We push on to Livingston for what we thought would be a relatively uneventful day with only a short ride ahead of us and several stops along the way. First stop was The Zimba Mission Eye Clinic a Rotary sponsored project. Weston the head administrator chatted with us about the origins and early days of the clinic. Before it’s establishment patients had to travel many miles to receive eye car, as a result most people did not get any care. Initially the clinic was staffed by groups of ophthalmologists visiting from abroad but now they have an onstaff ophthalmologist in addition to the regular visits by groups of physicians many of whom are Rotarians. The next two stops were Healthy Learners schools in Livingston that very recently entered the program. In fact the last was only weeks into the program. The common thread in all the schools we visited was the dedication of the staff for the advancement and well being of their students. Each of these schools feel there already have been positive changes brought about by the program. The next two days we do fun things. Friday night shortly after arriving, Mapoma a hotel staff member was able to line up a Safari at Chobe National Park in nearby Botswana for Saturday. After about a hour drive we came to a spot where 4 countries can be viewed at one time, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. A new bridge facilitated our crossing into Botswana. The first half of the day was a game drive through the park and the second half was a boat ride on the Chobe River. Everyone was deeply impressed with all the wildlife life we were able to observe in their natural habitat. Sunday was spent visiting Victoria Falls a world heritage site, one of the worlds most spectacular waterfalls located right here in Livingston. It literally was an immersive experience. The spray and very heavy mist managed to soak us despite the rain coats we wore. I apologize for th scrambled captions. I love computers!
Screaning Room
Patient undergoing cateract surgery
Community Library located at eye clinic
First of two schools visited in Livingston
Temporary Health Room in second Livingston school
The Team in front of Eye Clinic
Rainbow across Victoria Falls
Another part of the extensive Victoria Falls Elephants along The Chobe River. More photos to follow upon return to home

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

Image
ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END It is time to say goodbye to Zambia. Last evening we visited with two more of Lusaka’s Rotary Clubs. The host club, Lusaka East a new club only 3 years old with a very young membership. We were again received most warmly. There was great fellowship with exchanging of contact information. They have several projects that they are very passionate about and are welcoming to any help that we may facilitate. The hotel we are staying at has agreed to a late check out at no additional charge as our flight is a night flight. The day is spent taking care of any last minute details. Several of us manage a walk to the the “Zoo”. As it turns out the Zoo is the grounds of what appears to be an agricultural fair. The only animals we saw were a kennel of dogs. In closing it can’t be overstated how nice and kind all the people have been. There seems to be a gentle nature to Zambians. Now the hard work begins in trying to determine ho...
Read more

BACK TO LUSAKA

Image
BACK TO LUSAKA Today we head to the airport in Livingston for our flight to Lusaka. On the way to the airport we made a stop at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Clinic in Livingston, primarily a clinic focused on women’s health. The Rotary Club of Mosi oa Tu in Livingston has been providing them with assistance. The Clinic’s needs are enormous, exceeding the locally available resources. The local club would like what ever help they can get. The clinic lacks much of the basic equipment essential, such as an ultra sound machine. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The flight to Lusaka was a quick up and down 1 hour flight on a small turbo prop plane. Minutes after checking into our hotel we were whisked off by a local Rotary club to visit several schools. One would like to modernize their computer and science labs and the other a school is dedicated to serving learning and physically disabled students. On our way back to the hotel our Rotarian driver, an architect wanted us to see his c...
Read more

A Busy Day

Image
What a busy day! It was also a most interesting day. We were treated to a full day of seeing how the Healthy Learners Program works. We visited two schools in Lusaka and were shown how the program was implemented in their schools, a Ministry Of Health facility, had lunch in a local restaurant and saw a program at the office of the Healthy Learners. There are many insightful concepts built into the program. The day was capped off by attending a Local Rotary Club’s weekly meeting. At our 1st school we were greeted by a group of girls singing a welcome song. We meet with the head teacher( principal), Learners(students), school health workers( teachers with special training). We were shown the Health Room that might be comparable to the Nurses Office. The program is structured to leverage existing infrastructure and personnel. This has gone a long way increasing local buy in. In short the health workers work to fast track care for the Learners. They also are a conduit to preventive car...
Read more