Wendy explains her long association with Skillshare International:
"In 1992, I went to work as a development worker in Botswana. I spent 2½ years as the Business/Marketing Manager for a youth training centre in a small village 35km north of Gaborone. I also served on the PAC."
Wendy returned to the UK and continued her links with Skillshare International by helping to set up Friends of Skillshare Africa (FOS) and becoming involved with the pre-departure training. In 1997, Wendy was invited to join the Board of Trustees.
Wendy currently works for RedR, an international charity which recruits, trains and deploys personnel to humanitarian aid agencies world-wide. She has been with RedR for nearly 5 years as Operations Manager and has had two six month periods of time off - one to work for the Emergency Response Team of DFID in Sierra Leone and more recently to have a baby.
Wendy says: "I’m looking forward to being Chair of the Board and seeing through the Corporate Strategy which I played a part in formulating in 1998. I hope that my skills, first hand experience and enthusiasm for the work of Skillshare International will be an asset to the Board of Trustees and the organisation."
At the same meeting, Sarah Spall agreed to take on the new role of Vice-Chair. Sarah was previously a trustee of Action Health and has been actively involved with the organisation since her placement as a midwife in Madurai, southern India, 12 years ago.
Sarah explains: "On my return to the UK, I found it hard to settle back into hospital midwifery as I had become more interested in community health and development. I went on to train as a health visitor and had the opportunity to transfer the skills I had learnt in India back to the UK."
Sarah is now the Programme Manager for Sure Start in Great Yarmouth - a government funded programme working specifically for children aged 0-4 years and their parents, which aims to help local families give their children the best start in life.
Sarah says: "I am committed to Skillshare International and have been very impressed with the handling of the merger and the way things are done within the organisation. I look forward to the challenge of my new role as Vice-Chair, working with all the staff and supporting Wendy Tabuteau in her new role as Chair of the Board."
Rachel Nlanda At the beginning of October, Botswana held its first ever National NGO Week in Gaborone. Representatives from all sectors of the NGO world attended, including women and gender, human rights, disability, environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture, youth, media, arts and culture, the development arm of the church, science, technology and training organisations. The Botswana Council of NGOs organised the National NGO Week which carried the theme of "partners in development" and NGOs from all over the country took advantage of the opportunity to display their activities. The event was officially opened by Dr Prega Ramsamy, the Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC). He said: "The inauguration of the first NGO week in Botswana is a timely and welcome initiative to SADC which is implementing profound organisational changes that underscore the critical role of NGOs and other stakeholders in its agenda. It has become evident that the daunting challenges of combating poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as enhancing our competitive position in the globalised economic order will only be effectively addressed if all the key stakeholders are fully involved in various developmental endeavours." The week started with about 200 stakeholders marching through Gaborone, handing out information brochures to the public. Until the NGO week, the general public did not appear to have much awareness or understanding about the role of NGOs in Botswana. Tiny Healy, Skillshare International's Country Director in Botswana explains: "This event has been a major stepping stone for the NGO movement because it has raised awareness about the role of NGOs and it has forged links with the private, public and government sector, enabling the development of future partnerships. It was a great opportunity for Skillshare International to raise the profile of our activities in the region."
During the last few months, Skillshare International has experienced a number of changes in the placements of development workers and health trainers.
India
Lesotho Mozambique Namibia
Robin Hartle finished his placement at the Yetu Yama Centre and has returned to Botswana.
Swaziland
Tanzania Lorna Renwick and Richard Wilson took up their posts as Community Health Care Trainers at Simanjiro District Council in September.
Uganda A NEW FACE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
‘Makholu says:
"I enjoy development work tremendously. Working for Skillshare International appealed to me because of the challenge of the managerial role. I felt that as a manager I would be in a position to be more creative and to contribute more to the development of Lesotho.
I’m also interested in supporting individuals to enable them to do their work. I believe in staff empowerment and I’m happy to see this approach is supported by the organisation.
