Urchin Adventures

The three youngest members of the Waines family are back from boarding school in Senegal for the month and Liberia is a brighter, more adventure filled place once again.

The other day Rebecca and Matthew along with volunteers Sarah and Christoph decided to swim out and explore a rarely exposed reef just off the beach. After some time of checking out the interesting coral, sea life, and even an eel, the tide started to rise. They were almost back into the water when Matthew slipped and fell, his hands and feet landing right into a cluster of spiky sea urchins!

Poor Matthew had to be carried all the way back home because it hurt to much to walk. Fortunately Sarah is an emergency room nurse. Unfortunately this meant that she had to spend the next two hours using tweezers to carefully pull out over 90 urchin spikes from Matthew's feet and hands, while Audry kept the patient happy with a steady stream of snack food.

Matthew soaking his urchin infested hands

Four CHA Graduation Ceremonies

This last week EQUIP celebrated the graduation of over ninety Community Health Ambassadors in four different ceremonies.

The Community Health Ambassadors (or CHA's) have always been at the core of the work here. They are volunteers that go through a fifteen month long training program, attending workshops and trainings. They learn about good hygiene practices and simple ways to prevent disease. Most importantly, they learn how to impart this knowledge back to their communities through health talks and powerful dramas in their local dialects. We have now trained over 6000 CHA's and that number keeps growing.

Three of the graduations were in Nimba County, in the towns of Garplay, Karnplay, and Bonlay. The fourth occured in Garmu, in Bong County. All four events were filled with festivities. The graduates performed dramas and songs highlighting simple ways to prevent diseases and speaking out against harmful cultural beliefs. Many local officials and chiefs were there to accept the CHA graduates in their new role as role models and ambassadors of preventive health care.

CHA graduates in Bonlay march and sing on their way to the ceremony.

Two CHA graduates perform a drama while an audience of school children look on.

The new CHA graduates of Garplay District in Nimba.

A Visit With the President

A few weeks ago, key members of the EQUIP Liberia staff were invited to an audience with the president of Liberia. Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf thanked us on our ten years of service to the country of Liberia. We were able to show her our video and had the joy of sharing with her about all our various projects.
From left to right: Audry, Rachael, Roland, David, President Johnson Sirleaf, Ruth, Alice, Joseph, and Amy.