The Job (updated) Part 1

Serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin looks very different from serving in any other country. On top of that, my service as a RCH (rural community health) volunteer makes my experience even more unique. Today I want to share with you all about the work I am doing here in Benin with my community. Last year I wrote a blog called “the job” that highlighted Peace Corps expectations and my goals for service, but now that I am towards the end of my service I want to give you all a more updated version. This is going to be a multiple part post that will most likely span over the next few weeks. 

In part 1, I am going to talk about my work with the local health center. My job as a RCH volunteer is to promote the health and wellbeing of my community through health education, so one of the main ways I can do this is by working with my local health center. The health centers here look and function very differently then hospitals or clinics back in the US. Since Benin was colonized by France, the country uses a similar system to divide up its land. The smallest area division is called a village. Multiple villages will make up an arrondissement, and then multiple arrondissements will make up a commune. The largest area division is called a department. For example,I live in the village of Zantan. Zantan combined with 7 other villages make up the arrondissement of Kpédékpo. Kpédékpo combined with 2 other arrondissements make up the commune of Zangnanado. Zanganado combined with multiple other communes make up the department Zou. Like I stated before, the healthcare system looks very different here. For every arrondissement there is a health center, and for every commune or area with a bigger city there is normally a hospital. There are very limited resources at both the health centers and hospitals which means that the services they provide are also very limited. 

Now let's talk about how the health center is structured. Each health center has a pharmacy, a maternity and a general care building. Some health centers might have more, but this is generally what I have seen. The staff at each health center will include one head nurse, one midwife and about 4 to 8 aides. The main services that the health center provides are pre and post natal care, births, baby vaccinations, treatment for general sickness such as malaria, minor wound treatment, and treatment for malnutrition. If you are prescribed any medicine, you would normally be able to find it at the pharmacy located at the health center. If you need anything more advanced such as a sonogram or minor surgery you would need to go to the nearest hospital. So that’s basically it, just a short run down of how the health center works. I know that all of that might have been very confusing, so if you don’t understand don’t worry, it took me months to get it. At least now you have hopefully a little background information. So, let’s talk about what I do. 

What is my role at the health center? Since I am a volunteer, and I won’t be here forever, my job is to work with the health center staff on capacity building. As a part of their job, the health center staff is required to give health talks to the community. That’s where I come in, I work with the health center staff to plan, develop and give these health talks. Honestly a large part of my job is keeping the health center staff accountable and encouraging them to give these talks. It took me a full year before I realized what my role was supposed to be at the health center because the Peace Corps did not make that clear to me or my community. I was stuck doing paperwork and other things that were just not my job. Although looking back at it now, I am grateful to have learned the in’s and out’s of how the health center functions. Once I realized that I was enabling the staff by doing all their paperwork, I immediately cut back. I am here to work WITH the health center not AT the health center. Now I only help if staff and I are doing work together or the center is short staffed. For the past 5 months I have been really focusing on the health talk portion of my work. 

What does my schedule at the health center look like? Every week there are specific days when mothers can come to the health center to get their babies vaccinated. For my health center it is Monday, Tuesday and Friday. Prenatal consultations occur all week, but larger numbers of women come on Monday. So that’s when I dedicate my morning to the maternity. Tuesday and Friday is when I spend time at the vaccinations. When I do go to the health center, I am normally there until about 12pm. Then I have the rest of the day to work on other projects. 

What is a health talk? And why is it important? A health talk is exactly what it sounds like. It is a talk given to a group of people about a certain health topic that is prevalent to the community. This is one of the most effective ways of getting out important health information to community members. Everything here is by word of mouth, and not everyone has the access or skills to be able to look up information whenever they want. People aren’t just going on Google or Web MD to search their symptoms. Not everyone is literate and not everyone speaks French. So, you can understand why getting proper health information can be quite difficult sometimes. This is why giving these health talks is so so so important for the community. 

My work during my first year of service was definitely interesting. Like I said before, Peace Corps didn’t really set the stage for what I was supposed to be doing at the health center. They kinda just threw me in and said “just do some health talks every week”. But I guess that’s what I signed up for, so no complaints here. Also because of Covid sending all the volunteers home, my group was the first to arrive back in the country. It would have been nice to have some experienced volunteers to talk with to get a better understanding of my role, but I guess i'll just have to do that for the new bees. Anyways my first year of service was full of me doing lots of the work on my own. But, what’s the point in that? So over the past 5 months I have been really pushing the health center staff to work with me on developing health talks. In terms of a sustainability plan, it would be way more effective for the staff to develop and give these talks. So far Armand (vaccination aide) and I have developed a few health talks on subjects such as exclusive breastfeeding, malaria prevention and hygiene. Along with that we made a schedule of health talk subjects for the entire year of 2024. My goal for the next 6 months is to work with the health center staff, specifically the aides in the maternity, on developing health talks. The goal is to create consistency, so that health talks are always being given. I know it sounds small but I truly believe that this can make a big difference in the health of my community.