Healing from within

A young mother and her infant son on the outskirts of Deliej in West Darfur are huddled underneath a pink mosquito net—the only splash of color in their otherwise drab wood and grass dome, or “tukul.” It is littered with dust and scant belongings, as well as dirty dishes and rotting food tucked underneath the bed.

PHOTO: Tanya Habjouqa Too weak to leave her hut, a young mother, Khadija, relies exclusively on the kindness of her neighbors to provide food to her and her newborn son. IMC community health workers are trained to locate women like Khadija, connect them with the local health program, provide practical health education and maintain a watchful eye on their well-being.

The mother, Khadija, is too weak to leave her hut and has nobody to watch her baby while she gathers food or water for their survival. She relies purely on the kindness of her neighbors for whatever food they can spare.

International Medical Corps (IMC) community health educators are trained to locate women like Khadija, connect them with the local health program, provide practical health education and maintain a watchful eye on their well-being.

Farahan Ahmad, one of 31 recent graduates from an intensive IMC training course, discovers Khadija while making his rounds.

He gingerly enters her hut, not wanting to scare the young mother, and offers the traditional Islamic greetings, explaining that he is checking on her health and that he had heard about the newborn baby.

Both mother and child appear healthy, with no complaints about diarrhea. However, Farahan is disappointed to see the piles of dishes filled with molding food tucked underneath the bed. He solemnly explains the dangers such remains pose, and advises that for optimum health a clean environment must be maintained. He further offers to seek help from the neighbors if she is too weak to clean the tukul on her own.

PHOTO: Tanya Habjouqa An IMC community health educator, Farahan, explains to Khadija the dangers of leaving rotting food in the hut—especially underneath the bed that she and her child sleep in.

“Community health educators extend our reach into the community,” explains IMC Medical Coordinator Connie Nunn. “They act as an early warning system, referring children and pregnant mothers for immunization and helping them get health care before it is too late.”

Many of the Deliej community health educators were farmers before fleeing their homes last year due to an escalation of violence in the Darfur conflict and are now idle in the host community, their livelihoods snared and their survival in the hands of the aid community.

Utilizing the word “khawaja,” the common moniker across Darfur for a white person or aid worker, Farahan explains his interpretation of the work he is now a part of.

“We are saved because of the khawajas. All our people would die without their presence or we would have all fled to camps in Chad,” he insists.

A fundamental component of IMC’s approach has always been capacity building, i.e. creating local health care infrastructure so that when humanitarian workers pull out, affected communities can care for themselves.

PHOTO: Tanya Habjouqa IMC community health educator Badria conducts a public health education campaign in Deliej She was a farmer before the conflict forced her to flee her home.

While community health educators form only one component of IMC’s programming, their work is invaluable to the medical team in teaching the community and spreading beneficial health messages.

The community health educator program utilizes internally displaced men and women from 48 villages around Deliej They collect birth and death information; conduct an average of 2,500 family visits per week to promote health education on topics such as respiratory infections and malarial prevention; and refer sick patients to the IMC clinic.

“We are beginning to see some behavior change in the population,” IMC Community Health Nurse Charlotte Geier explains. “And with the early management of diarrhea at home, they are really saving lives.”