Thank You Africare!

By Samantha Madden

Post was completed the last week in Zambia (August).

It’s hard to believe my time in Zambia and with Africare is coming to a close! The second half of the summer really began to pick up speed as the management team in Lusaka completed the final hiring process for those individuals that will be working out at the two sites of the project; Lundazi and Mansa. The M&E officer, project director, and officer in charge extended contracts for the following positions: M&E assistants (2 per site) and site contractor/building specialist.

In July we all came together in Lusaka to collaborate as a team and solidify the objectives and deliverables associated with the next 18 months of the project. It was a unique experience as Africare HQ individuals were present, along with every other member involved in various aspects of the ZaMs project. We discussed gaps in the project, constraints, budget adjustments, community sensitization efforts, and the production of required quarterly reports for the donors involved.  Additionally, we assigned roles to the incoming Boston University interns that are scheduled to arrive in Zambia at the end of August. Various presenters, including myself, exposed site staff to the proposed business plan, IGAs per site, and ongoing operational and financial logistics. Overall, it was a highly effective conference. It was great to see such collaboration amongst team members, all with varying roles and responsibilities speak to their ideas or concerns in moving forward. I was quite impressed with the openness and professionalism of the Africare HQ staff from Washington; though they oversee the project from a distance, it was important that they were brought up to speed with on the ground efforts here in Zambia. In our talks, of course, were the ongoing concerns with the energy crisis and lack of water supply in Lusaka and beyond.

Outside work, I made a final in-country weekend trip to Lake Kariba and the town of Saivonga. It is the largest manmade lake and reservoir in the world and splits the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.  It was an experience to say the least; much like my other personal travels in country!  I woke up early and walked for nearly an hour and a half just to locate the correct mini bus area where buses were headed to the area I wanted to go. (“Down this street, on your left”, “No, not here. Back that way a few blocks”, “No, not here. Over that direction”)  Yikes! I finally boarded the mini-bus around 830 on what was supposed to be a 3 hour ride south to the lake.  After a flat tire, a broken wheel rod on the trailer, a 2 hour stop in the village (because the bus wasn’t in fact going to Siavonga, but across the border post to Zimbabwe) I finally caught a bus to the village of Siavonga.  I arrived early enough (4pm!) to head down to the lake and catch the sunset and I must admit, my time spent there was some of the most relaxing and tranquil days I’ve found during my entire visit to Zambia J It was lovely! (See attached pictures!) The ride back was great- I hitched from Siavonga to the turn off to the border post without any issues and then managed to hitch a lovely ride from there all the way to Lusaka from a South African couple also visiting the lake for the weekend. I even met up with them later in the week for dinner!

Moving forward I am hopeful that I will be back to see through some other parts of this project!  In speaking with individuals from Africare HQ, that I have been in contact with throughout the summer via e-mail, and then at the conference, they were persistent on me coming back to Zambia post-graduation in December. This project won’t conclude until May-June 2018 so the opportunity still exists to come back and be a continued part of this implementation project (Yay!)  It is a bittersweet feeling to be leaving- though I’m excited for certain aspects of the States again, I will miss the simplicity (or lack thereof!) of this country.  It has been a humbling experience to come work for such an impressive organization.  I can say that I truly admire the work they set out to do and the projects for which they’ve completed.  They really stand for many of the things I value in an NGO and it was an honor to work alongside them! Thanks Africare, I will miss you all!  : ) 

Get Outta Town - Because There's More to Life than JUST Work!

A lovely accommodation while hitching to Livingstone 

By Samantha Madden

This post is dedicated to those throughout Zambia and beyond that have brought a sense of cultural awareness to me. To those that picked me up from an intersection and gave me a lift, taken me in their village for a hot meal, and shared stories among stories (with many awkward laughs in between due to the language barriers!).  To the family in a town outside Siavonga that served me up my first plate of local nshima and enticed me to eat with my fingers, to the South African couple who let me ride in the back of their truck bed for over 250 km and wished for nothing in return, to all the babies and local children that let me run and play and act like a total kid again, to all my fellow travelers I met passing through and kept me awake on long bus rides, and mostly to this beautiful country and continent for confirming what I thought may be the truth- it’s hands down my most favorite continent I’ve visited yet. (And that’s saying a lot since I only have Antarctica left on the list!) 

Women on the way home from the market

Though we envision what our summer or internship may look like from afar, once your feet are on the ground, once you take that first breath of African air, or get in your first taxi, or have that first glimpse of children running through the streets playing with makeshift cars made out of trash, you know that what you envisioned and what you’re about to experience are two very different things.

Push-Toy made out of garbage

Look at that excitement!

