Peace Corps

Life is calling. How far will you go?

46 notes

Angelina’s Smile Angelina comes running up after school yelling ‘Sister Johanna, Sister Johanna!’. I smile and can’t help laugh as she looks up at me in her faded school dress. She smiles the biggest smile you’ve ever seen and grabs a stack of nets to carry on her head to help. We’re in the middle of a net distribution as part of Ghana Health Service’s ‘Roll Out Campaign’.  As we distribute and hang net in every household, one per married couple and one for every two children, Angelina runs back and forth from where we store the nets, making the process go a little quicker. She’s one of my most favorite people in my village but her name can be deceiving. Asking for a coin to buy a water sachet because she’s thirsty, she comes back smacking on a piece of bubble gum. My counterpart George Atoanan and I try to scold her but end up laughing instead! Even though she’s devious, she our little helper for the day and puts a smile on our face. I’ve visited with her family since the campaign and see that the treated mosquito nets are still hung and I can rest assured she’s sleeping safe every night. Because she’s healthy and malaria-free, she can continue to smile her mischievous smile every day. - Peace Corps Health Volunteer Johanna Twiford

Angelina’s Smile

Angelina comes running up after school yelling ‘Sister Johanna, Sister Johanna!’. I smile and can’t help laugh as she looks up at me in her faded school dress. She smiles the biggest smile you’ve ever seen and grabs a stack of nets to carry on her head to help. We’re in the middle of a net distribution as part of Ghana Health Service’s ‘Roll Out Campaign’. 

As we distribute and hang net in every household, one per married couple and one for every two children, Angelina runs back and forth from where we store the nets, making the process go a little quicker. She’s one of my most favorite people in my village but her name can be deceiving. Asking for a coin to buy a water sachet because she’s thirsty, she comes back smacking on a piece of bubble gum. My counterpart George Atoanan and I try to scold her but end up laughing instead! Even though she’s devious, she our little helper for the day and puts a smile on our face.

I’ve visited with her family since the campaign and see that the treated mosquito nets are still hung and I can rest assured she’s sleeping safe every night. Because she’s healthy and malaria-free, she can continue to smile her mischievous smile every day.

- Peace Corps Health Volunteer Johanna Twiford

Filed under Stomp Out Malaria malaria malaria buzz World Malaria Day health Africa Ghana global health disease prevention

56 notes

Peace Corps Health Volunteer Danielle Dunlap and Peace Corps Agriculture Volunteer Katie Woodruff team up while making neem cream during a demonstration in Cape Coast, Ghana. Neem cream is a natural mosquito repellent made from inexpensive local resources, including leaves of the neem tree, shea butter and soap, that helps prevent mosquito bites which can transmit malaria.

Peace Corps Health Volunteer Danielle Dunlap and Peace Corps Agriculture Volunteer Katie Woodruff team up while making neem cream during a demonstration in Cape Coast, Ghana.

Neem cream is a natural mosquito repellent made from inexpensive local resources, including leaves of the neem tree, shea butter and soap, that helps prevent mosquito bites which can transmit malaria.

Filed under Malaria malaria buzz Ghana Africa Stomp Out Malaria health global health neem neem cream mosquitos malaria prevention shea butter

30 notes

Building a Library and Helping a Village: The Peace Corps at Work

As a librarian, I was particularly tickled to hear about Peace Corps Volunteer Karri Stout’s endeavor to establish a library at a school in a small African village in Tanzania. Education and access to information are important developmental tools everywhere in the world.

Of course, this young lady wasn’t just thinking of a standard library, but a bilingual library that would serve students as well as adults living in the village of Utelewe. For the 2013 school year, the school has 342 students enrolled; a library serving this many children will improve literacy rates, and can have a far-reaching impact on their lives.

(Source: decodedscience.com)

Filed under National Library Week libraries education books Tanzania Africa youth bilingual school literacy librarian Peace Corps Volunteer