The birthing house turns five in one week's time! Ebou is heading to Penyem this weekend and will take photos of some of the village's newest arrivals that we will share here. We've also transferred some money from the maintenance fund to give the house a fresh coat of paint and a new corrugated roof, as well as to top up some of the usual supplies. Ebou's kindly offered to take before and after photos that we can share here also. Stay tuned!
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Happy fourth birthday to the birthing house!
The birthing house turns four years old today! This past year saw a new solar system installed for lighting and another fifteen babies born to the village. Wow! Ebou was kind enough to take some photos for us. Here is the house from the outside:
Here is the new solar system that provides light for night time deliveries:
Here is the solar battery...
And the result: brightly light at nighttime!
Here is the birthing house from the outside at night:
And the birth register as of March 3rd of this year:
The 88th entry is a particularly special one, as it's a new son named Abdou for Sannna, who was integral in setting up the house, and his wife. Congratulations to them!
Ebou is currently sourcing a new door for the front of the house as the current one is succumbing to that most common of problems in the Gambia... termites! He is also getting more supplies for the house locally from our ongoing maintenance fund.
The birthing house and the people of Penyem continue to receive generous support from many people, including more young students in Ottawa. With additional donations coming in, we have asked the women to discuss what else they would like to do to further develop the house and their activities in the village. Nima is leading these consultations in the village and we look forward to the outcomes when they are done to see what we can all do together next.
I really can't believe it has been four whole years since the house opened, and over half a decade since the project to realize it began! Thanks again to all of you who have contributed and continue to do so. Your generosity is amazing. And congratulations again to the people of Penyem, including all of the - ridiculously cute - new arrivals!
Here is the new solar system that provides light for night time deliveries:
Here is the solar battery...
And the result: brightly light at nighttime!
Here is the birthing house from the outside at night:
And the birth register as of March 3rd of this year:
The 88th entry is a particularly special one, as it's a new son named Abdou for Sannna, who was integral in setting up the house, and his wife. Congratulations to them!
The birthing house and the people of Penyem continue to receive generous support from many people, including more young students in Ottawa. With additional donations coming in, we have asked the women to discuss what else they would like to do to further develop the house and their activities in the village. Nima is leading these consultations in the village and we look forward to the outcomes when they are done to see what we can all do together next.
I really can't believe it has been four whole years since the house opened, and over half a decade since the project to realize it began! Thanks again to all of you who have contributed and continue to do so. Your generosity is amazing. And congratulations again to the people of Penyem, including all of the - ridiculously cute - new arrivals!
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Happy third birthday to the birthing house!!
It's hard to believe it's been three years since the house was officially opened. Just over a week ago, the 76th (!!) baby was born in the house! Here are some photos of the newest additions to Penyem:
That means an average of 25 babies have been in the house every year, or about one every two weeks. Ebou plans to take more photos in the coming weeks and we will share them here.
The anniversary is an excellent reminder to thank everyone who helped this come to life. It took a village!
The anniversary is an excellent reminder to thank everyone who helped this come to life. It took a village!
Friday, May 24, 2013
Visit to Penyem
We spent the last weekend
of April in Penyem. It was amazing to be back in the village.
Ebou's family hosted my friend Emma and me. They were as always, generous
and easy hosts. Between visits to the house and meetings with the women,
we enjoyed their food, played with their children and even napped under a mango
tree.
Emma playing with the kids
Amie's delicious fish benachin
Ebou and Fatou, all dressed up for the celebrations
Nima also travelled
to Penyem for the weekend and it was such a joy to see her again! On
Saturday afternoon Ebou, Emma, Nima and I walked over to the birthing house to
see it and meet with the grandmothers. On the walk over, we stopped to
visit some of the families with new babies born in the house.
I was so impressed with how great the birthing house looks! It's incredibly clean and well maintained. I also like the new little touches, such as the curtains. Somehow it seemed even brighter and more cheerful than I remembered. We had a meeting with the grandmothers and the traditional birth attendant to talk about how it's been working for them so far, and what else we can do to improve it.
The birthing room inside
One of the youngest babies
Ebou and I talking with the grandmothers
Another one of the babies
Mothers, grandmothers and babies!
Nima, Ebou, the grandmothers and I
After the grandmothers' meeting,
we visited Kalilu, the alkalo (the village chief). Late on Saturday night after a full day of
malaria workshops, Bubacaar, the community health nurse, arrived on motorbike
for a meeting about the house. What a committed health worker he is.