Victoria Falls- Livingstone, Zambia

South Luangwa National Park

I’ll be honest. I don’t want to leave this place- at least not anytime soon. I’m mesmerized by this country and its people. I want and need to see more. I need to travel across more borders, have more thoughtful conversations with people that have come from other developed countries and settled in these stunning places, squish myself in more mini-buses between a mother, child, goat, back of rice, and sack of tomatoes, and mostly just feel alive and genuinely happy. It has now been 3 months since my last latte from Starbucks, my last pedicure, my last transaction with a credit card, my last trip to the mall, my last double chocolate chip muffin from my favorite bakery in AA and honestly… I don’t miss it!  Sure, there are nights when I miss my bed or my family or friends or would kill for a proper coffee but in reality the need for all those things seems so distant once you’re immersed in a culture like this and I’d like to hope and think and pray that I don’t forget this feeling when I get home. Oh, and last thing- Africa I will be back for you. I don’t know when or where or for how long, but I won’t forget you…ever! Thanks for the experience J Sorry for all the pictures, but I TRIED to pick out my favorites and it was just so hard!

Of ZAMs & SMAGs in Zambia

Hello my fellow WDI interns!

Hope that all of you are thoroughly enjoying your experiences thus far, wherever you may be J     As some of you may or may not know, those of us in Eastern Africa have been dealing with quite the energy crisis and as the weeks go on it seems to just get worse and worse- there are points in the week when we are without electricity and water for far over 48 hours, and while it certainly makes things more difficult for us on the project, the strain and demands that it places on the local individuals can be certainly be seen and felt by all.

This summer I was given the opportunity to work with Africare Zambia. We began work on a three year project that aims to demonstrate high-quality entrepreneurial Zambian Maternity Homes (ZaMs) and evaluate if the model is operationally and financially sustainable, thereby improving equity of maternity access care for the most vulnerable and marginalized populations in the Lundazi and Mansa Districts in Eastern Zambia.

Phase I of the project was completed late last year and with additional funding from Merck and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, phase II was able to build upon what research and data analysis was obtained from phase I.  Maternity homes, or residential dwellings located near health facilities where women in the late stages of pregnancy can stay to await delivery and receive postpartum services have been used previously in a variety of settings as a 'geographic bridge' to overcome distance and transportation barriers that prevent women from receiving obstetric care in a timely manner. Unfortunately, implementing maternity homes tend to be small-scale, unstandardized, and ultimately failed to be responsive to community needs.
 



Preparing food in a make-shift area outside a local birth clinic (a current establishment that will be upgraded) in the Lundazi area, Eastern Province of Zambia.

The initial weeks of my summer were spent gaining an insight into the organization of Africare itself and getting myself familiar with where the project currently stood, who I would be working alongside, and what tasks I would most dedicate myself to. Certainly before I came to Zambia I had ideas and visions about what this work would look like, but truthfully once you’re on the ground it almost feels like you are a part of it all because we’re such a close group of colleagues.  Rightfully so, the IT individual can easily be connected to our financial director, who’s then tied to all of us, on the ground or not.  So, it became clear to me that though I would have certain objectives and tasks, I would become very familiar with the logistics of everyone’s part on the project very quickly.

Recently we wrapped up solidifying what exactly our ZaMs accountability structure would look like- see below.  Ideally we wanted to construct it such that it is not only sustainable in the short-term with us on the ground, but that once we depart, the oversight and management of such facilities (ZaMs) continue to operate in efficient manner.

You’ll see in the red box where I most dedicated my last month of time to:  Maternity Home Committee, ZaMs Caretaker and ZaMs Coordinator. You’ll see that the community-supported ZaMs model is accountable to the community and to the government through the Ministry of Community Development and Mother and Child Health (MCDMCH).  Additionally, the Maternity Home Committee is made up of 6-10 community-elected representatives from Neighborhood Health Committees, health facility staff, Safe Motherhood Action Groups (SMAG) members, and traditional community leaders who will make up the governing structure of each ZaMs.  Our hope is that this structure promotes government recognition of ZaMs as an integral part of the health facility.  We believe that incorporating MCDMCH and local government throughout the implementation period will in turn lead to a seamless transition to full government oversight post-project.  Long-term operational and financial sustainability is essential to the success of the ZaMs model thus much of our time is devoted to these two topics!

Women waiting outside another clinic we are going to use as a foundation for another ZaM

3 women we spent quite a bit of time with discussing things like cultural acceptability to the ZaMs, the importance of local women involvement in the project and our ideas for financial sustainability and their thoughts

Next blog post I’ll share what we’ve accomplished thus far regarding the financial sustainability initiatives this project will employ.
 

Cheers!

Posted on behalf of Samantha Madden