Last week we held a school screening at a local Managua school. They have some kids who are part of the Compassion International program, and the school principal is supportive of CHE. I wrote about this a few postings back, so I won’t go into much detail here.
Here I am interviewing two brothers and their mom (she’s just out of the picture).
Only 59 of the 100 children who’d submitted lab samples were able to make it due to the intense rains. The day of the screening was smack in the middle of a 30-hour non-stop rain-a-thon.
The rains had stopped by the following day and we had a great turn-out for the parents’ meeting. We shared our discoveries first with the whole group, and then individually with the parents. More than a third of the children who’d submitted lab samples had Giardia. We didn’t see any ascaris (an intestinal worm) and aren’t sure if that’s because the lab wasn’t looking for it correctly or if the de-worming campaigns in the area are working. Twenty-seven percent of the children showed signs of chronic malnutrition, and 76% had cavities. We’re hoping that the meeting will serve as a catalyst for a vital CHE program to develop.
Here I am with Shaily, a girl I’d examined the previous day.
And here I am at one of the cyber locations, trying to catch up on the news.