As always, he had great ideas for how we can support the home and work
with the Ministry of Health’s regional health team in Brikama.
Kalilu, Ebou and I
Ebou and Bubacaar
Bubacaar and Emma
On Sunday, all of the women
from the village gathered at the birthing house with their babies for a meeting
about the house, and a celebration. What an incredibly happy gathering!
Nima spoke, the traditional birth attendant spoke and then the floor was
open for the women to say whatever they wanted to - to share their experiences
and make suggestions about how to improve the house.
It was incredibly touching
to hear from so many of the women what a positive difference the birthing house
has made in their birthing experiences. They are truly grateful
for the support. I reminded them also of how inspired donors have been by
their stories, and that the house came to be because they had a vision for
it.
Before, between and after the talking there was tons of dancing. Emma and I were inevitably called on to show off our toubab (white person) dance moves. They got a kick (ahem) out of it, as did we. Note the laughing in the photos... :-)
On our way home afterwards, we visited Sere, the village health worker, and looked at the birth register together.
So what are the next steps
for the birthing house? The support of
many more generous donors in Canada – including Our Lady of Peace School, All
Saints High School, Immaculata High School, St. Francis Xavier High School as
well as countless individuals – has meant that we are able to do the following:
1. Install solar lighting in the house
This was the women’s main
suggestion to improve the house. The
original wall-mounted lights require frequent battery changes and don’t provide
focused light for the deliveries. They
have tried another type of battery light and a headlamp and had similar
problems.
2. Buy the traditional birth attendant a mobile phone
She used to have one but it
broke and since then, women have been sending messengers to her on foot -
usually children from their compound - when they are in labour to tell her to
come. A phone will make the process quicker and easier.
3. Stock the house with delivery and cleaning supplies
We also discussed stocking
in bulk more of the delivery supplies in the house. Unfortunately, there
is no longer a steady supply of clean delivery kits coming through the Ministry
of Health and so the women have been buying them as needed from the market in
Brikama, one at a time either in advance or afterwards to replace what was in
the house. We are going to buy the
delivery and cleaning supplies in bulk and stock them in the house.
4. Buy nice receiving blankets and clothes for the babies
Many of the women said that
there is a need for small items like warm receiving blankets to wrap the
newborns in, and new clothes for them to be taken home in. In Penyem,
like everywhere, there are some families with a lot of money relative to their
community and others who need support for small items such as these that can
make a big difference to their experience.
5. Support training for someone from the village to
eventually take over deliveries in the house
This is really important
for sustainability. We have talked about different options for
this over the last several years and all agree it’s important to identify someone
to be trained up to assist and eventually take over deliveries in the
house.
Bubacaar (the community
health nurse) had an excellent suggestion.
He suggested we look at sponsoring someone from Penyem to study nursing
and midwifery through a diploma program at college, and said if we approach the
Ministry of Health through the Regional Health Team in Brikama early on, we can
ask whether they would be willing to create an employment post for the graduate
based in Penyem and serving neighbouring communities as well. This would be amazing as in the future the
house could expand to offering antenatal programs for women from Penyem and the
surrounding villages!
6. Provide an ongoing maintenance fund
The fund was used over the
last two years for the maintenance that was done – spraying for termites, a new
door, curtains, heightening the wall to keep animals out and cleaning
supplies. This fund can now be topped up
so that future maintenance work can be done to keep the house in good shape for
birthing!
7. Other suggestions as they arise
Ebou is now visiting Penyem
every weekend, and is a wonderful ongoing link with the women to discuss what
needs to be done in the house.
Our visit to the village
was such a joyful one. It was amazing to
meet the babies – some of the 60 (!) born in the birthing house so far – and
see the women again and talk through more plans for the house. I’m already looking forward to the next
visit, whenever it will be.
In the meantime, I’m
looking forward to seeing how our next steps come together. There certainly is a lot of work involved on
the ground, not only to source the solar lighting system, phone and supplies,
but also to work with the community health nurse and Regional Health Team to
look at our options for training someone from Penyem in nursing and midwifery.
Thank you once again so
very much to each one of you who has generously supported the people of Penyem
through this project.
Here, in closing, is a
thank you directly from Nima on behalf of the women of Penyem. Turn your volume up and be patient as it takes a little while to load! In their words:
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