Taiba's story on how she now goes to school because she now has water

Another Handpump Cited in Gadan, Kano

Progress Report on Impact of access to water in Gadan Community

http://www.youtube.com/v/LowG2VKuP-4?version=3&autohide=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&autohide=1&attribution_tag=8MO9M6z0Ex0srObLyG9Tsw&showinfo=1

The HEAT Scourge

Rainfalls in the north are usually characterized to be few and in between ranging from 450mm and below; recently with the last years rains and flooding the perception has changed; nevertheless a twist to the assumption has 'come back' again in this year's rain? National Meterology Centre must have missed the mark this time around because this year has not witnessed "floods"; before I shoot my mouth off ; the rains might come back in full force.

The Heat wave currently ravaging Kano is unbelievable and with it comes ailments which can be easily averted; Meningitis is the number "Baby" of Heat and currently statistics from primary healthcare centres in Kano municipal have shown cases of 100 children down with this ailment. First option to do is immunise, immunise children between the ages of 2-17 and in the event you are not able to then keep your rooms well ventilated (cross ventilation is preferable), let the children sleep in light clothing, give them clean water to drink ALWAYS, wash your hands with soap and water in all situations, teach them to do so as well.

The signs and symptoms of Meningitis are almost starting off like the "flu" (cattarh and cough) and mature within 24hours; it starts sudden high fever, severe headache that is usually confused with other kinds of headaches, stiff neck, vomitting or feeling to vomit (nausea) with headache, confusion or difficulty concerntrating, seizures, sleepiness or difficulty in waking up, sensitivity to light, lack of interest in eating and drinking and in some cases skin rash.

For babies and infants the syptoms include high fever, constant crying, exessive sleepiness or irritability, inactivity or sluggishness, poor feeding, a bulge in the soft spot on top of baby's head and stiffness in the baby's body or neck.

There are two types of meningitis; viral and bacterial; viral can improve without treatment but bacterial is fatal within days which comes on very quickly and requires antibiotic treatment. Delaying treatment howeveer can lead to permanent brain damage or death thus once you notice more than 50% of the listed symptoms do not hesistate to seek medical help.

Create an Impact, Give Water to a child

Previous Blogs published has been how local governing councils are overwhelmed with developemental issues thus to bring in partnership to create and building developement to rural communities we solicit for funds through fundraising activities, proposal writing and events; Serendipity has intervened in several projects such as home management of malaria, provision of access to water, training of Traditional birth attendants and community health workers, de-worming of school age children local filtration of water and basic hygiene trainings. Our communities in Kumbotso, Rogo, Tofa,Gezawa and Ungogo talk about their success stories on how developement has come into their communities (see serendipityhealthcare.org for details).

You can also create such an impact by simply donating as little as 10 dollars which will train one child on basic hygiene practice and provide wash items to make them cleaner childrren.

Click on the link to see how you can donate and change a life of a child. http://goto.gg/13660. or http://goto.gg/f/8330

Basic Hygiene trainings for women and children in Gadan, Tudunfulani, Kano

Hygiene is one of the key ways at which we can reduce maternal and child mortality apart from provision of access to water; it is imperative that a follow up training is done to teach the inhabitants of good hygiene practices inorder to reduce mortality amongst women and children. One of the ways at which we have been able to tackle this was through the use of competition amongst the children to see who will have the cleanest hands. check out our recent work. :http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/13700/proj13660d.html

Water and Sanitation in rural areas

Local governments are constitutionally recognised as the third, in the 3 tier system of government in Nigeria. It has a constitutional responsibility to bring development to the people since it is intended to be grass root oriented and hence the most easily forgotten in terms of developmental growth.

Without prejudice to the administrative and fiscal arrangements designed to sustain it, the performance of local governments has in most cases fallen short of developmental efforts albeit due to no fault of theirs but to the high expectations of the upper tiers of government (Federal and State).

Access to the combination of safe drinking water and hygienic sanitation facilities is a pre-condition to health and for the success in the fight against poverty, hunger, child deaths and gender inequality and is also central to human rights and personal dignity of every human being. The eight millennium development goals (MDGs) and their 18 targets represent a commitment by the international community to address poverty and human development. Water as we know is everywhere but not enough to drink; women and children are faced each day with crossing great miles in search of water to drink and cook thence reducing the number of children going to school and the women having little time to build their capacity and do other chores. Water borne diseases arise as a result of such communities depending on streams, ponds as their only source of water which are also used for bathing and usage as waste disposal. One of the ways identified in curbing and reducing the pandemic is on provision of a sustainable water supply and sanitation management which ultimately must start from the home.