Christine and Jackson's productive week on the health project

It’s been a busy and productive week on the health project: weighing babies and recording data for post-natal growth monitoring, teaching Junior classes about ‘showing others that we care’, showcasing real-life scenario skits and discussing the importance of ‘effective communication’ to Secondary students and checking in patients at the local Public Dispensary to see the nurse – and all in one week. Amazing!

Life Skills at Shimoni Junior Academy

Life in Shimoni has brightened significantly with the start of school and life skills classes. The great feeling of being involved in the community overwhelms you when children wave to us saying “Hello Mr. Jackson,” or “Hello Madame Christine” as we walk around the village. Their little faces lit up with huge smiles and shouting out “Jambo Jambo Jambo how are you?!” Cute!

In our first class at Shimoni Base Academy (junior school) we put our acting skills into play and dramatized some skits about ‘showing that we care’ to others. In an attempt to build grounds for a discussion we successfully made the kids laugh. We must have some comedic acting prowess after all.

Life Skills at Shimoni Secondary

Later in the week we took our first class at Shimoni Secondary School. The lesson focus was on demonstrating the importance of ‘effective communication’ in both a personal and professional setting, again, with awesome acting skills. We were able to portray the differences between being effective and ineffective when communicating with some ‘tricks of the trade’ teaching – a black board, colored chalk and a happy attitude.

Our final class at Shimoni Secondary this week was on HIV Prevention. The class was already quite knowledgeable about the subject and eager to learn more. It was really nice to be struck by a classroom of quiet listeners and attentive eyes all facing the front. Mr. Kopa (Health Project staff) gave an excellent ‘how to’ for the use of a condom and we were able to emphasize this by showing YouTube videos and a PowerPoint presentation. It was tough to think about how Diego (Public Dispensary staff) has to dispense HIV drugs to kids as young as the ones we were teaching at the school. This made us feel like we were helping to make a difference by sharing education and building awareness on HIV and its prevention. 

Christine Kong and Jackson Vukovic – Health Project Volunteers

Christine and Jackson's productive week on the health project