Summary of project status and achievements:
As mentioned in the section above, the Health Centre and CDRC came together to design a joint Youth Group course for students in grades five and six, which began mid-month once the ongoing Youth Group intake finished. The Traveling Workshop enjoyed a visiting nurse to its session which received a positive response. Unfortunately, despite having 25 at the beginning of the course, it experienced an abnormally high level of dropouts, with those choosing to discontinue the class citing repatriation and repatriation preparations.
The Health and Body combination course saw both morning and afternoon intakes finish with an impressive 117 certificates awarded, and one other ongoing Health and Body 2 course finish as well. Despite having very favorable reviews from the Health and Body combination course students, and receiving high attendance and retention levels compared to many other FORGE courses, on September 29th, it was brought to management's attention that the teacher, Fazili, had been teaching instructions on how to practice child delivery along with other treatment and pharmacological advice outside of the approved FORGE curriculum. When discussed with Fazili, he denied teaching anything medical in nature and explicitly stated that there was nothing in his course that could be interpreted as instructions for child delivery. Unfortunately, after further investigation and looking through the notes of various students who took the course, Sara and coordinator Byamungu found that he had been teaching these topics in explicit detail. When confronted about the evidence, Fazili finally admitted that upon request, he had taught the aforementioned subjects contrary to his earlier statement. Although he was set to repatriate that week anyway, his contract was terminated with immediate effect with Byamungu taking over his course, and an incident report was submitted to Oakland. In addition, Sara wrote a letter to the HOSO, Protection Officer, and Project Manager of AAH explaining the incident and outlining the steps FORGE was taking to ensure the health and safety of the Kala community, clarifying that FORGE Health Centre staff clearly knows that they should never, under any circumstance, provide medical advice, treatment, or procedural instructions, and that all such inquiries should be referred to AAH. She also put together a statement of understanding for those who participated in the class to sign, clarifying the approved topics for the course, reemphasizing the intent of FORGE health classes versus the role of AAH as the medical authority in Kala, and explaining that their certificates reflected knowledge of those topics, and did not certify them to practice medical treatment or procedures in any capacity. Both documents are attached.
Lastly, a new Health and Body course began at the end of the month with fewer than 10 students, despite being instructed not to begin a class with less than that number. (Sara was in Lubumbashi when it began.) Additionally, when Byamungu began recruitment for his October intake for the Traveling Workshop, he expressed great difficulty in finding even 1/3 as many students as previous intakes, due to a) a smaller camp population, b) people busy with farming and repatriation to attend class, and c) that after two years of teaching health classes in Kala, most people had already participated in one of the classes. Although plans were made to step up recruitment efforts in October, numbers are projected to be substantially lower for the remaining time FORGE operates in Kala.
Indicators and Statistics:
See September spreadsheet.
Future goals:
To increase numbers of students reached by Youth Group.
Substantial problems or issues:
None.
Wishes or requests:
To assist with staffing changes since the Health Centre lost two staff during September.
