Outreach Clinics

Several times a week Ekwendeni nurses set off on outreach clinics to provide vaccination, under 5 care, antenatal screening and family planning. Noortje and I went along in the Land Rover full of nurses down a quite treacherous long road through the tobacco fields to the Kabwanda district. Here we were able to see how the various aspects of the preventive and basic care clinic function. 

The nurses lead a song outside on the steps before commencing the clinic activities; health education is largely done through group song. Antenatal screening and family planning happen on a straw mat behind closed doors. It feels cozy as we all sit on the floor together: 3 nurses and the patient. The visits are full of laughter and distractions- one nurse clips her toenails as the other examines the patient, through the window we are offered cooked cassava.

The first room of the clinic is the registration room. This is certainly the limiting factor of the entire program. Each child’s name must be located in one of 8 large books which are organised by date of birth. The nurses laugh off frustration as they struggle to find the records of each child.  The mothers seem to accept that a long wait is part of the healthcare system though some decide to skip registration and move directly to the next room.

Upon arrival to the site, a scale is hung on an arch made of sticks. Mothers from all surrounding villages rush to form a line so that there child may be weighed. The children either hang from the hook by their hands or by a chitenge.