Week 5( 17-21 August) Activities Captured in Action

A 2 day gardening education session. 

Woohho go green.

On the right we are doing the a presentation with the stroke group, due to the gardening session happening we had to relocate to outside Avian Park in the street. Hopefully they learnt something and weren't too distracted.

   
The beauty of the houses we are surrounded by are beautiful and surprising.

Sometimes it's the smaller things in life(like fluffy) that make us smile. 

A bit of mobile clinic beauty.

This is what is so amazing about the Mobile clinic, it comes to your doorstep. 

Making the change.

A bit of an adventure in the beauty of the mountains to take a break from all the tasks

And here we have a delicious "Amy jar breakfast",
mmmmm yummy.

What an incredibly interesting neuro development day. Thank you Danny(the dog) for being so cute.

Finally, I'd like to take a moment to point out that I use my hands a lot in presentations.
Hopefully this is a good thing.

What Counts in Life

This week has been filled with many activities, thank goodness otherwise we'd waste our time here. The driving, many tasks (some I am unsure if we did correctly or not) and planning for the next day have begun to take their toll. This is not to say that I didn't learn from all the experiences, just that the energy may have been lacking slightly compared to what it usually is.

The mobile clinic was such a good experience for me. It forms such a necessary and important part of the community, it allows people to not have to have to spend unnecessary money on transport, to miss work the whole day to collect their medication. It allows for detection of problems or prevention of worsening of disease. The people and the sisters know each other, which makes it easier to report/confide with health problems.

The sisters need nutritional knowledge so they can relay the information to their patients with confidence. I think there should be shelves in the mobile clinic(there is space) to allow the sisters to have pamphlets or recipes available for their patients. It is unfair to the patients to only receive nutritional advise when there are students available, as their diet can change so much of what their disease is, it can improve their quality of life and probably increase their life span. It's especially essential to give care givers( not necessarily the mothers, as they are working most of the time, but this is not to say they don't need the information) of children the correct nutritional information so that these children, often FAS children, can grow and develop optimally so that they are able to function to the best of their ability. The fact that a lot of children are FAS shows us how important promotion is to mothers.

When discussing the type of patients in these areas an average of 2% have HIV(which's quite good, considering in general how many people are affected by HIV/AIDs), many people have TB and then the biggest problem is the non-communicable diseases. With TB our role is very important in managing the patients side effects from the medication, by doing this we will hopefully decrease the amount of individuals that stop using the medication because of the side effects. As mentioned above the high blood pressure, diabetes etcs are the biggest problem and also where our role is of the utmost importance as we can prevent these from worsening, we can make enable patients the ability to have control over their health thus decreasing their dependence on only medication. This would mean that we need to educate the care givers to give the correct complementary feeding so that childhood feeding doesn't their later life negatively ie Diabetes, cardio/obesity. We should provide the sisters with the correct nutrition knowledge so that when they have time to give advise they can. It would probably be a good idea to stop giving the children sweets after their visit, but I know that that is to make them excited to see the clinic and not scared to come because of the injections.

This was a lovely experience where I got to practice my Afrikaans quite a bit- winning. It's important that students take recipes(more then 10), handouts(a variety of these, as even if it is chronic day, one could still see care givers and therefore give information to them), smiles, Afrikaans and excitement. It would be a suggestion to possibly have a "Mobile clinic" file.

I enjoyed our second rehab visit as much as I enjoyed the 1st one, but with less nerves. The consultations we are able to perform with the patients are so valuable to us and to the patients. We both grow from them and learn from each other. We are also very privileged to be able to relay our consultations back to the staff that work there, this creates an interaction that we benefit from as well. The /value knowledge that we are able to provide staff and patients with can have a huge impact on their treatment. It can help influence their quality of life as well as form a stress/ behavior outlet(as my one patient is going to do when they leave rehab). I think that we are another ear to speak to is also beneficial for their "mind healing". To have motivation, interest and enthusiasm is essential in these consultations. To assess each patient and what path is necessary to take with them, what language you use(in terms of vocabulary), what information you can give, how much information you can give, as you can see there is so much to consider to ensure that that 1 consultation is something they will take with them after their 5 weeks, something that will help them grow into the person they were meant to be. With this being said I think that the feedback to the rehab (as an institute)is essential as well so that they are able to make changes in the menus, water "points" and possibly even including "nutrition" sessions in their 5 week stay.

The presentation we did with a group of 42 "students" started off rockily as we had projector issues. This meant that while we tried to fix it the students became quite restless which I think lead to the decrease in their attention span once we began. Our presentation included the effects of sugar, how to have a balanced lunch box and how to be mindful of what you eat. We could see that some students were very eager to learn and were quite involved in the presentation while others weren't too interested and I think they may have even taken a nap. However, I believe(strongly) that no matter how much information they walk away with(that they will actually remember), the seed is planted in their minds, the seed of healthy nutrition. Which will hopefully begin to grow when they see things we taught them in their day to day activities, eg seeing a coke and remembering " oh wait I shouldn't drink that because it has a lot of sugar in it and that is bad for my body". They don't have to remember why it was bad, but if they remember that it's bad that's good enough. I think it would have been beneficial to them if we had given them a handout, or if we could have made the slides more interactive(more questions or possibly a type of game).

