Internship - volunteer Programme ICROSS 2011-2012
For over 16 years, ICROSS has accepted academic internships and a number of volunteer positions have been available. Since 2002, the internship programme has grown to the point where ICROSS will now be asking interns to contribute to projects. The full details of the internship programme are available on the website www.icrossinternational.org
This internship programme will be expanded in the category of health care, human rights, research and water programmes. In order of this development to take place, ICROSS is developing a comprehensive cross-‐cultural orientation course in order to prepare successful candidates for field experience.
Cost of intern program
A two week course will be required by applicants. Project fees will range from $500 for two weeks up to $2000 for three months placements ICROSS has announced its latest internship and volunteer placement programme for 2011/2012. With limited placements remaining April -‐ June 2011 the July 2012 -‐ June 2012 program has been released Opportunities for students seeking internships are in; human rights, public health, social science, development programme planning and field operations, community health programming, NGO policy and strategic planning. Limited Volunteer placements are open in the following areas:
␣ Social anthropology ␣ HIV aids programmes ␣ Fundraising ␣ Education ␣ Photojournalism ␣ Orphans and vulnerable children ␣ Women’s Programmes
Accreditation, references and appropriate documentation is required. We receive more applications than places available. In 2011 we will accept only 32 interns and 34 placements across 36 projects in five districts.
more information available www.icrossinternational.org
Friday, December 31, 2010
May you be blessed in 2011
On behalf of all our teams , health workers and partners,
all of us at ICROSS would like to wish you an amazing and
magical 2011. It has been a brilliant year full of great
challenges and acheviements.
Together with all the communities,
tribal groups and colleagues at ICROSS we thank you for your
continued support throughout 2010. As we scale up our Public health programmes to meet the many new demands facing community healh services we will be launching several exciting plans which we will share with you.
Have a safe, hap and peaceful New Year,May you get everything you wish for and be truly blessed. From all of us, Shine bright and be full of jo and Love.
Michael Meegan
www.icrossinternational.org
all of us at ICROSS would like to wish you an amazing and
magical 2011. It has been a brilliant year full of great
challenges and acheviements.
Together with all the communities,
tribal groups and colleagues at ICROSS we thank you for your
continued support throughout 2010. As we scale up our Public health programmes to meet the many new demands facing community healh services we will be launching several exciting plans which we will share with you.
Have a safe, hap and peaceful New Year,May you get everything you wish for and be truly blessed. From all of us, Shine bright and be full of jo and Love.
Michael Meegan
www.icrossinternational.org
Sunday, December 26, 2010
I held him in my arms and wept
I Held him in m arms and wept
A year before his death, 17 year-old Atria weighs 7 stone (98 pounds). He has left his village. He is afraid and he is ashamed. He is embarrassed to be here. He is sweating, he fights. His hands tremble. His pulse is rapid. He tries to smile.
His problems aren't only the rashes and the intestinal worms. These are easily cleared up. But you can't "clear up" anger and fear, or sleepless nights and panic attacks, or how long a few minutes can seem...or the sense of powerlessness watching your own body fall away, the humiliation of disintegration.
Some infections are harder to deal with: a mouth filled with ulcers, an inflamed penis. As the disease 0p..rogresses so do the nausea, the backpain, the headaches. Muscle cramps always hurt, especially when one has very little muscle. Atria has severe diarrhea and the dull aches in his stomach become sharp pains. Despite our best efforts he becomes anemic. His sight fades, as well as his concentration. Atria has stinging burning pain from urinary tract infections, as his urinary tract is blood red and raw.
Moving his bowels has become a feared ordeal, as his anus has lost its muscular contractility and often gets infected. He has no buttocks, not really, just skin stretched over bone, sore to lie on. His joints are hypersensitive. Above all, Atria finds it difficult to breathe. His dreadful wheezing-gurgling prevents sleep and he moans a lot because the painkillers are useless.
Over the coming months Atria finds some support and friendship, some dignity and encouragement. He was a beautiful young man with stunning eyes. A proud, energetic guy, very popular and ambitious with a deadly sense of fun. Now, most of all he hates that he leaks and drips, smells bad, and often cannot control his bowel movements or urination.
He gets angry at himself. He is weak and dizzy and has constant headaches. He cannot eat easily and his ability to digest is deteriorating, as his enzymes are breaking down. The slightest knock causes a painful bruise. Atria is now 6 stone (84 pounds).
After another few weeks, the boy is drained; his mouth full of thrush, a thick, white fungus over his tongue and gums - and ulcers - he has difficulty swallowing. Breathing is increasingly labored. By now, pnewmonia is taking over.
All movement is acutely painful and distressing. Intestinal worms are back again. Atria's limbs are stiffening and his back is covered with ulcers that leak and bleed but do not heal, impossible to manage in a small hut.
His issues are controlling pain, managing extreme distress, reducing humiliation, creating dignity, reducing multiple infections, reducing cross-infection to others. But the worst thing is loneliness. To die of AIDS in Africa is an intensely humiliating ordeal, slow . . . obscene.
Atria is now in his last days of life. His tear ducts have dried up, his hair has fallen out, his bones are brittle. He has no muscle or fat and his heart is 70% weaker than pre-HIV. He has been eaten alive and he has no resistance. All of Atria's senses are shutting down.
His fingernails and toenails have fallen out. His skin is blistered and scaly, and scabs cannot form. The bedsores and ulcers have spread, sources of multiple deep infections. Breathing is almost impossible and the slightest movement is slow and full of dreadful anxiety. I give him water drop by drop through a straw.
I hold his frail, stiffened hand. He is cold, he has no tears. I look into his eyes. I whisper to him, and kiss him. He slowly inhales, half closes his eyes. He breathes out, very slowly.
Atria's face relaxes, his tormented body sags. He is gone.
I held him in my arms and wept.
I cannot describe the fear and emptiness watching such disintegration. As I write this, the images that flash across my mind are not the data, the plan, the project, but the faces, the faces of those who have had no one else to love them . . . nowhere else to go - dumped, neglected, unwanted.
