HEALTH AND SANITATION
49
at rhythm or mojo was a complete failure. But it got them to
laugh and talk about the crazy obruni (white man).
TOILET FACILITY A DEEP PIT
The village has a three-room school that serves 300
students. The toilet facility for the village is a deep pit with
logs that cover the opening. You move one log and squat
over the opening. There was minimal screening for privacy
around the pit.
A future project will include bringing the plumbing vocational
students to the village to build a community toilet building.
Anidaso Health was able to fund the completion of the
additional three classrooms for the school that will be
constructed by local bricklayers.
The medical village team and the surgical team felt the
impact of engineering during this visit. Renee triaged all
the villagers before they saw the doctors. This allowed the
doctors to see the patients most in need of a visit. Those with
minor issues were handled by Renee and the other nurses.
While there was an increase to four doctors for the villages,
the number of patients they were able to see increased from
800 to more than 1 200 on this trip. Helping with patient
load was a new drug dispensing system. The pharmacy
was made up of a lady’s shoe organiser labelled with all
the drugs. It was now easy to find and dispense them.
The organiser could be folded up at the end of the day for
transport back to the guest house; a little bit of plumbing
ingenuity to help the doctors.
The surgical team increased the number of surgeries from
60 to 97 during the two-week period. Two teams of surgeons
performed thyroidectomies, lipoma removals, and hernia
operations. Help with scheduling and preplanning made it
easier for the surgeons. That also meant long nights for the
support team in preparing for the next day’s surgeries.
During the last two days in Ghana, a meeting with a local
mayor was finally arranged; our schedules had conflicted
for the first 10 days. The meeting was beneficial in looking
towards the future to help his people. We discussed water
infrastructure and a sanitary sewer system. The mayor
accepted an invitation to visit the United States this summer
to experience how similar villages operate in our country.
Planning and fundraising have already begun for our next trip
to Ghana. Hopefully, I will be able to continue visiting Ghana
and providing as much assistance as possible for many trips
in the future. If you are interested in seeing more photos
of our most recent trip to Ghana, visit the Anidaso Health
Facebook page. PA
October 2018 Volume 24 I Number 8