This week has been about learning how to control my emotions professionally. Not because of the activities we did but what it involved in the time leading up to the activities.

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead."

Nelson Mandela

Howzit Week 6

Week 4 (9- 14 August) Activities captured in action

These pictures were taken at the rehab center.

I liked them, because I think it is important to remember that you can find beauty wherever you go.

This is by far the weirdest car I have ever driven. Breaking and accelerating can be used with ones hand.



Below, are the 1st set of children we spoke to about healthy foods, so cute.

A scenic view on our way to the next spot.

More mountains, they are honestly just so stunning.

Hello to my Health

 Here are some pictures of our time spent at NID.

(Unfortunately these pictures are not in the order in which our week proceeded.)

The Opening (Week 4)

Yet again we have had a very busy week, even though it was only 4 days(Thank you Women's Day) ,it was jam packed with incredible activities (each of which I could walk away with having learnt something new).

On Tuesday afternoon we had a group session with the Hermanus girls on the different Food Service Management(FSM) themes. The topics varied from hygiene and safety to nutrient content of foods. This made us students think of the problems that our communities face and what we can do as Dietitians to help or what we would like to see change but have no control over(at least we can identify the problems and even if we can't find a permanent solution we could make the problem just a little bit better). I have no idea how, but my theme is on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and organic food and how it plays a role in the community. Needless to say plants and vegetable gardens are a huge passion of mine. Not only because I love gardening, the feeling it gives you when you are outside, the opportunity you have to bond with someone or the results you see from what you planted-whether it be a tree that grows to provide shade, a beautiful flower blossoming , this next one has a big impact on why I love gardening, because when you plant a vegetable it can be eaten, it can provide nutrients to someone and it is also beautiful). So as you can see it is  a passion of mine because of the above but also because I believe it can make such a difference in the our communities. 

Briefly:

ü  It gives individuals a cheaper way to get good nutrients, this in itself would prevent or decrease the severity of many diseases in our country that we try and "fight" with medication every day.

ü  It gives unemployed people something to do, a sense of achievement to their day. Possibly even allowing them to start a small business.

ü  And if one were to get children involved in the gardens around the community or in the households it would keep the children off the streets, teach them the importance of looking after their environments and more.

I think my whole reflection could be on vegetable gardens, but then I would be doing my task. So I shall leave the rest for my task discussion.

The second activity we did that afternoon was receiving "random" words, we then had to write a bit of information about each(we got 3 each) and then we had to fit all the words(as a group) together. The words all had a way of combining or contributing to each other. I really appreciated this activity as it enabled us to see how everything works together and how important each aspect is in the bigger picture. It helped/enabled us to view problems with wider open eyes so that we can see ALL the steps to treating/managing a patient, not just the obvious ones ,as we often do. It allowed us to begin the combination of all 3 of our subjects, to see each situation holistically.

On Wednesday we went to NID (the National Institute for the Deaf) and thankfully that had its own reflection otherwise I would have had even more difficulty in deciding on what to reflect on. There are some pictures I have included of our time at NID.

Thursday. Thursday was a very interesting, special day. Going to a rehab centre opened my heart and my mind. I say this because initially I was quite nervous and unsure of what was going to happen as I'd never spoken/counselled anyone like my patients.

I say it opened my heart and mind because the people that work there truly have thee biggest hearts and know so much, so much about how to work with people in those situations. They have so much to share with us fellow health professionals and with the patients.

It opened my mind in the sense that I always thought majority of the people who were alcoholics/drug abusers were "scary" people (I'm sure there are still a few like that, after all we are just people. I'm also sure that this is what they teach us at school to "scare" us away from doing these things),I also think I thought I'd feel uncomfortable and maybe even threatened, but all the patients we were fortunate enough to speak to were nice people. Unfortunately I do think that a few truths are slightly twisted, as often they know what you want to hear. But most people are like that anyway , so it is not an abnormal trait to have.

I had the privilege of consulting 2 patients. One a bergie consuming up to 5 litres of wine per day for basically the past 3 years and the second an individual with a drug addiction. Both types of people I had never had the opportunity to consult with before, so I am very grateful for the opportunity I got and I hope that I was able to help/add to their lives in some way.