I feel so inadequate, so useless and unworthy, flawed and pathetic, so utterly overwhelmed. I want to be somewhere else. I am not able for all of this.
The horror of the holocaust revolts me. I have sights so unspeakable in my mind. What has humanity done?
Why do we allow people to die this way? What manner of beast are we?
In my aloneness, in my fear, in my pathetic inadequacy, in my own humanity, despite myself, I fall before the feet of God and cry: Why?
Yet in the end, I find the only thing that matters is to do the best I can.
I leap into the darkness and find myself in a sweltering, disease-ridden place, full of flies and gross smells - and a child is crying. I reach out to gently grasp his small, withered hand, too weak to tremble.
I am here. All shall be well.
I am here.
mike
Michael Elmore-Meegan D Med
www.michaelmeegan.com
www.icrossinternational.org
www.newworldinternational.org
A year before his death, 17 year-old Atria weighs 7 stone (98 pounds). He has left his village. He is afraid and he is ashamed. He is embarrassed to be here. He is sweating, he fights. His hands tremble. His pulse is rapid. He tries to smile.
His problems aren't only the rashes and the intestinal worms. These are easily cleared up. But you can't "clear up" anger and fear, or sleepless nights and panic attacks, or how long a few minutes can seem...or the sense of powerlessness watching your own body fall away, the humiliation of disintegration.
Some infections are harder to deal with: a mouth filled with ulcers, an inflamed penis. As the disease 0p..rogresses so do the nausea, the backpain, the headaches. Muscle cramps always hurt, especially when one has very little muscle. Atria has severe diarrhea and the dull aches in his stomach become sharp pains. Despite our best efforts he becomes anemic. His sight fades, as well as his concentration. Atria has stinging burning pain from urinary tract infections, as his urinary tract is blood red and raw.
Moving his bowels has become a feared ordeal, as his anus has lost its muscular contractility and often gets infected. He has no buttocks, not really, just skin stretched over bone, sore to lie on. His joints are hypersensitive. Above all, Atria finds it difficult to breathe. His dreadful wheezing-gurgling prevents sleep and he moans a lot because the painkillers are useless.
Over the coming months Atria finds some support and friendship, some dignity and encouragement. He was a beautiful young man with stunning eyes. A proud, energetic guy, very popular and ambitious with a deadly sense of fun. Now, most of all he hates that he leaks and drips, smells bad, and often cannot control his bowel movements or urination.
He gets angry at himself. He is weak and dizzy and has constant headaches. He cannot eat easily and his ability to digest is deteriorating, as his enzymes are breaking down. The slightest knock causes a painful bruise. Atria is now 6 stone (84 pounds).
After another few weeks, the boy is drained; his mouth full of thrush, a thick, white fungus over his tongue and gums - and ulcers - he has difficulty swallowing. Breathing is increasingly labored. By now, pnewmonia is taking over.
All movement is acutely painful and distressing. Intestinal worms are back again. Atria's limbs are stiffening and his back is covered with ulcers that leak and bleed but do not heal, impossible to manage in a small hut.
His issues are controlling pain, managing extreme distress, reducing humiliation, creating dignity, reducing multiple infections, reducing cross-infection to others. But the worst thing is loneliness. To die of AIDS in Africa is an intensely humiliating ordeal, slow . . . obscene.
Atria is now in his last days of life. His tear ducts have dried up, his hair has fallen out, his bones are brittle. He has no muscle or fat and his heart is 70% weaker than pre-HIV. He has been eaten alive and he has no resistance. All of Atria's senses are shutting down.
His fingernails and toenails have fallen out. His skin is blistered and scaly, and scabs cannot form. The bedsores and ulcers have spread, sources of multiple deep infections. Breathing is almost impossible and the slightest movement is slow and full of dreadful anxiety. I give him water drop by drop through a straw.
I hold his frail, stiffened hand. He is cold, he has no tears. I look into his eyes. I whisper to him, and kiss him. He slowly inhales, half closes his eyes. He breathes out, very slowly.
Atria's face relaxes, his tormented body sags. He is gone.
I held him in my arms and wept.
I cannot describe the fear and emptiness watching such disintegration. As I write this, the images that flash across my mind are not the data, the plan, the project, but the faces, the faces of those who have had no one else to love them . . . nowhere else to go - dumped, neglected, unwanted.
I feel so inadequate, so useless and unworthy, flawed and pathetic, so utterly overwhelmed. I want to be somewhere else. I am not able for all of this.
The horror of the holocaust revolts me. I have sights so unspeakable in my mind. What has humanity done?
Why do we allow people to die this way? What manner of beast are we?
In my aloneness, in my fear, in my pathetic inadequacy, in my own humanity, despite myself, I fall before the feet of God and cry: Why?
Yet in the end, I find the only thing that matters is to do the best I can.
I leap into the darkness and find myself in a sweltering, disease-ridden place, full of flies and gross smells - and a child is crying. I reach out to gently grasp his small, withered hand, too weak to tremble.
I am here. All shall be well.
I am here.
mike
Michael Elmore-Meegan D Med
www.michaelmeegan.com
www.icrossinternational.org
www.newworldinternational.org
Whaay they say about ICROSS
what people say about ICROSS
Ian Kamau(right)
I beieve in Africans determining their own future. ICROSS for me is exciting because it is driven by local ideas and not other peoples' thoughts of how we should develop. I think this is the future where development comes out of what the communities want to do not what donors want to fund. For me this is the way to go, and my contribution is in multimedia, developing the net , awaremness and sharing what we are doing.
Brett Harvey
brettI chose to become involved with ICROSS because it is different to other organizations. Working with ICROSS gives me a clear idea of people’s needs in Africa. What amazes me the most is the extent in which ICROSS works at the local level, basing plans on their beliefs and cultures.Each ofseveral existing projects are carefully determined after interacting with the targeted communities themselves. Medical and anthropological research is used to determine the exact objectives and modes of implementation. For example, ICROSS research on cost effective ways of disinfecting water and creating fly traps has created simple solutions to prevent diarea and trachoma in nomadic areas. The results, such as dramatic reduction in child mortality rates, are measured and it allows us to determine what actually works. More and more of our projects are being handed over to the communities to be successfully continued.
