Here’s the link; the report is the complete story of what GMin did this summer in Sierra Leone, and it has lots of pictures!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mdm4yn1iwgy/GMin 2009 Report.pdf

-Mathias

It’s been over 10 weeks since we set our feet in Sierra Leone for the 2009 project. Some of us are still there (Sam is helping the Red Cross with the follow up sensitization campaign). Some of us have resumed school at Harvard, Princeton, Simon Fraser and more. Others are back at their jobs in Boston and Copenhagen. From all backgrounds around the world, the GMin team visited Sahn Malen with one goal in mind: to work with the local health staff to distribute 4,000 long lasting insecticide treated nets, 100 XO laptops (see http://olpcsm.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=20 to read a detail of our activities) and to learn as much as possible.
Below, I will try to give you a summary of our activities

Collaboration:
In Freetown, we had meetings on almost every given day either with UNICEF, the National Malaria Control Program, the Ministry of Health, Red Cross or NGOs who we wanted to partner with or learn from. In Bo town, we stayed at my house- yes all 11 of us crammed there, in transit to Sahn Malen. Bo is less crowded and calmer than Freetown so it was a great spot to breathe again. In Pujehun, we met with the Red Cross again, the District Council, the District Health Management Team (DHMT), the Chief and other volunteers. At each village, we met everyone as we moved from house to house distributing nets and leading sensitization efforts. We did not just meet all day, We actually went to the field and those meetings were part of the comprehensive and inclusive approach we have.

Outcome: here is a summary of the things we did this summer.

* We each walked about 120 miles.
* We distributed 4,000 Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets. Thank you all so much for your generous donations. Counting in the nets from our 2007 distribution, we now have 5,200 LLINS at homes in Malen Chiefdom.
* We visited 1030 Households in 35 villages. Approximate Nets per Household = 3.8
* Of the 8,890 people that were covered, 2,257 were under-fives and 304 were pregnant women.
* We established a “follow-up” campaign which the Red Cross and the DHMT will lead for the next 3 years.

Future plans:
We invite you to send us comments and suggestions at info@gmin.org but if you are hoping to join in on this initiative, here is what we are thinking at the moment.

“Follow-up” Campaign: We will maintain a follow-up campaign that involves house-to-house sensitization about net usage in addition to general town meetings for the next three years. We will use the results of those to inform our future activities as well.

Upper Malen: Two years after we distributed nets in Sahn Malen town, 90% of recipients still use our nets. We are confident that a similar number will use the nets we distributed this summer. Something seems to be working. So, we plan to cover all of Upper Malen next time. That means, we are looking for 6,000 LLINs and some small change to help with the distribution. If you have suggestions or want to help, again, feel free to drop us an email at info@gmin.org

Being host:
It was absolutely fantastic to have these very entrepreneurial and empathetic guys in my home. They learnt mende beyond what I would have ever imagined, they got settled in with the spicy food and after the first week, were okay with being called “poomuin” in public. The fact that they could introduce the whole crew to locals in mende was a strong indication of their commitment to the ideals of GMin.

List of Crew that went to SL:

Mathias Esmann, Sam Slaughter, Clem Wright, Lauge Schøle, Jake Segal, Carlos Meheux, Faaez Ul Haq, Justin Grinstead, Jamie Appleseed, Jacob Lennheden and myself, David Sengeh.

Obviously, all our work would not have been possible without the gallant effort from our Sierra Leonean colleagues and we are ever grateful to them as we are to all donors.

After some chores or napping, it was then time to go to the soccer tournament. Soccer is very popular around here and it is a great medium for targeted sensitization. It is not very often that organized competition takes place and the people in the area were very enthusiastic – just like in the ’07 campaign.

Jake Segal- former president of the Harvard Soccer Club was originally in charge of organizing the “Kick Out Malaria” Tournament with the help of the some of the players from different villages. Letters were sent to all of the villages, bamboo goals were set up and lines were dug into the field. We held two games everyday with 2 groups of 5 villages playing to make it to the semifinals. The tournament was held in the spirit of bringing communities together because the control of malaria is most effective when everyone uses the nets and works together. Furthermore, it was a great avenue to spread our message to control malaria. Jake could be seen starting good cheers when he shouted “Kick Out” and then the players and crowd responded “Malaria!”

Not only was this a great opportunity to watch good soccer but also to witness more cultural differences. This was exemplified by one of the biggest problems that occurred during the tournament that resulted in a mass argument on the sidelines while play continued. The argument began when one of the audience members was using black magic to prevent goals from going into his team’s net and an opposing fan took notice. A large crowd argued for 20 minutes but everything, eventually cooled down and the spell was broken because the other team scored soon after.

