Chimen Lakay - Road Home
I started my first online classes toward an MA in Communication last week. One of my assignments in Research and Writing Methods was to search for academic articles on a potential thesis topic. My interest right now is the communication campaign in response to last October’s cholera outbreak in Haiti. Education is really important because cholera is new to Hispaniola, so people have no prior experience with it, and because it’s largely preventable and treatable in the home, without the expertise of a doctor. By treating water, using good hygiene, and making oral rehydration solution to treat the rapid dehydration that causes death from cholera, people can avoid sickness and death on their own.
In my research I found a fascinating report by some Haitian Red Cross workers who held discussion groups with Haitians about the opening of cholera treatment centers, one of the main ways the country is combating the infection. Haitians have a lot of beliefs about the spread of cholera that can be harmful to their health. Some think the treatment centers are the source of cholera – an easy mistake considering the bacteria is spread through the vomit and feces of infected people – and reject them instead of being glad they’re there in case of illness. There is a rumor that cholera is a powder poison that foreign NGO workers brought so that they could reap the aid money from the response to it. Some also think it’s a curse from voodoo practitioners. The article even mentioned instances where Haitians have taken oral rehydration powder as a medicine instead of mixing it properly with water or drinking straight chlorine. In any case, it’s easy to see why public education and effective communication about cholera is so important to limiting sickness and death.
So I was really impressed when I found a publication by the International Organization for Migration, an agency here that has overseen the management of a lot of tent cities, that teaches about cholera. It’s a comic book by a famous Haitian artist that tells a story about some people on a tap-tap (bus) who are talking about cholera. It starts out with the people in the tap-tap teasing a woman about having cholera. Then her husband jumps in to say he survived it and it’s nothing to stigmatize people about. Later, another woman on the bus gets a phone call from her sister, whose son is sick with cholera. She says she thinks the neighbor gave him some powder that caused it because he was with the neighbor just before he got sick. The woman on the tap-tap puts the cholera survivor on the phone with her sister to clarify things. He says cholera is caused by a mikwob, a microbe, just like any other sickness. He tells her to make rehydration solution and give it to her son immediately, then take him to a cholera treatment center. The day is saved.
Check out the magazine here.
based on the publication seems like the International Organization for Migration is doing a respectable job – is that right?
They have some cool communications initiatives, including a radio show targeting people riding in tap taps. But in general I would say they don’t have the best reputation. A woman in a camp told me they were offering people money to leave, which is generally agreed to not be a good solution (and maybe not even their official policy). I don’t know how true that is.