Dr Davida Dela Harpe
davidaI have been visiting ICROSS projects as a Public health Doctor. One of the most poignant moments for me was when a young mother with a baby who was showing all the signs of protein deficiency asked me was it all right to share the foods supplements I had given her with the others in her family. She knew that I was upset at the condition of her child, and that it was important the child got food supplements, but she explained that she and her extended family had not had adequate food for many weeks. Most of the projects I visited recently were among pastoralists, and the areas they live in have been devastated by drought. However some other areas in Kenya continue to be able to support crops. In these areas ICROSS has given support to community groups to cultivate small areas so that they provide fresh vegetables and the surplus is also sold to provide an income. ICROSS also supports HIV/AIDS patients in communities by community development projects, and by basic care for individuals- ensuring they get medications, and the necessary food supplementation. ICROSS supports nursing staff in a number of clinics, and continues to build clinics to provide care in very isolated areas. Not everything can be looked after by a nurse, and for many patients, a hospital investigation or care may be required. Getting to a hospital and paying even the nominal charge for basic investigations such as x-rays or blood tests is often outside the capacity of many- ICROSS helps to give support to patients who need to be seen in hospital or who need surgery.
What can we do? - I have seen how well the ICROSS staff and volunteers work within the communities they serve. I have seen how, despite inflation and other difficulties, a small amount of money can help individuals and communities. I have seen how the generosity of donors and the local knowledge and determination of ICROSS has built clinics and provided care that has saved countless lives. I have also seen the current drought, starvation and violence problems in Kenya, and I have seen how the overall reduction in donations and grants to NGOs has also been felt by ICROSS. I will return to Kenya again soon.
Dr Thomas Ernst
I am a Consultant Acute Physician and Geriatrician at a major London Teaching Hospital and visited ICROSS the first time in 2007 and again in 2009. In the meantime I have been supporting the work of ICROSS and NWI with great pleasure knowing the great and important work that is being done. It gives me great pleasure to contribute with my knowledge about disease and pain and suffering as I experience it as a doctor in the UK. Working with ICROSS always gives me great strength and inspiration and the people I have met are vibrant and enthusiastic and full of joy, something that is rare to find in the UK and Europe. I am looking forward to many more opportunities to work with this community aiming at reducing poverty and suffering.
Dr.Tristan Barber
tristan"I am a doctor working in HIV and sexual health in central London, completing my higher professional training. I first met Mike Meegan via the internet in 1997/8 and was a visitor with ICROSS back in May 1999. We reestablished contact over the last few years and I am proud to have been consulted on plans for sexual health and HIV goals for both NWI and ICROSS. I hope to visit ICROSS again in the field in the next 1-2 years and to work more closely with ICROSS and NWI in the future, mainting and improving links between HIV services in the UK and Kenya particularly."
Julius Konttinen
juliusFirst time I met Mike of ICROSS was when he was visiting the Ashorns here in Finland, as he is a good friend of them. And when it came out that we're going to make a few month trip to Malawi with Mikael Ashorn, it was self-evidence that we would do a visit in Kenya as well. The plan was to stay there for two weeks and explore ICROSS' operations. At first, the plan went well: we met some of the employees of ICROSS and visited some ongoing projects. After spending few days in Kenya with ICROSS, something unexpected happened - I had an enlightenment and delayed my flights for two weeks. With so much extra-time I got a great opportunity to visit more projects and go deeper into ICROSS. Taking photographs during the trips was a natural choice for me as I'm a photographer. It was great to see how some people still care. I appreciate greatly the work that people at ICROSS are doing. It really was an eye-opening experience to me.
Clare Hanbury-Leu
clareFor the last 20 years I have been involved in an effort to promote the part that children and young people can play in improving their own and others health. My work in this field has largely been with or through The Child-to-Child Trust a very small NGO based the University of London’s, Institute of Education. Professor David Morley was one of the two founders of The Child-to-Child Trust, a project he set up with the education visionary Hugh Hawes in 1979, the International Year of the Child. Child-to-Child was based on David’s idea (observed in Nigeria) that children were important messages of information and action for other children and especially those younger children often in their care. Long time friend and mentor to Mike Meegan, David was also the person insisted I contact him and we have been friends from the moment we met in 1995. Mike was wearing a pink shiny tracksuit and shades at the time - not his own - and I was looking out for a monk! He is an extraordinary development professional who truly lives his work. Whenever I feel stuck with a project or idea I check it out with Mike and he with his friends and colleagues at ICROSS. If the ideas pass the ICROSS test I know they are sound. I look forward to many more happy years of collaboration with ICROSS and NWi. www.child-to-child.org can also go to www.clarehanbury.com
Mikael Ashorn
arshonFirst time I met Mike a couple of years ago in Finland - it was also the first time I heard about ICROSS. The next fall I went for a month to Malawi with my friend Julius, and since we all ready where on the same continent mike invited us to visit ICROSS in Kenya, and so we did. I't was an really eye opening experience to see what they did in concrete, but unfortunately I had only a week to visit the projects, so I decided to come back and learn more. Last summer I had the opportunity to go back to Kenya and stay a full month - to see and learn what ICROSS does and to help. It really was an incredible feeling to work amongst the people who really needed the help and to see how thank full they where for ICROSS. Now that I'm studying public health as my main subject I hope to bee visiting ICROSS a lot more often and be able to continue working with it..
Dimitri
dimitriI found ICROSS when looking through the website idealist.org, a website that, bluntly put, attracts people who care about the future of our planet and of people less fortunate than ourselves. Funny that I would find an organisation such as ICROSS, one with more commitment to the betterment of and relief of human suffering in one way or another, on here! The bridge was made, and I haven’t left the connection to this day!
