My community

Working with the community is probably the best part of my day. As difficult and exhausting as it might be, doing it makes me feel better. I feel closer to the people and the fact that they greet me every morning by calling out my name is amazing.

I've basically been conducting focus group discussions with various community groups around Gendrassa camp. The aim of this activity is to map out community health and nutrition behaviors in order for us to better plan our intervention in those sectors. Its also a way for me to know the community leaders, key community leaders and potential community volunteers to implement our community outreach program.

Its pretty inspiring to see how resilient the refugee community has been after leaving their homes (and probably witnessing a lot of atrocities), walking long distances, loosing loved ones on the way and getting relocated now from one flooded camp to another that will probably get flooded pretty soon.

Their wide smiles and greetings are the sunshine to my day; their strong hand shakes and reassuring pats on the shoulder are always welcome and their questions about my well-being and health are always pleasantly surprising.

Of course, this kind of work is slow and is very challenging. I'm just hoping that its worth it, because I do have my personal doubts about this organization and its program out here.

Maban, South Sudan
3.8.2012