26 Jun 12
The All Volunteer conference is what brought me into town. All volunteers, or just about, came in from all over the country to lead panels on projects, discuss country wide initiatives as camp GLOW for girls and boys working towards empowering women, working with boys as partners towards that (MAP or men as partners) and educating on life skills, gender and equality, health, HIV/AIDS, etc. There is also an HIV bike trek happening here in Nov where volunteers sign up to do a bike trek visiting several different schools to provide education and awareness about HIV and AIDS.
There was a really neat panel on how to re-use empty water or soda bottles as a light source in classrooms that use tin roofing. Several of the schools here do not have electricity and thus rely on natural light but that natural light is limited from coming in only through the sides of the classroom. Empty water or soda bottles, especially water bottles with the bended bubbly sides, can be filled with water and a cap full of bleach and fitted into a cut hole in the roof offering the same amount of light as a 55w light bulb.
This brings in a lot of light to classrooms free of charge and takes a source of liter off the street. But litter, for the most part, really is used here to exhaustion if a purpose is obviously known. I gave a talk on ideas I've seen from around the world on how to use the stuff that doesn't get used like the candy and cookie wrappers which can be folded in a way or around bamboo or thick grass to weave colorful anythings.
There are some health volunteers that are doing a mural trek as well, going from region to region to help come to interested volunteer sites to do health murals educating on issues as hand washing, sleeping under a mosquito net, how to make ORS, oral re- salts, which is important for anyone suffering from diarrhea which can be a cause of death here, especially amongst infants, how to make Neem cream, etc.
Serving in a small country as The Gambia allows for us to do camps and treks like this fairly easily which allows us to really share our work with each other as well as with a good proportion of the country as much as possible.
It was a neat conference in the sense that it was volunteer led. It's always refreshing and inspiring to hear from passionate volunteers that have success stories to share.
But now it's time to trek back up to site and try to finish my three month challenge, even though by coming here it's already pretty much been breached. I'm making my own personal two month challenge!
The new education volunteers come in on Thursday and swear in Aug 31st. I'll probably be back then to meet and support the new group and stay until Sept 12 for my IST.
The All Volunteer conference is what brought me into town. All volunteers, or just about, came in from all over the country to lead panels on projects, discuss country wide initiatives as camp GLOW for girls and boys working towards empowering women, working with boys as partners towards that (MAP or men as partners) and educating on life skills, gender and equality, health, HIV/AIDS, etc. There is also an HIV bike trek happening here in Nov where volunteers sign up to do a bike trek visiting several different schools to provide education and awareness about HIV and AIDS.
There was a really neat panel on how to re-use empty water or soda bottles as a light source in classrooms that use tin roofing. Several of the schools here do not have electricity and thus rely on natural light but that natural light is limited from coming in only through the sides of the classroom. Empty water or soda bottles, especially water bottles with the bended bubbly sides, can be filled with water and a cap full of bleach and fitted into a cut hole in the roof offering the same amount of light as a 55w light bulb.
This brings in a lot of light to classrooms free of charge and takes a source of liter off the street. But litter, for the most part, really is used here to exhaustion if a purpose is obviously known. I gave a talk on ideas I've seen from around the world on how to use the stuff that doesn't get used like the candy and cookie wrappers which can be folded in a way or around bamboo or thick grass to weave colorful anythings.
There are some health volunteers that are doing a mural trek as well, going from region to region to help come to interested volunteer sites to do health murals educating on issues as hand washing, sleeping under a mosquito net, how to make ORS, oral re- salts, which is important for anyone suffering from diarrhea which can be a cause of death here, especially amongst infants, how to make Neem cream, etc.
Serving in a small country as The Gambia allows for us to do camps and treks like this fairly easily which allows us to really share our work with each other as well as with a good proportion of the country as much as possible.
It was a neat conference in the sense that it was volunteer led. It's always refreshing and inspiring to hear from passionate volunteers that have success stories to share.
But now it's time to trek back up to site and try to finish my three month challenge, even though by coming here it's already pretty much been breached. I'm making my own personal two month challenge!
The new education volunteers come in on Thursday and swear in Aug 31st. I'll probably be back then to meet and support the new group and stay until Sept 12 for my IST.
I liked the used of plastic bottles for light. And water in plastic bottles in the sun become disinfected and thus make for safe drinking water. We use UV light to disinfect about 8 million gallons of water a day at the waste water plant where I work.
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