I met the ICROSS team in summer2007, during which time I had the chance to intern at ICROSS. I was involved in research, grant proposals, medical drug delivery and making field observations in remote clinics. It is this latter experience that I believe really helps to conjure my view of ICROSS’ work. In the heart of Maasai land, an area that is dry, often over-grazed and troubled by malaria, TB, dysentery and the list continues… Here I witnessed ICROSS’ clinic serving the community daily, conducting education talks with leaders, women and in the local school as well as helping to develop water sanitation projects. Witnessing Maasai born and raised there working through ICROSS, in their local language of Maa, was and remains to me, one of the most effective ways positive health changes are made in communities.
I am presently in my last year of university at Macalester College, in the USA, graduating in Anthropology (Medical Anthropology) and Public Health. Next year I intend to pursue a Master’s in Public Health and sooner or later find my way back to Kenya, my home, and continue to implement changes in healthcare much the same way as ICROSS does.
Ian Kamau(right)
I beieve in Africans determining their own future. ICROSS for me is exciting because it is driven by local ideas and not other peoples' thoughts of how we should develop. I think this is the future where development comes out of what the communities want to do not what donors want to fund. For me this is the way to go, and my contribution is in multimedia, developing the net , awaremness and sharing what we are doing.
Brett Harvey
brettI chose to become involved with ICROSS because it is different to other organizations. Working with ICROSS gives me a clear idea of people’s needs in Africa. What amazes me the most is the extent in which ICROSS works at the local level, basing plans on their beliefs and cultures.Each ofseveral existing projects are carefully determined after interacting with the targeted communities themselves. Medical and anthropological research is used to determine the exact objectives and modes of implementation. For example, ICROSS research on cost effective ways of disinfecting water and creating fly traps has created simple solutions to prevent diarea and trachoma in nomadic areas. The results, such as dramatic reduction in child mortality rates, are measured and it allows us to determine what actually works. More and more of our projects are being handed over to the communities to be successfully continued.
Dr Davida Dela Harpe
davidaI have been visiting ICROSS projects as a Public health Doctor. One of the most poignant moments for me was when a young mother with a baby who was showing all the signs of protein deficiency asked me was it all right to share the foods supplements I had given her with the others in her family. She knew that I was upset at the condition of her child, and that it was important the child got food supplements, but she explained that she and her extended family had not had adequate food for many weeks. Most of the projects I visited recently were among pastoralists, and the areas they live in have been devastated by drought. However some other areas in Kenya continue to be able to support crops. In these areas ICROSS has given support to community groups to cultivate small areas so that they provide fresh vegetables and the surplus is also sold to provide an income. ICROSS also supports HIV/AIDS patients in communities by community development projects, and by basic care for individuals- ensuring they get medications, and the necessary food supplementation. ICROSS supports nursing staff in a number of clinics, and continues to build clinics to provide care in very isolated areas. Not everything can be looked after by a nurse, and for many patients, a hospital investigation or care may be required. Getting to a hospital and paying even the nominal charge for basic investigations such as x-rays or blood tests is often outside the capacity of many- ICROSS helps to give support to patients who need to be seen in hospital or who need surgery.
What can we do? - I have seen how well the ICROSS staff and volunteers work within the communities they serve. I have seen how, despite inflation and other difficulties, a small amount of money can help individuals and communities. I have seen how the generosity of donors and the local knowledge and determination of ICROSS has built clinics and provided care that has saved countless lives. I have also seen the current drought, starvation and violence problems in Kenya, and I have seen how the overall reduction in donations and grants to NGOs has also been felt by ICROSS. I will return to Kenya again soon.
Dr Thomas Ernst
I am a Consultant Acute Physician and Geriatrician at a major London Teaching Hospital and visited ICROSS the first time in 2007 and again in 2009. In the meantime I have been supporting the work of ICROSS and NWI with great pleasure knowing the great and important work that is being done. It gives me great pleasure to contribute with my knowledge about disease and pain and suffering as I experience it as a doctor in the UK. Working with ICROSS always gives me great strength and inspiration and the people I have met are vibrant and enthusiastic and full of joy, something that is rare to find in the UK and Europe. I am looking forward to many more opportunities to work with this community aiming at reducing poverty and suffering.
Dr.Tristan Barber
tristan"I am a doctor working in HIV and sexual health in central London, completing my higher professional training. I first met Mike Meegan via the internet in 1997/8 and was a visitor with ICROSS back in May 1999. We reestablished contact over the last few years and I am proud to have been consulted on plans for sexual health and HIV goals for both NWI and ICROSS. I hope to visit ICROSS again in the field in the next 1-2 years and to work more closely with ICROSS and NWI in the future, mainting and improving links between HIV services in the UK and Kenya particularly."
Julius Konttinen
juliusFirst time I met Mike of ICROSS was when he was visiting the Ashorns here in Finland, as he is a good friend of them. And when it came out that we're going to make a few month trip to Malawi with Mikael Ashorn, it was self-evidence that we would do a visit in Kenya as well. The plan was to stay there for two weeks and explore ICROSS' operations. At first, the plan went well: we met some of the employees of ICROSS and visited some ongoing projects. After spending few days in Kenya with ICROSS, something unexpected happened - I had an enlightenment and delayed my flights for two weeks. With so much extra-time I got a great opportunity to visit more projects and go deeper into ICROSS. Taking photographs during the trips was a natural choice for me as I'm a photographer. It was great to see how some people still care. I appreciate greatly the work that people at ICROSS are doing. It really was an eye-opening experience to me.
