The Nata village videoblog, Episode 3: Nata clinic

 
The Nata Clinic is responsible for health care delivery to the 6,000 residents of Nata and the surrounding villages. More than 12,000 people rely on the services of the clinic.  The clinic also oversees the three remote health outposts of Maposa, Manxotai, and Sepako.  The outposts are reached by dirt/sand track and the farthest is 36 miles away.  The clinic is so busy that it is often referred to as a hospital.  The closest general hospital is 60 miles away and the closest surgical hospital is 120 miles away.  The clinic consists of two main buildings.  The 1st building has two consultation rooms, one room for wound dressing changes, pharmacy, and an office.  The 2^nd building consists of a 3 bed ward, 2 bed delivery room and a 4 bed post delivery/recovery room.  There is also a trailer where the PMTCT (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) Lay Counselor performs pre and post test counseling for HIV/AIDS and the nurses collect blood for the CD4 (T-Cell) count of HIV infected patients.  The compound also has four houses where some of the nurses live.

THE SUCCESSES

Despite all the challenges, the staff of the Nata Clinic continues to do the best they can with a difficult situation.  Nearly all of the pregnant women are being tested for HIV and if they are positive are participating in the PMTCT program.  Mothers that are enrolled in the program are reducing the rate of transmission from mother to child to only 5-7%.  This is a huge success as without treatment the rate would be nearly 45%.  Nata Clinic has access to the rapid HIV/AIDS test and a person can learn their status in 15 minutes.  Due to a great deal of education, the stigma of HIV/AIDS is decreasing.  Some patients are living openly with the disease and acting as peer counselors to convince others to test. 

The Nata village videoblog, Episode 2:  Mabogo!

MABOGO!  Mabogo Arts and Culture Productions is an out of school and out of work youth group that concentrates on HIV/AIDS Education.  The youth perform songs, dances and dramas that tell a story about HIV/AIDS, STD’s (Sexually Transmitted Diseases), and ARV’s (Anti-Retroviral Medications).  The group is funded by the Masthelo Community Development Association which is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). The group has a coordinator that is responsible for training and supervising the members.  The youth each receive 260 Pula ($55) per month for educating the community in Nata.  The members take their educational performances straight into the heart of the community.  They perform in churches, private homes, shabeens (local drinking establishments) and bars.  Mabogo Members are extremely talented and have received recognition at local and regional competitions.  Because most of the villagers in Nata do not have TV’s, radios and many are illiterate, the education that Mabogo provides is often the only education that villagers receive about HIV/AIDS.  Mabogo is one of the most effective educational tools in the fight of HIV/AIDS in Nata. 

THE CHALLENGES

Because the members are paid only $55 per month, many will move on to other employment when it becomes available.  The work that Mabogo does is critical in educating Nata Villagers about HIV/AIDS.  Mabogo is currently trying to get registered as a Community Based Organization so that they can apply for grants from the many funding sources in Gabarone (the capitol).  Their constitution has been submitted to the Registrar of Societies in Gabarone.  We are currently awaiting a response.  Let it be noted that registration can take more than a year as the constitutions are frequently returned for minor errors.  The work that these young people are doing is worth a decent salary and until they are paid a fair wage, the members will continue to come and go. 

THE SUCCESSES

Members of Mabogo Arts and Culture Production are providing a vital service to the people of Nata.  They are educating people in the local languages and in culturally sensitive ways.  Using interactive dramas and audience participation is extremely beneficial.  The Mabogo group along with the People Living with AIDS support group, are the two most important educational groups in Nata.  They deserve our support.

The Nata village videoblog, Episode 1


Everyday Nata clinic opens with singing. Mma Dieketso leads the patients in song.  More about Nata clinic.

Comments

[Michael Meiser]

Great post man, saw your email about it on the yahoo group. Glad to see your participating there. Sort of wish there was more feedback there. I meant to lend my words, but been busy.

Just commenting now because I'm watching your post on mefeedia right now.

[Michael Meiser]

Great post man, you are skilled with the camera, both video and photo. I saw your email about it on the yahoo group. Glad to see your participating there. Sort of wish there was more feedback though. I meant to lend my words, but been busy.

Just commenting now because I'm watching your post on mefeedia.com right now.

You're not going to be at vloggercon in san fran on June 10-11th are you? I'm sure I'll see your brother there we have a mefeedia developer Devlon of Loadedpun.com coming down from there. Anyway, the point is it'd be nice to get together with you and some other people lie Andy Carvin whom I'm sure will be ther to talk about potentials for media in bridging the digital divide. Indeed I wish this was being talked about more amongst the developers in this space.

We're doing a lot, many open source initiatives which will hopefully help vlogging spread beyond economic, geographic, and language barriers, but I question wether we collectively have the focus. I personally feel my knowlege of inititives in developing countries is limited, there fore my ability to make case and push these inititives is very wobly. It would be nice to has out path or plan on how we can have a direct relationship to inititives in developing countries instead of just wishfully thinking things like open source will eventually allow rich media to spread to Africa.

BTW, that reminds me, how are you funding this? Privately? Because I've heard of a group. I think they're called the Digital Vision Fellowship, and they offer both economic and a support networks for endevors exactly like this. At the very least it might cover some of your travel expenses. In fact they explicitely said they were looking for "fellows" and it doesn't require a graduate degree, or that you be established. I think you very well might fit the bill... they had a girl on who was using photo and video and blogging initiatives to reach out to street kids in Rio to get them interested in the outside world and build relationships with them through a sort of cyber cafe type arrangement, this not only got them interested in the outside world, but simultaneously got them interested in reading and writing, i.e. the blogging. I guess the idea is to build bonds and provide long term assistance to them. Amazing stuff. But then so's what you're doing. It's a very rare thing to see the frontline of the aids epidemic half way around the world, unfiltered. I hope in fact that there's some way to impart upon locals an interest and an understanding in what you're doing, but I wonder if it's to early for them to step into this debate in similar rolls.

Anyway, Digital Visions was on the IT conversations podcast not a week ago. I'm sure can find it for you if you like.

Oh, and BTW, Randy Wicker, vlogger from new york just did two posts from a health summit speach at the UN plaza in new york on the issue of cancer in africa... most interesting... africa has a growing problem with certain types of cancer that are caused by a common virus, and they're expected to have a vaccine on the market this year for it... but there's apparently huge debate over wether it will come to Africa do the cost.

There's just so much information latently out there, across vlogs and podcasts, but there's so few people tying it together so awarness is very low.

-Mike

[blah]

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[james]

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from
james

[james]

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[kabo kebonang]

I would like to take this orppotunity to thank everybody who helped in coming up with this web site because it helped a lot Batswana.

[Speedwell]

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[gomes]

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