Update from the field: Bukaigo Village

This is the first of a blog series from our Launch Team #1 interns on the ground in Bukaigo Village

After 3 days of intensive orientation, our team finally arrived in Bukaigo village, our home for the next 8 weeks. Our house is small, so we are getting to know our teammates well. We've furnished our home by building a plate-drying rack, digging a garbage pit, and building a tippy tap, which is a hand washing station. We had a lot of help from our neighbors. We would be lost without them! Knowing how to build a tippy tap will be useful in our upcoming hand-washing campaign in the nearby primary school.

In addition to moving in and getting to know each other, we have begun interacting with the local community leaders. We had two very successful meetings with the Village Health Team and with the local chairman, youth leader, religious leader, clan leader, women's leader and others. They are very eager to collaborate with us, and provided us with useful insights into Bukaigo's health needs.

After these meetings we were a little overwhelmed by the amount of improvements that are needed. For example, many children under five years of age are dying from malaria because the local Health Center lacks the necessary medication.

However, our team is confident that if we work hard and take things day by day, we can have a positive impact. We are excited to start surveying for baseline data as this will give us a good foundation for our work.

We are looking forward to working more with the community and we will keep you updated on our adventures.