Clare Hanbury-Leu
clareFor the last 20 years I have been involved in an effort to promote the part that children and young people can play in improving their own and others health. My work in this field has largely been with or through The Child-to-Child Trust a very small NGO based the University of London’s, Institute of Education. Professor David Morley was one of the two founders of The Child-to-Child Trust, a project he set up with the education visionary Hugh Hawes in 1979, the International Year of the Child. Child-to-Child was based on David’s idea (observed in Nigeria) that children were important messages of information and action for other children and especially those younger children often in their care. Long time friend and mentor to Mike Meegan, David was also the person insisted I contact him and we have been friends from the moment we met in 1995. Mike was wearing a pink shiny tracksuit and shades at the time - not his own - and I was looking out for a monk! He is an extraordinary development professional who truly lives his work. Whenever I feel stuck with a project or idea I check it out with Mike and he with his friends and colleagues at ICROSS. If the ideas pass the ICROSS test I know they are sound. I look forward to many more happy years of collaboration with ICROSS and NWi. www.child-to-child.org can also go to www.clarehanbury.com
Mikael Ashorn
arshonFirst time I met Mike a couple of years ago in Finland - it was also the first time I heard about ICROSS. The next fall I went for a month to Malawi with my friend Julius, and since we all ready where on the same continent mike invited us to visit ICROSS in Kenya, and so we did. I't was an really eye opening experience to see what they did in concrete, but unfortunately I had only a week to visit the projects, so I decided to come back and learn more. Last summer I had the opportunity to go back to Kenya and stay a full month - to see and learn what ICROSS does and to help. It really was an incredible feeling to work amongst the people who really needed the help and to see how thank full they where for ICROSS. Now that I'm studying public health as my main subject I hope to bee visiting ICROSS a lot more often and be able to continue working with it..
Dimitri
dimitriI found ICROSS when looking through the website idealist.org, a website that, bluntly put, attracts people who care about the future of our planet and of people less fortunate than ourselves. Funny that I would find an organisation such as ICROSS, one with more commitment to the betterment of and relief of human suffering in one way or another, on here! The bridge was made, and I haven’t left the connection to this day!
I met the ICROSS team in summer2007, during which time I had the chance to intern at ICROSS. I was involved in research, grant proposals, medical drug delivery and making field observations in remote clinics. It is this latter experience that I believe really helps to conjure my view of ICROSS’ work. In the heart of Maasai land, an area that is dry, often over-grazed and troubled by malaria, TB, dysentery and the list continues… Here I witnessed ICROSS’ clinic serving the community daily, conducting education talks with leaders, women and in the local school as well as helping to develop water sanitation projects. Witnessing Maasai born and raised there working through ICROSS, in their local language of Maa, was and remains to me, one of the most effective ways positive health changes are made in communities.
I am presently in my last year of university at Macalester College, in the USA, graduating in Anthropology (Medical Anthropology) and Public Health. Next year I intend to pursue a Master’s in Public Health and sooner or later find my way back to Kenya, my home, and continue to implement changes in healthcare much the same way as ICROSS does.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
AIDS IN AFRICA ICROSS
Michael Meegan first published this account in the Journal of the American Medical Association
JAMA. 2000 Jul 12;284(2):152.
A piece of my mind: I held him in my arms and wept.
Elmore-Meegan MK.
PMID: 10889571 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
It was then included in a more complete form in the www.eye-books.com publication ALL WILL BE WELL. It appearrs here paraphrased
I Held him in m arms and wept
A year before his death, 17 year-old Atria weighs 7 stone (98 pounds). He has left his village. He is afraid and he is ashamed. He is embarrassed to be here. He is sweating, he fights. His hands tremble. His pulse is rapid. He tries to smile.
His problems aren't only the rashes and the intestinal worms. These are easily cleared up. But you can't "clear up" anger and fear, or sleepless nights and panic attacks, or how long a few minutes can seem...or the sense of powerlessness watching your own body fall away, the humiliation of disintegration.
Some infections are harder to deal with: a mouth filled with ulcers, an inflamed penis. As the disease 0p..rogresses so do the nausea, the backpain, the headaches. Muscle cramps always hurt, especially when one has very little muscle. Atria has severe diarrhea and the dull aches in his stomach become sharp pains. Despite our best efforts he becomes anemic. His sight fades, as well as his concentration. Atria has stinging burning pain from urinary tract infections, as his urinary tract is blood red and raw.
Moving his bowels has become a feared ordeal, as his anus has lost its muscular contractility and often gets infected. He has no buttocks, not really, just skin stretched over bone, sore to lie on. His joints are hypersensitive. Above all, Atria finds it difficult to breathe. His dreadful wheezing-gurgling prevents sleep and he moans a lot because the painkillers are useless.
Over the coming months Atria finds some support and friendship, some dignity and encouragement. He was a beautiful young man with stunning eyes. A proud, energetic guy, very popular and ambitious with a deadly sense of fun. Now, most of all he hates that he leaks and drips, smells bad, and often cannot control his bowel movements or urination.
He gets angry at himself. He is weak and dizzy and has constant headaches. He cannot eat easily and his ability to digest is deteriorating, as his enzymes are breaking down. The slightest knock causes a painful bruise. Atria is now 6 stone (84 pounds).
After another few weeks, the boy is drained; his mouth full of thrush, a thick, white fungus over his tongue and gums - and ulcers - he has difficulty swallowing. Breathing is increasingly labored. By now, pnewmonia is taking over.
All movement is acutely painful and distressing. Intestinal worms are back again. Atria's limbs are stiffening and his back is covered with ulcers that leak and bleed but do not heal, impossible to manage in a small hut.
His issues are controlling pain, managing extreme distress, reducing humiliation, creating dignity, reducing multiple infections, reducing cross-infection to others. But the worst thing is loneliness. To die of AIDS in Africa is an intensely humiliating ordeal, slow . . . obscene.
Atria is now in his last days of life. His tear ducts have dried up, his hair has fallen out, his bones are brittle. He has no muscle or fat and his heart is 70% weaker than pre-HIV. He has been eaten alive and he has no resistance. All of Atria's senses are shutting down.
His fingernails and toenails have fallen out. His skin is blistered and scaly, and scabs cannot form. The bedsores and ulcers have spread, sources of multiple deep infections. Breathing is almost impossible and the slightest movement is slow and full of dreadful anxiety. I give him water drop by drop through a straw.
I hold his frail, stiffened hand. He is cold, he has no tears. I look into his eyes. I whisper to him, and kiss him. He slowly inhales, half closes his eyes. He breathes out, very slowly.
Atria's face relaxes, his tormented body sags. He is gone.
I held him in my arms and wept.
