After about a 90 minute drive furthe up into the hills and stopping in Nkawkaw to pick up Michael (in-country LWW technician) we arrived at the Presbyterian Health Clinic at Kwahu Praso.
I want to set the scene a bit. The clinic sits in a very poor community. No over the hill across the stream story here - it's off the highway (not a very good one to begin with) down the dirt road that is sidewalled with tall grass and jungle on both sides, across/through the stream, and back around and over the turn to get to the clinic. If you want to hide and get away from everyone - Kwahu Proso has to be at the top of your list.
The clinic - think "triage" - think the TV show "MASH" with only 1 medical person and several staff members to help - think "hope it's not serious" - in fact just think "hope"!
While we were meeting with the director of the clinic - who is also the medical person - the quiet discussion of the meeting was broken with the blaring sound of a car horn. The director jumped to his feet, an assistant bolted into the room for the wheel chair, and both ran into the court yard. A couple of us stepped out to view the situation. A taxi cab was bringing a man to the clinic that clearly was "out of it" - maybe a diabetic, maybe dehydration, maybe something else - doesn't really matter the wheel chair was of no use - two other men pulled him from the car and carried him into a room off of the court yard.
20 minutes later - the director was back with us. The director is a pleasant man, but obviously overwhelmed with the activities and action at the clinic. He and his staff are it! The clinic not only serves the community of Kwahu Praso, but also serves 108 (yep 108) small villages that as the director pointed - were somewhere off the tip of his finger into the deep jungle. 60 babies a month are born into/around this clinic. If the baby was not born in the clinic - it is brought there the next day. 600 patients a week are served by the clinic.
The staff lives at the clinic - The Women's Hospital at the clinic - side entrance (door with a 24 hour light) that flows right into the maternity ward, i.e. a couple of beds in a room - the emergency room is the court yard - the disease control area is a room with a sign on it "Disease Control", and so on.
Back to the water. The clinic has a good bore hole that it is using today for water. It has already been tested by a labratory and test good enough for a LWW system. The two challenges we spent most of our time on at the clinic was 1) the placement of the system, i.e. where to locate the water room in the clinic and 2) operations. #2 may be the catch right now. The clinic's water committee is really going to need to think through who is going to "operate" the system on a daily basis. It can't be the director and it probably can't be his first line staff.
The clergy from the PCG church in Kwahu Praso is very involved in this endeavor to secure a LWW system, so the reverand of the church is going to have to be the lead in helping to figure out and communicate the clinic's ability to receive, operate, and sustain a LWW system.
I am not sure how long we were at Kwahu Praso - seemed like 30 minutes - but when we said our good-bye and got in the car it was after 6:00 p.m. - so we were at Kwahu Praso for some time. Felt like when we left we were leaving the group we had jsut spent the last couple of hours with by themselves to conitnue the battle with what little they have and with some hope that help will be arriving soon.
If YOU want to throw another prayer log onto your prayer fire - throw this "bad boy" on the fire - cause it's the granddaddy of all prayer logs I've seen in Ghana in both of my trips!
Some pictures in/around the clinic:
Working the basics - did not take picture of the sign/poster related to Guinea Worm - just too grusome!
Existing poly-tank fed by the bore hole
Michael & Forrest calculating how much water the poly-tank can hold (nobody uses a slide rule anymore - what's this world coming to)
Maternity Ward Entrance (always open)
Meeting in the examination room of the clinic. (btw - while Jim was explaining some items, I was taking the test using the chart hanging on the window...validated for sure that I never see that the trash at home needs to be taken out!)
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