About a month ago, I helped set up for a health fair that we
were going to hold in the community of Escambray. Long story short, I got
ditched after two and a half hours of waiting for the ambulance to leave and I
was very disappointed in not being able to participate, especially since I
helped put so much work into the fair.
Last week, we had another Health Fair, in the community of
Teotecacinte, the second largest community in the Jalapa municipality; it’s
also, if you remember, sister city to Glenwood Springs, Colorado!
What. A. Day. We worked with 4 members of CEPS, 10 members
of MINSA, 2 teens from the Casa de Adolescencia, the JICA volunteer and me
representing Cuerpo de Paz and put on a fair in which easily over 400 members
of the community showed up throughout the day. I was working with my main
colega and the CEPS workers with the high school students (built by a Glenwood
Springs professor!) about how to correctly put a condom on, family planning,
and safe sex altogether.
Meanwhile, other people were talking about Chagas
prevention, as well as testing those who thought they might have been bitten by
the nasty bug that causes the sickness. We had three doctors performing HIV
tests (by the end of the day, more than 70 tests were performed, and a lot of
the patients were pregnant women, double win!), a nurse performing papsmears,
and other doctors doing vaccinations for toddlers, babies, and general checkups
for the population.
Speaking of vaccinations, we also had another MINSA
representative performing rabies vaccinations for dogs! I was happy to see a
constant stream of people bringing their pets all day to get their shots, and
I’m excited that if and when I get my puppy (my training family in Carazo
promised me one of the German Shepherd’s puppies once she has her first
litter!), I know who to take it to in order to receive its shots.
It was a good, productive day, and I look forward to
participating, and maybe even hosting, some more health fairs in the future.
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