I cannot describe the fear and emptiness watching such disintegration. As I write this, the images that flash across my mind are not the data, the plan, the project, but the faces, the faces of those who have had no one else to love them . . . nowhere else to go - dumped, neglected, unwanted.
I feel so inadequate, so useless and unworthy, flawed and pathetic, so utterly overwhelmed. I want to be somewhere else. I am not able for all of this.
The horror of the holocaust revolts me. I have sights so unspeakable in my mind. What has humanity done?
Why do we allow people to die this way? What manner of beast are we?
In my aloneness, in my fear, in my pathetic inadequacy, in my own humanity, despite myself, I fall before the feet of God and cry: Why?
Yet in the end, I find the only thing that matters is to do the best I can.
I leap into the darkness and find myself in a sweltering, disease-ridden place, full of flies and gross smells - and a child is crying. I reach out to gently grasp his small, withered hand, too weak to tremble.
I am here. All shall be well.
I am here.
mike
Michael Elmore-Meegan D Med
www.michaelmeegan.com
www.icrossinternational.org
www.newworldinternational.org
http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/aids-day-in-africa
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Continuing the fight against diarrhoea
For decades ICROSS has fought diarrhoeal infections. Here is one of the early articles of work by ICROSS in the field of malnutrition and diarrhoea. It was published in DIALOGUE ON DIARRHOEA in December 1989 It shows the long term committment of ICROSS in Kenya in its work to reduce the suffering of children using cultural beliefs and local values . http://rehydrate.org/dd/dd39.htm#page8
This was one of the early studies in the area of diarrhoea done by Michael Meegan. His MSc in Community health at Trinity College Dublin was on the beliefs of the Maasai regarding diarrhoeal illness .
Beliefs and behaviour: the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania
Success in preventing diarrhoeal illness does not depend only on providing information. There are important lessons to be learnt by studying how communities understand diarrhoea, the believed causes of infection, and treatments and behaviour. If sanitation, hygiene and other practices relating to diarrhoea are to be improved, change must come from within the community.
In northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, our health team studied the beliefs about diarrhoea of several groups of nomadic Maasai, including causes and treatment. The study (among 231 mothers in Kenya and Tanzania) found that there were 21 believed causes of diarrhoea. Those mentioned most were stale food, dirty water, flies, badly cooked meat, malnutrition, and water holes used by domestic and wild animals. The study identified 29 different terms used for diarrhoea, depending on stool colour, composition and type. Thirty two treatments for diarrhoea, mainly medicinal plants, were found as well as a distrust of modern medicines, and a belief among some nomads that people have two stomachs. The Maasai believe that bad food and bad water is processed by the second stomach by washing the badness from the body. Animal fat is a popular treatment, as is the drinking of clean water and breastmilk (for infants).
If sanitation, hygiene and other practices relating to diarrhoea are to he improved, change must come from within the community.
The Maasai showed knowledge of common causes of diarrhoea on which Maasai health workers can build an education programme, adapting and using positive beliefs. We are now also studying the efficiency and effectiveness of traditional Maasai treatments for diarrhoea.
If sanitation, hygiene and other practices relating to diarrhoea are to he improved, change must come from within the community.
The success of Interventions relating to practical hygiene is due to the fact that many of our own community health workers are Maasai and Samburu warriors who are part of the community and who have combined what they see as 'modernism' with traditional practices.
There is an important place for building on cultural perceptions and ideas and those beliefs are essential in building and designing any community health initiative. As one of our health workers said: 'At the end of the day, a mother will listen to her mother's advice rather than to a stranger's. She'll draw on her experience from her world, not from ideas given her in another language.'
Should any DD readers wish for information about our research methods, or for more details of our ongoing research, we would be glad to share this. Ultimately, ethnomedical research is about listening carefully and learning before trying to teach. The more we listened in our research, the more we realised we had to learn.
Michael Meegan, Director, ICROSS Rural Health Programme, 507 Ngong Hills Kenya
Dec 1989
This was one of the early studies in the area of diarrhoea done by Michael Meegan. His MSc in Community health at Trinity College Dublin was on the beliefs of the Maasai regarding diarrhoeal illness .
Beliefs and behaviour: the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania
Success in preventing diarrhoeal illness does not depend only on providing information. There are important lessons to be learnt by studying how communities understand diarrhoea, the believed causes of infection, and treatments and behaviour. If sanitation, hygiene and other practices relating to diarrhoea are to be improved, change must come from within the community.
In northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, our health team studied the beliefs about diarrhoea of several groups of nomadic Maasai, including causes and treatment. The study (among 231 mothers in Kenya and Tanzania) found that there were 21 believed causes of diarrhoea. Those mentioned most were stale food, dirty water, flies, badly cooked meat, malnutrition, and water holes used by domestic and wild animals. The study identified 29 different terms used for diarrhoea, depending on stool colour, composition and type. Thirty two treatments for diarrhoea, mainly medicinal plants, were found as well as a distrust of modern medicines, and a belief among some nomads that people have two stomachs. The Maasai believe that bad food and bad water is processed by the second stomach by washing the badness from the body. Animal fat is a popular treatment, as is the drinking of clean water and breastmilk (for infants).
If sanitation, hygiene and other practices relating to diarrhoea are to he improved, change must come from within the community.
The Maasai showed knowledge of common causes of diarrhoea on which Maasai health workers can build an education programme, adapting and using positive beliefs. We are now also studying the efficiency and effectiveness of traditional Maasai treatments for diarrhoea.
If sanitation, hygiene and other practices relating to diarrhoea are to he improved, change must come from within the community.
The success of Interventions relating to practical hygiene is due to the fact that many of our own community health workers are Maasai and Samburu warriors who are part of the community and who have combined what they see as 'modernism' with traditional practices.
There is an important place for building on cultural perceptions and ideas and those beliefs are essential in building and designing any community health initiative. As one of our health workers said: 'At the end of the day, a mother will listen to her mother's advice rather than to a stranger's. She'll draw on her experience from her world, not from ideas given her in another language.'
