Today was Wangulu, a bustling clinc where we saw just shy of  550 patients. Adults and children alike. We are all faring well, lots of home visits today for people too unwell to get into the clinic. Everyone continues to be in good health and good spirits. Lots of laughs and camaraderie amongst the hard work and challenging situations. we are getting there, day by day.L

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et's chat about the Maternal Child program. This arm of our medical trip is run by absolutely unbelieveable nurses. Three of Canada's nursing leaders in Maternal-Newborn and high risk pregnancy health. Lisa, Sharon and Melanie. These three work tirelessly to produce a teaching product so strong and relevant to the learners. Their audience? The community support workers who live amongst the patients we see at the clinic. These lay men and women have chosen to advance their knowledge of how to help, support and identify emergencies for women and girls during pregnancy, labour and the newborn stages.  Remember these people are not trained nurses, doctors etc they have a passion for helping their communities and CNFA delivers a training program to them that is spectacular.

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It is important to note that CNFA is not the kind of organization who simply drops in , runs medical clinics and leaves. We are an organization of dedicated nurses who want to ensure lasting positive impact from our visits. The community care providers are proof that we are successful in this. Our new program with motorcycle ambulances to tend to Maternal/newborn emergencies will only provide the remote communities we work in more regulatr access to safe, reliable and timely medical care. It is important to keep growing and the MC program is really doing this well.

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One of the big shifts we are seeing now is the involvement of men in this educaiton. program Culturally it may not be as accepted or expected for men to play a part in the pregnancy, birth and post partum journey of a mom and baby but that is really starting to emerge as a different picture as we see many male community health providers becoming more educated, empowered and encouraging of other men's involvement. It is such a beautiful shift.

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While the clinic nurses don't spend much time with the Maternal-Child nurses during the day (we stay in the same guest house and enjoy meals together but work in different locations by day) we rely on hearing the stories of the day form the MC team. We have been told there is always lots of singing, there is always animated role playing by men and women in the groups and there are always amazing tales of learning from one another about cultural norms and expectations, sensitivieies and challenges. Small and larger group facilitations help to meet the needs of learners given there are topics that are often sensitive and challenging to speak about, smaller groups sometimes give people a sense of comfort in voicing their thoughts and questions.

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Since we have had two nursing students with our team this year, they have been lucky to be able to observe and participate in portions of the teaching. There is often Kenyan nursing students involved in the MC prgram so that they can learn on a professional nursing level and be able to provide ongoing support to the community partners. That is fantastic, not only are we helping to educate the community partners but also the future of Kenya's nursing profession.

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Lisa, Sharon and Melanie bring so much kindness to the ongoing training of the community workers . Check out some of the photos below but I must warn you, some of them are pretty funny looking

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Have a wonderful day, can't wait to update you tomorrow after visiting the village of Chavukali

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