Friday Community Engagement Project & MUCPP Day 1


On Friday, Aubrey, the medical students, and I all went to a place that served a very similar to our soup kitchens. It was our "Community Engagement Project" scheduled for Friday. We had a tour of the facility by one of the women that works there, she showed us the kitchen, the playground for the children, and the clothing storage. The playground was very nice and colorful! When we viewed the clothing storage section she explained to us that although they had a decent amount of clothes, it definitely was not enough for all of the people, and that they did not have any warm clothes (and it was very cold that day). That afternoon, we watched as she and a few other women passed out packages filled with food to the people in need in the community. They would come to pick them up, but she explained to us that because it was so cold and rainy that day that most people did not want to leave their houses to pick up their food. The food consisted of fresh fruit, a loaf of bread, and various other things. They were very nice to us there!

Today, my first day at MUCPP, was certainly a different setting than what I am used to. I began the day by walking to the nutrition building and finding the big red van I was supposed to travel around in. After finding the van (which was a bit harder than I thought it would be because I was on the wrong side of the building and a student had to come find me), we set off for the day!

The red van!

We arrived at the township and picked up two people: Elizabeth (the translator for when someone did not speak English or Afrikaans), and a body guard. We drove around and every time we would see a child we would stop to see if the parents would talk to us. The first child we saw was playing next to a group of adults that were making the traditional home made beer. We approached them and they informed us that the child was not one of theirs and that she lived down the street. They did, however, let me smell the traditional beer. It smelled just like bread!

We then walked to the house next door because there were some people sitting out on the front lawn (there were no children though). One of the women was a traditional African healer. She was very nice and put on her outfit for me!

The traditional African healer!

The healing house where she works!

The traditional African healer and the people that she was on the lawn with directed us to a house directly in front of theirs where a girl with a baby were living. We went over to her and she let us inside of the home. She was living with her grandmother and other siblings, and because she was still attending school (she was 17 years old) she would sometimes drop the baby off at the baby's father's house and he would look after her. We checked the baby's growth charts, and the baby appeared to be doing very well. She kept smiling and making faces! We asked the girl many questions about the people living there and who was the provider for the household.Although the majority of the discussion was in Afrikaans I could still pick up certain things. The girl was very nice and let me take a picture of her and her child after we were finished talking!

The girl and her baby girl!

The next household we went to also served as a shop. They had a sign out front listing the things they sold, such as soda, telephone calls, and Russians (very similar to sausage). We talked to the women there and her son, who was a student at the University of the Free State! We asked them the same questions that we had asked in the first household, and in addition to this we also asked questions about their dietary intake and went through a list of the food groups and good food choices. The food groups were split into three different basic groups: the energy foods (carbohydrates and such), the building foods (proteins, milk, eggs and such), and protection foods (fruits and vegetables).

When we left that household, we drove down the street and a man waved at us and stopped us to ask if we could check his children. We followed the little boy he was with to their home and asked the grandmother if we could come inside because she was the adult present. She allowed us to and we weighed both the child that we followed to the home and another child present. We checked their growth charts and they were both doing very well! We gave them balloons for being so good and while Susan (the dietician in charge) and Elizabeth talked with the grandmother about the eating happens, Yvonne (a UFS student) and I played balloon toss with the children. It was very fun and the children really enjoyed it (and so did I)!

The little boys that we played balloon toss with!

Last, we stopped at the final residence and met with a girl that was probably just a bit older than me (she was the only one home). We all sat outside her home because it had warmed up by then and discussed the household's daily intake. Because she spoke English I was able to go through the three basic food groups with her! She seemed very appreciative. Today was a very interesting and eye-opening day!