Another aspect of the job which I find appealing is building partnerships with NGOs and CBOs and assisting them to strengthen their organisations without necessarily assigning a development worker.
I’m grateful to Skillshare International for giving me this opportunity to manage their agency. Women have a lot to contribute and I hope that I will be a role model to other women in Lesotho."
‘Makholu brings with her a vast range of experiences and skills, including small-scale food production at community level and at primary schools, food security, water development, sanitation, community development, vocational education, small business development, skills training, income generation, nutrition education and primary health care. She has also been involved in HIV/AIDS training workshops for school teachers and community members.
The last week of July saw the second International Congress of the Occupational Therapy Africa Region Group (OTARG) being hosted by the Uganda Association of Occupational Therapists (UAOT) in Kampala.
Congress delegates travelled from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, UK, Germany, Denmark, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Japan and Canada.
Participating countries were invited to present an exhibition depicting OT in their country. Each exhibition was on display for two days and contained arts, crafts and other activities typical of OT in that country.
Three members of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists executive were also present: Carolyn Webster, President, Rosemary Crouch, 2nd Vice-president and Sharon Brintnell, Honorary Treasurer.
Young people from the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped provided entertainment and through their dances and poems they clearly demonstrated that "disability is not inability".
Delegates had the opportunity to visit OT departments in Kampala, including the national referral psychiatric hospital, a community based rehabilitation programme, the OT training school, the national teaching hospital, a centre for children with learning difficulties and a centre for clients with HIV/AIDS.
The five day event had superb double page coverage in Therapy Weekly whose editor attended the Congress. The same issue featured a full-page article by Polly Hauxwell on her experience as an OT Trainer in Uganda. The articles have prompted several enquiries from OTs interested in volunteering.
Vellachi is a “Tribal” - a descendant of one of the original inhabitants of southern India. In common with many other indigenous people, India’s Tribals find themselves squeezed to the margins of economic opportunity and beyond the reach of essential services.
Vellachi and her husband are subsistence farmers and live in the thatched hut characteristic of their tribe in the village of Thekkanampattai, near Sittilingi in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The nearest hospital is 48 km from Sittilingi at Harur and even the Kotapatty Primary Health Clinic is more than 10 km away.
In 1993, two doctors, Dr Regi George and Dr Lalitha Regi, founded a small hospital in Sittilingi for the area’s 10,000 tribal people. Last year, Dr M Shunmuga Mari Kannan, a 34 year-old rural general practitioner from Tamil Nadu, was recruited to work as a health trainer under the auspices of Skillshare International's Action Health Programme.
Vellachi’s fellow villagers nominated her to go to the Sittilingi Tribal Hospital for two days every fortnight to learn about health and become a health auxiliary. As a child, she had received no formal education but in eighteen months she picked up basic literacy and numeracy on the way to learning much about health.
Vellachi is now equipped with knowledge about safe delivery and post-natal care, nutrition and the main patterns of ill health (diarrhoea, anaemia, parasites, leprosy, TB and AIDS) and other skills ranging from map-making to basic prescribing and first aid.
Thekkanampattai has a field clinic every six weeks. Vellachi is supported by one of the doctors from the hospital, two or three health workers, a laboratory technician and a health co-ordinator, who maintains the health information system.
During a typical field clinic, Dr Kannan would support health auxiliaries and health workers as they conducted ante-natal checks and taught exercises, examined and treated under-fives and advised their mothers, and gave health education presentations on issues such as nutritious weaning food. The field clinics are an opportunity to refer more complicated cases to the Sittilingi Tribal Hospital.
During his placement, Dr Kannan facilitated the training of 25 health auxiliaries, including Vellachi, 18 health workers and 6 health worker trainees (young tribal women nominated by their villages to work in the Sittilingi Tribal Hospital). In addition, he gave the health auxiliaries and health workers “on the job training” during field clinics and village visits.
Once a week Dr Kannan made village visits to Vellachi and each of the other health auxiliaries to supervise them as they followed up new births in the village.
