Supply Strain: Health Facility Barriers to Health Access

When the AMAI team conducted the assessment at health facilities in Lundazi district, I was unnerved by the general lack of medicine, supplies and general infrastructure.  Sometimes those supplies were present but non-functional. 

One facility received donated dental equipment.  The problem? There are no dentists at this facility. 

Many other facilities either had “improvised” beds or general patient beds due to limited resources.  There were also concerns about power sources.  Since many facilities have makeshift power supplies that include a solar panel, battery and an inverter but the usage from this power source varied depending upon the quality of equipment and any damage that might have happened to the equipment.  

An improvised labor and delivery bed

"If You Build It, They Will...Come?": Infrastructure and Environmental Barriers to Healthcare

A pregnant woman in her third trimester is having shortness of breath, a mild headache and blurred vision.  Her sister, concerned about her health, encourages her to visit the rural health center.  The rural health center is 10K (~6 miles) away on foot after she crosses the river. 

What is the likelihood of this woman going to the health center?

The above scenario might be made up but the conditions are not.  Some of the largest barriers to healthcare are caused by environmental factors and poor infrastructure.  If our team did not have a four-wheel drive vehicle and relatively good weather conditions, our travel to many of the sites we visited in Eastern Province would have been impossible and/or dangerous.  We couldn’t reach one of the sites due to a tree that was knocked down by a heavy rainstorm.

It just wasn't meant to be.

AMAI Team: Saving Mothers, Giving Life

This is the first in a series of posts on the new maternal health initiative Saving Mothers Giving Life and my thoughts on some of the common barriers women face in receiving quality healthcare.  I’ll also talk about possible solutions to eventually eliminating those barriers.

A Little Background

Last October, I started working with CIDRZ (Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia), on implementing the Global Health Initiative project "Saving Mothers, Giving Life."  The main goal of the project is to reduce maternal and infant mortality by 50% in a year.  Seeing as it is a very ambitious goal local and global stakeholders are collaborating on a multi-faceted strategy to not only promote women coming in to health facilities to deliver but to also improve the quality of life-saving health services those women receive.  I believe a key factor in this project is documenting the barriers to healthcare so that people across the globe see these struggles.

An Entrepreneurial Showcase: Aveles Niyrenda's Chitenge Creations

Anything artistic or crafty (or just downright quirky) usually catches my eye.  I oftentimes dream of creating some whimsical item for myself or as a gift to loved ones (unlike those “creative” pieces I used to draw in Kindergarten).  When I met Aveles Niyrenda at the Dutch Reformed Church’s Saturday crafts market, her chitenge¹ crafts display not only triggered my chitenge addiction (more on that later) but also made me curious to know how she created her unique items.  After a firing off a series of questions, I jokingly told her I was coming to her house to witness the steps firsthand.  Surprisingly, she welcomed me.

Welcome to Aveles’ workshop.  This narrow corridor in front of Aveles’ house allows her chitenge visions to unfold.   The following are steps to creating her works of art.

Just Write

This blog offers no proof that I’ve been living and working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia for over a year now.  In the age of “fast food” (mainly inauthentic) communication, I’ve been savoring the written word in the form of letters and journal entries.  After all, living in a village without electricity forced me to do that.  Oftentimes, though, as I sit in front of a computer I wonder: “What the heck is there to write about?”