We had a meeting on our plans for the rest of the semester. It was about 4 hours long, but we have some AMAZING projects coming up soon! Since nothing is set in stone until next week, I'll just give a run-down of some of the things we're working on and what I'm specifically in charge of. As I continue to get to know people and learn about their stories, of course I will record them.
This week, we're working with an albino protective group (witchdoctors here buy albino babies to use in their medicines…it's terrible and people have started creating protective groups to keep these beautiful babies safe! It's awesome!), collecting community-specific HIV information to start a prevention program, micro-loans and personal finance classes for Mama Anna's HIV+ support group (ViCoBa), safe stoves in the community we're living in (our neighbors need some help with this), maternal health in Arusha, livestock investment generating projects (pig, chicken, and rabbit pens), vaccinations and hygiene projects in orphanages (like HEM where they don't have enough water to bathe, wash their hands, or brush their teeth on a regular basis), wheelchairs (hopefully we can partner with LDS Humanitarian), malaria prevention in Masai communities, classes at vocational training center (computer classes, finances, brick laying), job training and music/animal therapy for developmentally disabled, and a hand washing projects in the central market.
I know that's a lot - we're all working on lots of different things. I'm specifically working on getting vaccinations to HEM (the rural orphanage), malaria prevention among the Masai (I get to meet with the village elders, how awesome is that?!), and investigate the wheelchair project. Most of the beggars downtown are missing toes and parts of their feet, but often are missing complete parts of their legs. There's one man that doesn't have any legs. He wears shoes on his hands and crawls around. I can't believe how hard that would be. This project is for him. I know this town has very little wheelchair accessibility, but I think a wheelchair would give someone like that so much freedom to at least have a job. Anyways, I know I get my hopes up about little things, so who knows what will happen, but between the 20 of us, some of these projects ARE going to happen! I'm also going to work really closely with the women's empowerment projects (business and self-worth classes) and the Step-By-Step project. It's going to be kind of like UNIDOS - I hope. I think this week will be kind of tedious and research-heavy, but awesome too!
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