During Dr Kannan’s time as a health trainer there were some significant improvements in the health awareness of the population. The proportion of pregnant women attending antenatal classes increased from 11% to 84%. Health awareness among mothers has improved, resulting in better life-chances for the population, especially vulnerable groups like the very young. The rate of malnutrition has dropped among under-1s from 40% to 10% and among under-fives from 54% to 34%. Infant mortality has fallen from 158 deaths per thousand live births to 110.
Between October 1996 and September 1999, Khwezi worked for Bobirwa Community Home Based Care Programme (CHBC) developing a pilot project on home based care for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Khwezi explains the importance of the project:
"The project could not have come at a better time. 60% of hospital beds were occupied by AIDS related illnesses and floor beds were being used, but hospitals still did not have sufficient capacity to provide proper care for patients.
There was a severe misunderstanding between health authorities and communities. People accused the government of returning patients home while they still needed nursing care.
The biggest challenge was to change the tradition of sick people belonging to the hospital and rather than their homes. But studies showed that terminally ill patients actually preferred to die at home with their families rather than in a lonely hospital environment.
During the pilot project, it became clear that one of the main issues was the community's ability to handle home based care. Experience had shown that people would only take action in issues affecting them, if they understood the whole situation."
The stigma attached to HIV/AIDS can be reduced by talking about it and by providing appropriate information to the home carers.
Home based care is important because the problem is taken back to where it started and therefore increases awareness about it.
Home based care curbs the rate of infection by providing skills to women on how to care for patients without putting themselves at risk. It empowers women, who are the traditional carers for their children and husbands as well as the extended family, and provides personal care to the dying.
The project was a huge success and as a result of the three-year pilot stage, the government has adopted Community Home Based Care Programmes across Botswana. The pilot project also initiated an Orphan Care Trust which was used by UNICEF to pilot their community based module of orphan care.
Speaking of her work Khwezi said:
"Residents in Bobirwa pioneered the formation of CHBC programmes by embracing advice from health professionals and supporting the need to help patients at home. At the end of the project I felt I had done something that made a difference in the lives of women. And now, two years later, I feel empowered and appreciated because the project is still ongoing."
Khwezi has been invited to attend a regional workshop in South Africa at the end of the year to share her experiences of the home based care project with other people working in the health sector.
‘Makholu Palesa Matete has become the Country Director in Lesotho and we would like to welcome her to the management team.
Edwin Takatso Ramakhula is working as the Temporary Administrative Officer in Lesotho while 'Me Lerato Kizito is on maternity leave. Congratulations to Lerato who had a baby boy at the beginning of October.
Faith Davis left in August to have a baby and Carol Ward has been recruited on a short-term basis to undertake the duties of Administrative Officer.
Rachel Sisk, the FOS Development Officer, left in July to take up a post with DFID.
Sue Bicknell’s temporary contract as a Placement Officer finished at the end of August.
Musa Simelane, the Regional Programme Officer, in South Africa left the organisation after 12 years service. His experience and skills will be missed but we wish him every success for the future.
Alzira Pico, the Administrative Officer, left Mozambique to set up home in Portugal and Sandra Ugui Matandalasse began working as the new Administrative Officer in October.
Feliza Samo-Gudo has been working for Skillshare International in Mozambique since April 1987. Feliza retired as the Finance Officer in August but still comes into the office to assist staff with operational matters.
We are delighted to welcome Mandla Munyoro who has joined us as the new Regional Programme Officer in Pretoria.
Skillshare International gave a fond farewell to Rebecca Watson in August. Rebecca left to study journalism at Leeds University and we wish her all the very best.
Emma Judge joined us as the new Public Relations Officer in August.
Vicky Edge-Baron started as the Supporter Development Officer in November.
We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs Julie George as the Country Co-ordinator for our India programme. Julie is originally from southern India, but now lives in New Delhi. She is currently working for UNIFEM SARO (United Nations Development Fund for Women, South Asia Regional Office) where she is Programme Officer for Economic Empowerment. Julie joins us on 1st December 2001.
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