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Community Health Evangelism in Kaduaso-Kope

Sharon Rahilly, Togo

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Community Health Evangelism

Village ministry in Kaduaso-Kope. The photo on upper left is of a CHE meeting during which the team prayed over a map of Togo, asking God to direct them to the villages where He wants them to go.

On Thursday, I had the wonderful privilege of going to Kaduaso-Kope in which the community health evangelism (CHE) program has been started.This particular village is about one hour from the hospital and is several miles off the main road.The village is actually a collection of local farms with the village’s center being four thatch-roofed school buildings. There is no market in the village, no dispensary, and no pharmacy. People walk on a dirt road for about five miles for any type of health care and for buying anything other than what they can grow themselves.

Normally, my white skin serves as a disadvantage when a CHE program is being initiated. My presence indicates “American,” “money,” and “financial help for the village.”This is not at all what we are trying to accomplish in helping communities identify and find solutions for their own problems and to create change that is sustainable, not change that disappears as soon as a missionary leaves.Consequently, our CHE teams (all Togolese) are the ones involved in the village work.However, on Thursday, the mobile clinic team from the hospital where I teach also went to this village with the CHE team to conduct a hypertensive screening outreach.The mobile clinic team includes a missionary physician, nurse practitioner or physicians assistant, in addition to a team of Togolese nurses, nurse aides, and a chaplain.

What a joy to see our mobile clinic team in action. Pastor Lalabia, our chaplain, shared the gospel with all of the villagers who came for the clinic. Gnoyi, one of our nurses, taught on hypertension. Nurses and nurse aides took the blood pressure of approximately 230 individuals and talked with people individually about their need of a Savior and the peace and joy that only Jesus Christ can give!

What a thrill to also work alongside the CHE team as we took the opportunity to evaluate children’s height, weight, and arm circumference.The CHE team set up under a huge tree.Our innovative team members attached a tape measure to a long pole, which was set upright against a tree for measuring height, and found a flat board on which to place the scales.The pastor talked with the kids about how Jesus called the little children to Him.He then had them line up, and the weighing/measuring began!Approximately 288 children were measured. We will do some analysis of weight-for-age and weight-for-height, and results will be reported to the village leaders with recommendations related to nutrition and other aspects of health.

It was a great privilege for me to be involved in these ministries. As we set children on the scales some of them were fearful. The scales were a contraption they had never seen before! Moms faces were full of excitement about having their children weighed and measured. We estimated the ages of the children as probably only 10 percent  of the children knew their ages, and the rest had no idea how old they were.To evaluate nutritional status we applied a band of cut-up x-ray film, marked with green/yellow/red, around the upper arms of children.

I also had the privilege of being involved as a nurse practitioner to treat hypertensive patients. I found that in addition to hypertensive patients, there were a number who were normotensive but had frequent headaches and dizziness.If there were no obvious signs of anemia, I recommended that these people increase their fluid intake, since dehydration is a likely cause.Numerous times I told people that they should drink more, not ever thinking, of course, that I learned that I should specifiy what they should drink because some of the patients took my instructions as a presciption to drink tchouk, a locally-made alcoholic beverage.

We ended the day by visiting the chief of the village.As we entered his compound, we saw a stick set up with the bones and feathers of two old, dry, dead chickens stuck on it.This is a fetish that is used to ward off evil spirits from his compound. How sad to realize that this chief and probably close to all of these villagers believe in such fetishes as the way to ensure protection and health.Our prayer and our longing is that God would show these people the wonderful love that He has for them and the fact that Jesus Christ died for them. We pray that they would realize the futility of trusting in a fetish and that they would place their trust in the living God.Please pray that Satan, who now controls these people, would be defeated and that God would build His church in this village!

 “They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).