Should any DD readers wish for information about our research methods, or for more details of our ongoing research, we would be glad to share this. Ultimately, ethnomedical research is about listening carefully and learning before trying to teach. The more we listened in our research, the more we realised we had to learn.
Michael Meegan, Director, ICROSS Rural Health Programme, 507 Ngong Hills Kenya
Dec 1989
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
PAIN AND SUFFERING Michael Meegan
PAIN
Here is a summary of Mike Meegans upcoming book about PAIN
In this book Michael Meegan shares insights into human pan.
PAIN is central to our human experience – we are all in some form of pain, much of the time. Although often misunderstood, physical pain is generally contained in modern healthcare. But our pain is not only physical. Fear, depression, anxiety, failure, tragedy and rejection are parts of the same experience. There are many types of suffering. Through an honest and intimate examination of pain you are or will experience we are going to show you effective ways of understanding and growing from pain.
This is foremost a book of opportunity its about light and hope written by two people who have vast experience of human pain. We are all at different stages of dying and this requires our full attention not our denial. We are all going to see those who we love, every friend, and every member of our family, experience pain. And they too will see ours. We are all in a sense at different stages of dying, but at a cultural and social level, we avoid, evade and deny pain, our own as well as that of others, and we do not want to accept death.
We don’t really want to deal with pain. This book opens the door on our deepest fears, and begins to explain them in all their forms. It is important that we remove the mask and break through the taboos of pain, to see what actually happens to us and why. PAIN, will help readers to choose alternative ways to live and to encounter their suffering differently.
In PAIN, we put forward a radically different idea of managing our hurts and fears. We examine the different ways we cope with pain, and we detail what works, and what does not work. We explore experiences of loneliness, injury, trauma and illness, as well as the biochemical effects of pain in all its forms. In a society crippled by pain and our attempts to deal with it, this is not a philosophy of pain but a practical, day-to-day approach to managing that we are. With examples drawn from every part of our lives, the book explains how pain works and what it does. It covers everything from emotional and imagined pain to referred and self-induced triggers.
Everyone needs to read this book. We all taste some degree of pain
Every day, some kind of suffering, and we need to build a healthier relationship. With our pain, and ultimately with ourselves. This book will take the reader through their different types of suffering, explain it physically, medically and give an honest often challenging alternative to common ways of responding to the experience.
Written by people who have spent decades dealing with human suffering this book is the most informed direct and real insight into your pain you have ever read. It talks about every type of pain . Whether emotional, physical, sexual or spiritual, all anguish actual or imaginary is real. This book examines the drivers and feeders of pain external and internal, it looks at the social and private energies that cultivate our suffering and the fears that mask it. In plain English it explores the ideas of pain, our escapes and painkillers, our fascination with traps and illusions. We explain the different ways pain is managed emotionally, clinically and personally.
In this book we are going to take the reader by the hand and walk them through every aspect of their inevitable experiences ranging from loss, trauma, grief, illness and dying. We will help them to find hope and clarity, confidence and healing, through real examples and case studies written in plain English.
Mike Meegan
Here is a summary of Mike Meegans upcoming book about PAIN
In this book Michael Meegan shares insights into human pan.
PAIN is central to our human experience – we are all in some form of pain, much of the time. Although often misunderstood, physical pain is generally contained in modern healthcare. But our pain is not only physical. Fear, depression, anxiety, failure, tragedy and rejection are parts of the same experience. There are many types of suffering. Through an honest and intimate examination of pain you are or will experience we are going to show you effective ways of understanding and growing from pain.
This is foremost a book of opportunity its about light and hope written by two people who have vast experience of human pain. We are all at different stages of dying and this requires our full attention not our denial. We are all going to see those who we love, every friend, and every member of our family, experience pain. And they too will see ours. We are all in a sense at different stages of dying, but at a cultural and social level, we avoid, evade and deny pain, our own as well as that of others, and we do not want to accept death.
We don’t really want to deal with pain. This book opens the door on our deepest fears, and begins to explain them in all their forms. It is important that we remove the mask and break through the taboos of pain, to see what actually happens to us and why. PAIN, will help readers to choose alternative ways to live and to encounter their suffering differently.
In PAIN, we put forward a radically different idea of managing our hurts and fears. We examine the different ways we cope with pain, and we detail what works, and what does not work. We explore experiences of loneliness, injury, trauma and illness, as well as the biochemical effects of pain in all its forms. In a society crippled by pain and our attempts to deal with it, this is not a philosophy of pain but a practical, day-to-day approach to managing that we are. With examples drawn from every part of our lives, the book explains how pain works and what it does. It covers everything from emotional and imagined pain to referred and self-induced triggers.
Everyone needs to read this book. We all taste some degree of pain
Every day, some kind of suffering, and we need to build a healthier relationship. With our pain, and ultimately with ourselves. This book will take the reader through their different types of suffering, explain it physically, medically and give an honest often challenging alternative to common ways of responding to the experience.
Written by people who have spent decades dealing with human suffering this book is the most informed direct and real insight into your pain you have ever read. It talks about every type of pain . Whether emotional, physical, sexual or spiritual, all anguish actual or imaginary is real. This book examines the drivers and feeders of pain external and internal, it looks at the social and private energies that cultivate our suffering and the fears that mask it. In plain English it explores the ideas of pain, our escapes and painkillers, our fascination with traps and illusions. We explain the different ways pain is managed emotionally, clinically and personally.
In this book we are going to take the reader by the hand and walk them through every aspect of their inevitable experiences ranging from loss, trauma, grief, illness and dying. We will help them to find hope and clarity, confidence and healing, through real examples and case studies written in plain English.
Mike Meegan
In Latest news
we have updated www.icrossinternational.org
and www.icrosskenya.org
you can get involved in our latest projects b contacting us at ICROSS Kenya
and www.icrosskenya.org
you can get involved in our latest projects b contacting us at ICROSS Kenya
mike meegan
Michael Elmore Meegan
~Everything is possibility. Everyone we meet is an opportunity. Every morning is full of chances to become, to change, to grow~ (Michael Meegan)
ICROSS had the official opening of Ilkilort Clinic this week. Government officials joined with Tribal leaders to mark the occasion. Ilkilorit is the latest ICROSS Clinic to be opened since the Ronan Conroy clinic in July 2008. This important Medical programme is the latest in our long term initiatives serving Tribal communities in East Africa. As part of our long term committment to community health Ilkilorit is the latest major initiative in partnership with the Ministry of health.