When I saw my patient was a bergie I was quite nervous, because I mean how do you council someone who has so little money and then spends most of that money on alcohol(as it is their priority). But it turns out there was no need to be nervous as the patient actually knew quite a lot (the patient has only been on the streets for 3 years and use to work so he is not uneducated). The patient said they bought fruit basically every morning with the change they had, I was very impressed with this. I think the patient listened to what I had to say more than they would normally have as the doctor had spoken to the patient recently about the fact that their kidneys were inflamed due to over consumption and continuous alcohol consumption and they had all just watched a movie about the abuse of drugs and the effect on your mental state. I think all of this made the patient realise that they needed to change their habits and the way they live. Although to me the patient sounded quite happy to be living on the street as there are no worries other then "my shoes being stolen off my feet". They get free food from the churches/hospices at least twice a week, they get odd jobs if they like and there is just so much information I wasn't aware of before that I was able to gain from this experience. It really opened my eyes to the life of a street person.

This week was about opening my eyes a little wider, thinking of solutions a little more differently and opening my heart to my country and its needs a little more.

Thank you Worcester.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"

Nelson Mandela

Week 3 (03 - 07 August) Activities captured in action

Worcester is fill of wonderful things.
One of those things is rainbows, lots of rainbows. All the time.

Celebrating women's day on campus. 

Fun activities and free food always ends with a happy Dietitian. 

Bit of nerves.
Bit of accomplishment.
Bit of success.
No reason for the nerves.
Great experience.

If I could work where there was a view like this everyday, I would be excited to go to work (everyday).

 Soya mince for the win. 

And they loved it. Great success.

 Bit of Interdisciplinary bonding on a beautiful run.

Breast is Best (Week 3)

Somehow I always struggle to choose one/ two experiences from the week to speak about. The answer to that struggle is definitely the fact that from the experiences we have had in our time at Worcester every single one of them has impacted me as a person and as a professional in some way. Usually a positive impact, and even if it is negative there is always something to take from the experience and grow from. With that being said I need to now decide what to speak about.

This past week has been World Breastfeeding Week, and with that comes a lot of Health Promotion. Breastfeeding and related Health Promotion. During the 5 days of our week we promoted breastfeeding on 3 days, and the other two days were simply because the activities for those days didn't allow us to(Avian park, usually older people with DM, and cooking for the children on Friday). But if we could have, it probably would have been 5/5 days of Breastfeeding and related promotions.

Being able to educate the care givers is very special, to teach them why it is so important, how to breastfeed and what to do next. We are empowering them to make the right choice for their children, themselves and their families(saves money, creates a bond, all the health benefits etc). We also promoted to the rest  of the clinics. This was incredible as we were planting the seed ,and hopefully allowing a few seeds to sprout, in the minds of those people that support the breastfeeding moms, the people that offer other advise to what we suggest and to the people that judge breastfeeding. We were helping them to understand the importance of it and to give them the same knowledge we share with the moms. By doing this we are giving the breastfeeding moms the best opportunity at being able to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. Breastfeeding really can make a massive difference in our country in terms of child health. That's why weeks like these are so important ,but I think that promotion of breastfeeding should occur more regularly (every 2 weeks go all out, and hopefully new people are coming into the clinic in those times and that those that are there are able to spread the message. Doing this one would have to be very creative/interesting in presenting as to not bore those that have listened before)because it is that important and can play that big a role in the well being of our children.

Excluding doing health promotion at the clinics we also did a radio talk for "healthy eating during pregnancy", it was very nerve wracking but also I felt a sense of pride at what we as a group had just accomplished. It is definitely a way to get correct messages across to the population, as lots of people are listening. It would be fantastic if on the bigger radio stations (like 5FM)Dieticians/ people of the health profession could speak as they could reach even more of our population.  The fact that we were able to target the people that probably don't have as much access to the internet as 5FM listeners means that we could possibly have provided them with information they would never have had before. We were able to empower people, yet again.

Other then the Health promotion we were able to do throughout the week, we were also able to feed some children. We were able to give them a balanced meal and a healthy snack. Balanced meal meaning that they got starch, protein and vegetables through an economic recipe, so it's not just once off that they get this yummy food. I think this task is excellent as it allows us to test a recipe but also to provide food to the children. To know that the children(ages ranging from small to high school) enjoyed the meal I prepared for them and that they wanted seconds makes me happy. I love being able to make people happy with food normally, but this gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. I am looking forward to being able to do more activities like this in the future.

This week, in summary, has been about empowering the people with knowledge they can use for themselves, knowledge they can give to others and knowledge that will allow them to support those around them in the choices they have made(when they are the correct choices). What an accomplishment. I hope that from our knowledge we shared many people may benefit. That many seeds have been planted in peoples minds that will allow them to blossom into healthy people.

week 2 (27-31 July) Activities captured in action

Campus, for the remaining 4 weeks




AND WHAT?! Another AWESOME "Hello to my Health" session.
Incredible. Energy. Informative. Creative

 Yes, I have blue seude shoes.
My shoes help me get through my day in comfort and with a smile, that's how much I love them.
(It just musn't rain)

 Sometimes I think we forget to admire the beauty that surrounds us in our every day lives. So hello flowers on the way back from hospital, next to the tree that makes a beautiful rustling noise.


Our exciting breastfeeding Health Promotion set up for the KMC moms. Great success.