Sahn played Bamba for the “Kick Out Malaria championship”. Bamba had reached the final with a 3 – 0 upset over Kpombu. And Sahn had cruised predictably through the preceding rounds. Fast forward 1 hour and Sahn were champions in a landslide victory of 8 – 0 in which our GMin representative in the game David scored 2 goals and got 2 assists. One of his goals involved some really fancy footwork around a defender that saw children in the audience trying to imitate the move many minutes afterward. Also, when a team scored (especially Sahn or if it was a close game) people flooded onto the field, a child or two pushed a wheel with a stick in jubilation across the pitch and yes an odd goat found his way onto the field in confusion or perhaps in admiration of the goal. At the end of the tournament, each participating village received their own soccer ball and since the finalists got to keep the jerseys, we no longer had to carry 20 very sweaty jerseys back home to wash each night.

This past April, the Harvard Club Soccer team also hosted a “Kick Out Malaria” Tournament in Boston. Club teams from Brown, North Eastern, Dartmouth and the hosts clashed horns. Harvard eventually won the inaugural cup and in the process raised enough funds to sponsor the tournament held in Sahn and they also bought more nets for GMin.

Clean your boots for next year because we will all “Kick Out Malaria” again!

– Justin

When the GMin team arrives back to Sahn after a packed day of distribution, we often like to kick back in our guesthouse for a little rest. For some, this is the perfect opportunity to catch a quick nap and stretch out our feet since we would’ve been either walking or standing for nearly 8 hours. For others, a good read or taking care of some chores in the garden or learning more Mende does the job. This is also one of the best times for recognizing the differences in cultures between GMin members and those in the Malen chiefdom. It can be small differences; for example when scrubbing away at a dirty white t-shirt for 15 minutes I think I had made the clothing even more brown and dirty than before, until our helper Sao walked by, laughed, said I was making a good effort at trying and then proceeded to take the shirt from me to make it snow white almost instantly. In the same back step where I attempted to do laundry, our neighbor who was a monkey catcher brought one by to show us. And as I pulled my camera out to snap a picture, all the kids in the back yard immediately sprinted to look at and touch the camera. They couldn’t care less about a boring old monkey when there’s a camera to play with. The children are a regular feature in our Sahn lives. We have often found ourselves reading only to look up over the pages and see about 12 children at the door just staring and observing us. Every now and then, a couple would pull up their own books to read as well – or at least pretend to read. One time I noticed a child reading aloud and looking at me in a look-what-I-can-do manner. It was very encouraging until I got closer and noticed that he was holding the book upside down.
Not only are the children eager to hang out with us, they love working with us as well. In the back yard of our guesthouse a miniature garden has started. Mathias and Sam have done most of the work but they also had some little helpers along the way. Now I wouldn’t call it child labor because we never asked them to help but as soon as Mathias or Sam go to work, a slew of children run to their aid and begin expanding the garden as vigorously as they can. I believe the main motivation for the gardening endeavor is our utter addiction to local fruits. I have never been a big pineapple fan, but when you get it straight from the ground, nothing is finer. I think we probably eat at least 5 pineapples a day. Mangoes also make a regular appearance while we’ve been able to try dragon fruit and cocoa for the first time. Personally I had never seen chocolate outside of bar form but here we can eat it straight from the source. However it is pineapple and mango we have growing in the garden and in 3-4 months we should have a good report on how they turned out.

– Justin

Usually, by the time we arrive at the last house to complete distribution in each village, everyone is excited. Our excitement goes beyond the feeling of knocking off yet another village. This campaign has been more than just handing things out. Every village we arrive at usually has something planned well in advance for us and this is exactly what we think about as we leave the last home before heading to the Chief’s house. Will it be “groundnut stew”, “cassava leaves”, or “glor gboi supwee?” [palm oil soup.]

Will it be 2 goats or 1 goat and 2 ducks that we’ll have to carry home? Or maybe, if we’re lucky, some of the villagers will bestow “nesi”, or pineapple, upon us.
In Sierra Leone, it is tradition to share a meal with your guests and very importantly, it is unacceptable to not accept gifts. We do our best to take full advantage of this custom. The nets we roll out are “gifts” for the people from their “sons.” The indigenes of Malen have happily welcomed GMin folks to their homes and this is demonstrated through the meals we have together and the exchange of gifts.
In Bamba for example, we were stopped at the entrance of the village so that we can walk in as a unit led by a group of girl dancers wearing costumes with the Red Cross logo neatly sewn on them. After a well-attended town meeting in which we talked about malaria and the nets, we spent an hour or so going from house to house, and finished the day with rice, goat soup, pineapple, and a courteous sendoff from our hosts. Laden with 2 ducks and a goat, we made the 3-mile trek through the bush (and over a few streams) back to Sahn. Our days of distribution are exhausting (especially this one, as it was our biggest day and we covered 5 villages), but the gratitude and hospitality that the people of these communities extend to us more than makes up for all this work.

– David and Sam