It is amazing to look back at what we have accomplished during the last 5 weeks! We have successfully introduced mosquito control to eight of the 13 local islands in the Baa Atoll and we are currently on the ground working at the remaining 5.
Kudarikilu
We’re off to a really great start at Kudarikilu. After meetings with the stake-holders in the island, four community leaders have stepped up to work with us to make a process to survey houses for mosquitoes: Misfah(an island council member), Zuhaira(a women’s development committee member), Mukhthar(a receptionist at the health post) and Hassan Mohammed(the island’s family health officer). I’m really hopeful for the future of the project as they make up a very dynamic group that works very well together. They have come up with really wonderful improvements.
We’ve also had a lot of help from Kudarikilu School. Sydney, Sean and I presented to kids from grades 5 and above today. They were very actively involved and seemed very enthusiastic to join the surveys as well as the clean up planned for next Saturday.
The surveys will start off tomorrow and we will be working closely to improve the survey process as well as gathering more community support.
Madhiri Dhathamen (Mosquito Sisters)
The women of the Maldives continue to impress me.
Hithaadhoo
After two weeks staging from Landaa, the group headed out to a small guest house on Fuladhoo. It was from there that we broke up into our groups and divided among five islands – Thulhaadhoo, Fuladhoo, Hithaadhoo, Goidhoo and Fehendhoo. Jessica, Shah and myself were assigned the second largest island, Hithaadhoo. We worked closely with two community health workers Shazna and Shahmela, as well as the Island Council, students and children. I would say that I struggled a bit in adjusting to the island environment – each is unique in the obstacles that a project like this faces. However, I could not be more proud of the work that our team got done. We finished a full survey of the island, filled thirteen jumbo-recycling bags, gained a surprising amount of community support, and received six cans full of breadfruit chips (my favorite!). I met a great group of young girls, who continued to impress me with their willingness to come out to survey (rain or shine), climb up on tanks and boats, and overall enthusiasm to look for bugs with a total stranger. It was truly an incredible two weeks, and am excited to wrap up my time here with Kamadhoo and Kihaadhoo!
Thulhaadhoo!
What an amazing experience to work for two weeks at Thulhaadhoo! I worked again with James and Piggy, and we were offered the opportunity to actually stay on the island with Nooh, a Four Seasons Resort employee who was given time off to help us with our project. Nooh was incredibly welcoming and hospitable, providing us with an entire house to ourselves, three meals each day, and plenty of help on day to day surveys and island information. We could not have asked for a better teammate in working on Thulhaadhoo!
We were welcomed with open arms by the island council, health post, school administration, and women’s committee. All of these groups played a role in assisting us with our project. The island council provided us with resources and a council administrator named Mohammed to help us with our project. They also helped us to establish a long term solution for mosquito control, which involved discussing funding and continuing the project. The health post provided with two employees for the whole two weeks who could help us to survey! Satheema and Fathimath were both very helpful in going door to door to inform locals about mosquito control methods. The school administration allowed us to give presentations to the entire student body. We presented information regarding mosquito breeding habits, disease prevention, and mosquito control. The younger kids were so enthusiastic about participating in the presentation that it was difficult to calm them down at times! We were also able to recruit over 100 students to help us with our island wide clean up, which was incredibly helpful in making the clean up run smoothly and efficiently. The women’s committee president Shaheema was incredibly supportive of the project and even volunteered to help us survey a few days. Although the women’s committee was tied up with political campaigning for the recent election, they still managed to offer us support in the form of volunteers.
While we did have plenty of verbal support from the island, it was difficult to get volunteers to come out to survey consistently because of the political environment which we were working in. Maldivians are very passionate about politics, and many of our supporters were working diligently on political campaigning efforts. This made it difficult to survey the entire island, and we only ended up finishing about 60% of the local homes. Nonetheless, a sustainable plan was put into place with the help of our health post workers which should make the project continue well after our time spent on Thulhaadhoo.
I could not be more grateful for the opportunity to work on such an amazingly beautiful island with incredible people, culture, and scenery. I was more than willing to stay on the island for the entire two weeks! I can only hope to return someday soon.
