Health checks for school kids

Every year, the Tanzanian government requires schools to check the eyesight, height and weight of EVERY child in the school. So St Jude's has just been through the exercise of measuring, weighing and inspecting all 850 students. A team of volunteer trainee doctors visited the school and worked non-stop to get the job done. They added extra checks such a hearing and general body check! A BIG thanks goes to Mr and Mrs Ryan, Miss Davina, Miss Sarah-Beth, Mr Gurj who came from America, Australia and the UK and also to our Irish volunteers Miss Rebecca, Miss Niamh and finally to Mr Jacob from Australia.

Checking every ear in the school

This was the first year the School had the resources to check the ears of every student. They discovered that more than 75% of students had blocked or partially blocked ears due to too much wax. So now the School is educating parents and guardians about the need to clean their child’s ears out gently a few times each year.

The health checks also revealed that lots of the new students need glasses and many have skin infections. Many of these problems would typically go undetected in a Tanzanian home and make concentrating and learning so much more difficult. 85 students were found to require glasses and so over the coming month the School will help them to see an eye doctor in town for further investigation.

It ain't glamorous, but worm medicine puts a smile on faces!

Worms are a major problem in most of the developing world, and especially in poor countries like Tanzania. They are most prevalent in school-age children and while normally not life-threatening, infections cause chronic health problems in children. These include anemia, malnutrition, and diminished cognitive development that usually results in noticeably lower test scores and attendance.

The wonderful group of doctors doing the St Judes health checks helped to source worming tablets for not only each student, but also 3 other people in each family. The school has purchased thousands of doses and will be educating the families of students how to take the tablets etc.

A very big thank you to PFIZER AUSTRALIA for donating thousands for worming tablets. Our children and their families greatly appreciate it!

The School of St Jude stretches its resources to the maximum so that these bright children from the poorest homes have the best chance of getting an excellent education. This school is like an ark. It provides a protected environment that removes many of the obstacles facing these children. It provides uniforms, free lunches, health checks and medicine, as well as excellent classroom teaching.



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Tanzanian Demographic and Health Survey

The Tanzanian Demographic and Health Survey 2004 was based on interviews with over 10,000 women and over 2,600 men. It is one of a series funded by USAID to monitor progress towards the Millenium Goals to Fight Poverty.

St Jude's students bring gifts to local hospital

Here are some key figures from the survey:

• The fertility rate in Tanzania has not changed in ten years and Tanzanian women have an average of 5.7 children. This is one of the higher fertility rates in East Africa.
• More than 25% of young women age 15-19 have begun childbearing.
• Infant and child mortality decreased markedly in the past five years. The 2004-05 Tanzanian DHS found an under-five mortality rate of 112 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to a rate of 147 five years ago. This is one of the lowest mortality rates in East Africa, and yet one in nine children in Tanzania dies before his or her fifth birthday.
• Other child health indicators also improved. More infants are being exclusively breastfed now than in 1999. Vitamin A supplementation, which helps prevent blindness and infection, rose three-fold since the last survey with almost half of children under age 5 now receiving vitamin A supplements. Young children are also facing fewer nutritional challenges now than before.
• Doctors recommend that all children under age 5 and pregnant women sleep under insecticide-treated bednets (ITNs) to prevent malaria. In Tanzania, only 16% of young children and 16% of pregnant women slept under an ITN the night before the survey.

These indicators are important measures that guide worldwide efforts to Make Poverty History. The grinding poverty of the poorest countries needs to be fought on many fronts simultaneously – the economy, education, health, infrastructure and governance all need systemic improvement.

The School of St Jude has taken the clear msision to Fight Poverty through Education. I will write tomorrow about a project that will make a big difference to Tanzania on the aspect of governance.