Friday, March 4, 2011

Projects Galore!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy 8th of March, International Women’s Day! Ukraine is still freezing cold and covered in snow, but I am looking forward to the upcoming spring very much! I have waited to update you all on my life until this moment because I have finally finished (well nearly finished) two of my projects and I want to share with you the efforts, results and pictures!

Since the end of the winter break I have been overwhelmingly busy with two of my projects – a water filter project and my HIV/AIDS Awareness project. I will start by telling about the Water Filter project.

Sadly due to pollution, slide offs of eroded littered soil and dumping, the fresh water of Ukraine is undrinkable. However, community organizations paid by the government to test the water, claim that it is safe to drink and free of any contaminants or harmful substances. Ukrainians know that this is not true but with few other cheap enough options they still continue to drink the tap water as is. As a member of the PC Environmental Working Group, I have been working with the Water Task Force on projects, which hope to educate Ukrainians on the importance of boiling or filtering tap water before consumption. My project has resulted from these efforts.

Water Charities is an American NGO, which helps to fund PCV projects related to water in their local communities. Through their associated organization, Appropriate Projects, I was able to write a grant, which provided me $500 for the implementation of my project. Please check out the link appropriateprojects.com and click on Ukraine projects. My project is already a few pages into the Ukrainian projects due to the popularity of this grant, but you may search “Velyka Lepetykha Secondary School #1 Water Filter Project” and will thus find my grant and project description.

To complete this project I requested the help of our school’s nurse, Lena, as my project partner. Our goal was to install a water filter in the cafeteria of our school in order to provide filtered water for use in the making of the student’s lunches. Our first purchase was a Water Quality Test Kit bought online from an American company (H2Okits.com). Along with Lena we completed the tests on our tap water and found dangerous levels of Nitrate, Sulfate and Chloride. We also found the tap water to have an off the chart total hardness which I could have determined simply by the dryness of my scalp! These results have been shared with the school as well as school #2 now interested in completing their own Water Filter project. A parent meeting was held so that Lena could share with parents the water test results and promote filtered water consumption in the home.

The second purchase was an Aquafor Viking Plus Filter. Aquafor is a Russian company, which provides water filtration systems of various sizes, and luckily an outlet exists in our oblast center, Kherson. I was able to transport the filter and cartridge to Velyka Lepetykha on one of my many trips to Kiev and the janitorial staff took charge of its installation. Funding from Appropriate Projects covered expensive chemicals used to clean the vat in which the water stands before use, as well as tubing to connect the water source to the filter and drop the water into the vat. The cleaning process took over a week to scrub away the years of mineral build up but the results were wonderful! Filtered water now falls into a sparkling clean vat and made then into tea, soup or used for any other cooking needs. As we have 556 students and some 50+ faculty at our school, many are benefiting from this source of clean potable water!

Though the project was a quick one, implemented in a month’s time, the sustainability and duration of the benefits are ongoing. On the Appropriate Projects webpage, contributions may be made to each volunteer’s project. I would greatly appreciate any donations that you are able to make to my project. Though the grant has been fully funded up-front, the organization appreciates donations to ensure the funding of future projects.

The second project, which I have to share with you, is my HIV/AIDS Awareness Project. This project has been in the works since last March when the biology teacher, Tanya, and I attended a PEPFAR Conference in Kiev for a week in which we learned about the biology, transmission and prevention of HIV as well as Ukrainian behavioral views towards people living with HIV/AIDS. PEPFAR is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, an initiative started by George Bush (though imagined by Laura Bush) which funds AIDS education and relief around the world. Peace Corps Volunteers are especially assisted in the completion of HIV/AIDS projects through PEPFAR and I was lucky enough to be awarded a grant in October for the completion of my project.

Ukraine has the highest HIV infection rate of all the European countries. Today more than 600,000 individuals are registered HIV positive in Ukraine. Currently in Velyka Lepetykha County there are 54 registered individuals with HIV. However, many fear that the number of individuals registered is drastically smaller than the actual number of HIV cases in Ukraine. Stigmas against people living with HIV as well as ignorance towards ways of transmission have maintained a constantly increasing rate of infection with a disproportionate rate of testing and HIV awareness. I initiated this project in the hopes of increasing awareness of HIV transmission and prevention as well as diminish stigmas towards people living with HIV/AIDS.

The first step in our project was to invite a professional trainer to conduct two trainings in Velyka Lepetykha on the subject of HIV/AIDS. The weekend of January 15th and 16th Maria Didenko, our trainer, trained 18 students as well as 28 teachers, doctors, social workers and other service providers on the topic of HIV biology, transmission and prevention and stigmas towards people living with HIV/AIDS. Through my PEPFAR Grant I was able to provide materials needed for the training, a lunch each day and coffee breaks which were greatly appreciated throughout the trainings. I was very happy with the turn out of students as well as adults and through these trainings I was provided with a small corps of HIV/AIDS educated teachers to assist in the following steps of our project.

Following the trainings, School #1, School #2 and the Children’s Center, completed lessons on the subject of HIV/AIDS to students in the 5th-11th grade classes. My new site mate, Shannon Wentworth, lead the efforts in School #2 while I organized my trained teachers and students to complete lessons in School #1. Following lessons students drew posters of the biology of HIV as well as ways of transmission, which we have since taped up in the hallway to continue to remind students of the lessons they learned regarding HIV.

