didn't know the significance of the primary molar until our meeting with the local dentist. The primary molar basically sets the stage for a young person’s entire mouth.  A child usually gets his/her first molars six years of age. Well, because preventative dental health measures have not been taught many of the children's teeth have severe decay including their primary molars. When the decay becomes very severe, the solution is to pull the tooth. Although this is a temporary fix for the child in terms of alleviating the pain, it poses huge problems for the child’s permanent teeth development and future dental health. The primary molar is actually an adult tooth and if it gets pulled it will cause the child’s other teeth to become very crowded and grow in incorrectly.

Our job is to gather data on the local school children to quantify the severity of decay in each child’s mouth and report whether the primary molar had been extracted. This data will hopefully aid the dentist in receiving a grant to help address this problem.

Before we collected the data in each classroom we did a dental hygiene educational class. We taught the children why it is important to brush their teeth and why good dental hygiene was important to their overall health.  After teaching them the basics of dental health we gave them all tooth brushes. This was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done because when they received their tooth brush  they acted like we had handed them a magical toy.  They were so excited to show us how they were going to brush their teeth. I really felt this was definitely worth while!

Over the four day period of going into schools we educated 385 children on how to brush their teeth and taught them why they should. They were very eager to learn and it was obvious that they had not received even basic training on this important aspect of health. A lot of the children asked for tooth brushes for their parents!  Hopefully we made an impact and my biggest hope is that with the knowledge we provided them they will continue to brush and one day it will become a cultural norm here.