Raising awareness of the importance of breast-feeding.
For World Breast-feeding Week in 2004, staff in AJINAA planned to raise awareness about this important issue with our young people.
We held meetings for young people, both girls and youths. They heard about the advantages of breast-feeding for both baby and mother, and the disadvantages of bottles, artificial milk and dummies. They were encouraged not to feel ashamed of breast-feeding.
During the week itself, nearly 600 men and women attended a meeting organised by the NGO AMEGA. We continued with further meetings in health centres and churches. Brochures and T-shirts were given to health centre staff to encourage them to provide information and raise awareness about breast-feeding. Many questions were answered. The brochure helped to clear up many doubts and misunderstandings. For example, we discovered that many young women didn’t want to breast-feed because they thought it would spoil the shape of their breasts which they wanted to keep upright in shape. Many left committed to share with other young people the message of the huge benefits of breast-feeding.
Simão Filipe, AJINAA, CP 6992, Luanda, Angola E-mail: ajinaa2003@yahoo.fr
Protecting vegetables
In the 1960s, I lived with my grand-mother. She used to have a small garden near the compound where she planted vegetables. She sprayed a mixture of goat faeces and water on them to prevent animals from eating the plants. Collect goat faeces in a container, such as a clay pot, and cover with water. After a week, stir it vigorously to form a thick paste. If the paste is too thick, add more water so as to be easily sprayed. Use a bunch of leaves or shrubs to splash the contents onto the plants.
Try it! During all the years I was at secondary school, I never saw goats or other animals destroying my grand-mother’s plants. However, do wash the vegetables very thoroughly with running water before cooking and eating them.
Moses Ena Obire, PO Box 1854, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria
Epilepsy awareness
I would like to respond to your reader’s letter about children who suffer from epilepsy (Issue 60). In Malawi, the Sue Ryder Foundation serves rural villages and focuses particularly on people who suffer from epilepsy and asthma. We have two main activities. Firstly, we train volunteers in each village that we cover. These are selected by the community and are genuine volunteers who receive no payment of any kind. The Foundation provides them with training in identifying epilepsy and in educating the local community about the condition. We have 490 such volunteers at present.
Our second activity is to provide mobile teams that run ‘clinics’ on a regular basis. These are mostly held under trees. The volunteers present patients to the staff who carry out the diagnosis and prescribe drugs. It is the volunteer’s responsibility to ensure patients take the drugs and to monitor their impact on the epilepsy. Clients are seen about once every six weeks. With the support of the volunteers this has proved satisfactory. Malawi has very few doctors so our staff are experienced nurses who have received a short course on the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. We currently serve some 7,000 clients.
If you would like further information please get in touch and I will be glad to help.
Stephen Carr Chairman, Sue Ryder Foundation in Malawi E-mail: scarr@sdnp.org.mw
Young people and small trees
Cambodia, like the USA, celebrates Arbor (Tree) Day. Banners are hung up with slogans about the importance of trees and forests to the country. This year I joined in the festivities. Hundreds of young people met at the Youth Commission offices and travelled by truck to the Toul Kork district of Phnom Penh. Here they sang and had a short devotion. Then they picked up the hundreds of young trees provided by the government, and went out to plant them. People welcomed them – and the trees they carried. Local people called out for them to plant a tree near their house and some helped with the planting.
Although these young people were enthusiastic, most knew very little about trees. Were they planted correctly? Were they given enough water? Were they given too much water? Would they survive until the following week? Who knows!
I looked at one of the little trees just planted, with water poured over it, and wondered if it would survive. Then I suddenly realised what that little tree really represented. Hope for the future! It may have not been properly planted, and it might not be properly cared for. But there is the chance – the God-given potential – that the little tree might just make it. It might live to be 20, 30, or 80 years old. It might provide shade, a home for birds, and beauty to the residents of that stretch of road for many years to come. And that hope was well worth the effort.
Young people, like those little trees, are the hope for Cambodia’s future. As staff at the Youth Commission go about our work, we may not do everything perfectly. We march out into the community and try to develop the youth God has given to the churches. Do we give them too much help? Not enough? Do we do things the right way? Who knows.
Maybe not all of the youth that we invest in will grow into effective, Christian leaders. But some of them will! Some of them, by God’s sovereign grace, will be the strong pillars of society for many years to come. The Youth Commission is pleased to be one of God’s tools, planting hope for the future.
Mark Fender, Country Director of International Teams, Cambodia, PO Box 543, Phnom Penh, Cambodia