The ultimate piece of our project was our HIV/AIDS Awareness Concert which took place Thursday, March 3rd. Despite a number of disasters which occurred throughout the weeks prior to the concert (no funding for student transport to concert, director of house of culture canceling my reservation for the concert hall 3 days before the concert, the county head refusing to allow us the use of the projector and screen the morning of the concert despite prior approval) the concert did take place and I feel was quite a success! Of the 10 schools in our county, 8 schools sent a team of about 10 students each to present a 10-minute presentation on their thoughts on health as well as HIV/AIDS. The imagination, creativity and enthusiasm put into these presentations was outstanding! The winning team, School #1 from a neighboring village Rubanivka, brought their own puppet theatre type stage from which they popped in and out of the windows, sang and danced around and just put on a great show! The skits tended to place a greater emphasis on all around health than HIV/AIDs with such topics as alcoholism, drug abuse and smoking being mentioned quite frequently but each did discuss HIV and I hope that lessons were learned while preparing these skits. The concert was coordinated in association with the Social Services Center and took place in the Children’s Center’s auditorium. Though the venue was a lot smaller than the intended House of Culture’s size of 600 seats, the feeling was more intimate and the energy greater! Students also brought posters completed on the topic of health and HIV/AIDS, which were judged by the jury and then hung around the room as decorations for the concert. A jury of 4 members judged each team’s skit on creativity and demonstration of the topics at hand. I sat as one of the judges but spent most of my time taking pictures and enjoying the performance! Prizes were given to the top teams for poster creation and skit presentation. Sadly, my school did not win but their skit was quite good and very energetic! At the end of the concert I was surprised with a Certificate of Recognition for having organized the concert and for having completed my project. Presented to me by the county and the head of the Social Services Center, I was quite honored!

Though this concert was supposed to be the final event of my project, there still remains another step in the action plan – our World Map Murals. Following spring break Shannon and I will be painting a World Map on the walls of School #1 and #2. Geography knowledge is greatly lacking in Ukrainian schooling and thus I have received funding to complete these murals. We will be painting red HIV/AIDS Awareness ribbons upon each map and hope to use them in future lessons to increase Ukrainian understanding that HIV is not simply a problem in Africa, but a problem all over the world, including Ukraine. We are both very excited about this part of the project, as it will be a great chance to work with some of our students on a more informal basis and to continue to remind our students of the lessons they have learned this semester on HIV/AIDS.

An exciting result of this project was the organizing of a second training completed in the Velyka Lepetykha Hospital. Peter Nikolaevich, the chief director and head doctor of the VL hospital attended my training on January 16th and was so impressed by it that he requested such a training for his staff. With the help of a few remaining funds I was able to request a second trainer, this time receiving the service of Radislav, a pediatrician from the far west of Ukraine. Peter organized on Saturday, February 26th, the arrival of 28 hospital staff members from 4 of the county’s hospitals. Another 29 hospital staff members attended Sunday from our own hospital. Both Peter and I were very satisfied with the results of the trainings as surveys showed the increase of individual awareness on HIV transmission to be over a 40% increase! Though this training was not originally planned, I am very glad I was able to execute it. I am now BFFs with the Chief Doctor of our hospital who is eager to work with me on future projects! We will see what I can come up with!

On a separate note, I have received word that my SPA (small project assistance) Grant Request has been approved for funding! In the end of March I will receive funding to complete my Sewing Machine project with the young women of the 6th-9th grade home economics classes. These students will learn how to sew sheets and blankets as well as shirts and pants. The completed pieces will be donated to the children of young single mothers in VL as well as the Children’s Ward of the District Hospital where children removed from dangerous living situations are housed until further housing may be found. My project partner, the home economics’ teacher, Sveta, is very excited about this project and the approaching purchase of new sewing machines for the school. I will be sure to update you all on the accomplishments of this project in the spring!

On a personal note, I have moved host families. Due to difficulties with my host mother Lyuda, I requested the help of my director and was found a new living arrangement. I am now living with a widowed woman, Vera who works as one of the math teacher’s in my school. Our apartment is located on the outskirts of town near the bus station but I have my own room, which is very comfortable. Vera is a very bubbly, happy woman who makes homemade wine and sings to herself frequently. In the evenings we have dinner together and in the mornings walk together to school. I am very happy with the move and have attached a picture with Vera below. Please do not worry – I still have a shower, microwave and a washing machine!

As this quarter comes to a close I am very thankful for all that I have been able to accomplish at my school! I am also quite excited about my upcoming SPA grant project and completing our World Map Murals! I am heading March 20th to Istanbul, Turkey for my spring break holidays – which I feel I am in great need of – and will continue my efforts when I get back to school following break on March 28th!

All the best,

Megan

Pictures Include:
-Water Filter Project:
Pre filter project pictures of vat, boiling water as a means of cleansing and children in the cafeteria
Post Filter pictures of installation, water testing and a clean vat and children drinking filtered tea
-HIV/AIDS Project
Student and Adult HIV/AIDS trainings
School #1 lessons to the 11th, 8th, 7th, and 6th students
VL Hospital Training, photo with Chief Doctor Peter Nikolaevich and trainer Radislav
HIV/AIDS Awareness Concert – posters, teams, judges, skits as well as receiving my Certificate of Appreciation from Alona, and pictures with some of the winning teams
-Picture with my host mother Vera