Child Support Specialists - giving kids a safe place to process their losses

The race is almost a week away and I've spent the last few posts giving you fundraising updates.  Tomorrow I'll be sharing a guide on how not to prepare for you first marathon.  Today, as I cool down from an excellent speed workout, I want to share just a bit of the impact that these donations will have on children in Zambia.   As I've said before, I work as a palliative care physician.   In palliative care, when our patients die from a serious illness we realize that it's important to provide grief counseling and support for the family and friends who have lost a loved one.  That is why hospices provide 13 months of grief support for the surviving family members.  It takes time to work through the grief that comes with losing someone you love and oftentimes it is helpful to have someone with that expertise guide you through that journey.

In Zambia, one of the needs that the HealthEd Connect's community health workers quickly identified was the need to support the children who have lost one or both of their parents to diseases like AIDS or malaria.   These children are often moved to their grandparents' homes, in different villages and are too often forgotten.    They are not given the chance to process the feelings and emotions that come with losing one or both of your parents at a young age.  

So we began training some of our community health workers to become child support specialists (CSS).   Kelsey Welch has now travelled to Zambia three times to provide training and follow up support for the CSS.   To give you a flavor of the impact that these Child Support Specialists are having I have copied a few of Kelsey's stories from the HealthEd Connect blog and shared them with you below.  If you want to learn more about the work that Kelsey is doing click here.

      

Alfred is a double orphan both parents are dead). During group he had the most beautiful clear voice and would lead many of the songs the groups sang as they gathered. He said that he enjoys being able to talk about memories of his parents and his life before their death in the group. And now he also feels more comfortable and confident to talk about those memories with his friends and others outside of the group setting as well so that they are incorporated into his daily life.

Stanley is 8 years old. He is a double orphan from another province where they speak a different dilect. He moved to Kasompe after his parents died to live with his grandparents. When he was first in the CSS group, he would not speak and the CSS came to realize through talking with his teachers that he did not know the language. The CSS provided support as they had been trained and paired him with various children in the group to encourage friendship and learning. Stanley now communicates very well in Bemba and says that his favorite part about group is singing together.

Ernest is 11 years old and in grade 4. His father died by suicide at his place of employment. According to Ernest, it looked as if his father hung himself, but he feels his father may have been murdered, as there were many who were jealous of him at his job. Ernest’s mother is still alive, but he lives with an aunt. As he talked about his father’s death, he looked down and began to have big crocodile tears roll down his cheeks and said that it makes him sad to talk about his dad. However, he said a memory that makes him happy is when his father gave him a chain necklace (which was then stolen away from him). Ernest likes going to school and his favorite subject is math where he loves doing multiplication tables. He is set to begin the new CSS Support group.

Thanks again for everyone who has supported me in my run. Your donations do make a tremendous difference in the lives of these children!