International Director Michael Meegan said " When Dr Joe Barnes and I created ICROSS over thirty years ago we never dreamt it would be this successful, we are very excited the health services will now be given to the people here. Ilkilorit is a growing area which suffers serious droughts and problems of malnutrition. "
The Local community heard speeches from the Chiefs, local representatives and community groups in the Area. Paul OleLasoi, Head of ICROSS Nomadic programmes said ICROSS "continues to grow and reach more and more communities wih the help of partners and friends. Our Public health programmes have never been stronger" He announced that The Government "has commited new nurses to the ICCROSS project which will extend all ICROSS Maternal child health projects to the area"
Maura Buchanan who has made frequent visits to ICROSS Rural health programmes over the past two ears has been directl involved with the nurses support and strengthening capacity. Maura has helped develop the Malaria control programme with the help of her network in the UK and clinic kits for ICROSS nursing teams. She has also donated child survival and diagnostic equipment to the programmes. Speaking at the opening, the senior nurse said she remained committed to the mothers and to women's health and she would return soon.
Gerry and Mabel Coogan officially opened the Paula ICROSS Clinic in memory of their daughter. Working on the project with the ICROSS teams for over two years it was the "realisation of a dream" and "one of the most beautiful gifts " that could be given. The friends and supporters of the new ICROSS project will work together with the communities towards improving malnutrition and drought response in the area. The groups of stakeholders gathered to discuss the many exciting plans for the Paula project "This is everything we are about, our vision in ICROSS is that small is beautiful, we are about basic public health, long term committment and community ownership" said Dr Michael Meegan.
Philip OleSironka, ICROSS Information Officer and long time community representative was supported in school by ICROSS over 25 years ago. He was MC at the opening. He announced the introduction to the area of SODIS and trachoma prevention as well as a new partnership with CDF and the Ministry of water to bring water to the area with ICROSS. The community thanked Maura, Gerry, Mebel and the overseas team . Philip noted that many community leaders like him had known of ICROSS for three decades. "Together and with our dedicated partners , we will fight to end poverty and childhood disease in all these villages. "
Representatives came from other Maasai health programmes including Inonyorri which opened in 1985 exactly 25 years ago. Mr Ole Lasoi said "When Fr Cunningham and Dr Mike Meegan opened Inonyorri we never realised we would be still learning and growing even now in new areas, this is amazing, our work is only just beginning"
Full details of the opening will be put on line next week.
Among Planned services will be
Primary health care
Child survival
Mother and child health
Womens health
Disease control
Nutrition
Clinical / emergency
HIV AIDS TB and Malaria
~Everything is possibility. Everyone we meet is an opportunity. Every morning is full of chances to become, to change, to grow~ (Michael Meegan)
ICROSS had the official opening of Ilkilort Clinic this week. Government officials joined with Tribal leaders to mark the occasion. Ilkilorit is the latest ICROSS Clinic to be opened since the Ronan Conroy clinic in July 2008. This important Medical programme is the latest in our long term initiatives serving Tribal communities in East Africa. As part of our long term committment to community health Ilkilorit is the latest major initiative in partnership with the Ministry of health.
International Director Michael Meegan said " When Dr Joe Barnes and I created ICROSS over thirty years ago we never dreamt it would be this successful, we are very excited the health services will now be given to the people here. Ilkilorit is a growing area which suffers serious droughts and problems of malnutrition. "
The Local community heard speeches from the Chiefs, local representatives and community groups in the Area. Paul OleLasoi, Head of ICROSS Nomadic programmes said ICROSS "continues to grow and reach more and more communities wih the help of partners and friends. Our Public health programmes have never been stronger" He announced that The Government "has commited new nurses to the ICCROSS project which will extend all ICROSS Maternal child health projects to the area"
Maura Buchanan who has made frequent visits to ICROSS Rural health programmes over the past two ears has been directl involved with the nurses support and strengthening capacity. Maura has helped develop the Malaria control programme with the help of her network in the UK and clinic kits for ICROSS nursing teams. She has also donated child survival and diagnostic equipment to the programmes. Speaking at the opening, the senior nurse said she remained committed to the mothers and to women's health and she would return soon.
Gerry and Mabel Coogan officially opened the Paula ICROSS Clinic in memory of their daughter. Working on the project with the ICROSS teams for over two years it was the "realisation of a dream" and "one of the most beautiful gifts " that could be given. The friends and supporters of the new ICROSS project will work together with the communities towards improving malnutrition and drought response in the area. The groups of stakeholders gathered to discuss the many exciting plans for the Paula project "This is everything we are about, our vision in ICROSS is that small is beautiful, we are about basic public health, long term committment and community ownership" said Dr Michael Meegan.
Philip OleSironka, ICROSS Information Officer and long time community representative was supported in school by ICROSS over 25 years ago. He was MC at the opening. He announced the introduction to the area of SODIS and trachoma prevention as well as a new partnership with CDF and the Ministry of water to bring water to the area with ICROSS. The community thanked Maura, Gerry, Mebel and the overseas team . Philip noted that many community leaders like him had known of ICROSS for three decades. "Together and with our dedicated partners , we will fight to end poverty and childhood disease in all these villages. "
Representatives came from other Maasai health programmes including Inonyorri which opened in 1985 exactly 25 years ago. Mr Ole Lasoi said "When Fr Cunningham and Dr Mike Meegan opened Inonyorri we never realised we would be still learning and growing even now in new areas, this is amazing, our work is only just beginning"
Full details of the opening will be put on line next week.
Among Planned services will be
Primary health care
Child survival
Mother and child health
Womens health
Disease control
Nutrition
Clinical / emergency
HIV AIDS TB and Malaria
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