Today we joined our second Emergency Operation Center (EOC) polio meeting at the Mzimba North District Health Office (DHO). We discussed the polio campaign schedule, which was moved from July 21-24 to August 11-14. Training for the vaccinators and transportation logistics were discussed. The schedule for the Covid-19 vaccination surveillance was also discussed. Some of us will help the DHO with the surveillance next week while others will start to create and implement our nutrition education material for Chiputula.
After the DHO meeting, everyone went back to the dorm and made different homemade meals like Shepherds pie, hamburgers, ramen and various kinds of delicious food. Later on, we worked on the nutrition assessments for the different grades we will be working with. The nutrition education pre-assessment questionnaire will ask questions on pre-existing nutrition knowledge learned during the semester and supplemental nutrition material to further their understanding on various topics. We studied their textbooks, researched additional papers, and also asked the locals about their daily food and their life style. For example, one of the most important staple foods for Malawians is “Nsima” which can be divided into two kinds, nsima made from maize and kondowole made from cassava.
After having some discussion about the nutrition projects, we went for a short run and saw a beautiful orange sunset and ended our day with a nice meal of spaghetti, beef, beans, and salad.
Highlights:
- EOC polio meetings with DHO
- creating nutrition pre-assessment questionnaire
All the photos were taken by SHANTU (Verbal consent was obtained before taking the pictures)
