The waiting room art gallery
canada goose uk shop We collected hundreds of drawings snapshots of an often overlooked corner of the world through the eyes of sick children canada goose uk shop
canada goose uk black friday All eyes stared at me when I dragged the plastic table into the middle of the waiting room. Tired and curious eyes. Tracking my every move. Some of the children were lying on narrow wooden benches with their arms tucked tightly into their shirts, trying to keep warm in those cold early hours of the day. Others were snuggled in their mothers laps, neatly wrapped in colorful cloth. All were waiting to be tested for malaria, one of the leading causes of death for children under 5 in sub Saharan Africa. canada goose uk black friday
According to the World Health Organization, in 2015 303 000 children under the age of 5 died from malaria that’s more than one child every two minutes and 96% of these deaths were in the African region.
I found something to wipe the thick dust off the table, brought over an empty plastic container from the pharmacy, and filled it with crayons. Taking some scrap pieces of paper out of my bag and spreading them over the table, I looked up to see a few of the children now sitting up on the benches, curiously scanning what I had just laid out.
One young girl, about 4 or 5 years old, wearing a muddy T shirt long enough to https://www.pick-canadagoose.com/ serve as a dress walked over to the table and cautiously leaned against it. I canada goose outlet store uk picked out a crayon, drew a smiley face on a paper scrap, and showed it to her. Then I rushed off to finish my morning rounds.
canada goose factory sale In the far western side of the country, Tanzania hosts more than 361 000 refugees, the majority of them from neighboring Burundi. In my last assignment with Doctors Without Borders/Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF), I was the nurse manager in the Nyarugusu canada goose outlet online store review camp for two malaria clinics that were aimed at limiting illness and death from malaria one of the biggest health risks in the camps. canada goose factory sale
Children are particularly vulnerable, especially during the rainy season, when stagnant water provides a canada goose outlet los angeles breeding ground for mosquitoes. In January 2017 alone MSF treated 6802 people for malaria in Nyarugusu. With so many people suffering from malaria in the rainy season, that often means long waiting times.
canada goose Waiting is an inescapable part of refugees’ daily lives. From the moment they set foot in the camp, the waiting canada goose parka outlet uk begins: waiting for registration upon arrival, waiting for health screening, waiting for water, waiting for food, waiting to wash after waiting for soap, waiting for additional latrines to be built. But in a busy malaria clinic in the middle of the rainy season, some waiting is unavoidable: first the wait to be tested, then the dreadful 20 minute wait for test results, followed by the wait to be treated, and finally the wait outside the pharmacy to get medication. But waiting need not be boring. canada goose
uk canada goose outlet When I decided to put the box of crayons I found to use, I didn’t think canada goose womens outlet much of it. But when I came back to the waiting room towards the end of that first day, the table was covered with drawings. Some were of recognisable objects, some just marks; some were finished, others not perhaps abandoned by the artists when their test results were called out. uk canada goose outlet
Canada Goose Parka By the end of the week, children of all ages were struggling to get onto the table. The crayons were worn down and the paper scraps were nearly used up. I asked a friend to bring more crayons from Dar Es Salaam, a city in Tanzania, and gathered spare paper from anywhere I could find it. The next week the drawing continued. I asked the clinic health promoter to tell canada goose outlet vip the children they could take their drawings home with them. Some did, but the majority left their masterpieces behind. It’s not easy to keep a piece of paper clean and dry when living as a refugee. Canada Goose Parka
canadian goose jacket So the waiting room became an art gallery. At the canada goose outlet near me end of each day, I collected the drawings and began to put them up on the walls of the waiting area a task easier said than done. Tape on walls made from plastic sheets does not hold well canada goose outlet london uk in the heat and humidity of the camp. But it worked well enough, and soon my colleagues and I became accidental curators. canadian goose jacket
canada goose clearance sale Going through them every few weeks, we noticed recurring themes. Brick houses and tents, soccer balls and footballers, flowers, fruit (mainly pineapples), fish, drawings of men and women in fancy attire suits, dresses, and sunglasses. There were also drawings of the buses that brought some of the refugees to the camp, as well as of helicopters, military men, and machine guns. By the end of my assignment with MSF, we had collected hundreds of drawings snapshots of an often overlooked corner of the world through the eyes of sick children. canada goose clearance sale
For me the drawings were a special connection to the children of the camp, most of whom don’t speak French or English. I was able to have a conversation with hundreds of them without saying a word. I saw their hopes and dreams, their fears and scars, their friends and families. And many drawings of pineapples. For them it was a way to pass the time, to escape for a moment, to create, cheap canada goose jacket and maybe have a little fun while waiting.
Today those canada goose outlet in chicago children are likely still waiting for another checkup, another tent, another soap distribution and hopefully still drawing.
cheap Canada Goose Farrah Kashfipour is a critical care nurse. Last year she worked in the Nyarugusu and Nduta camps in Tanzania as a nursing activity manager, interim pharmacy manager, and nurse trainer with Doctors Without Borders/Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF). MSF has since phased out its medical activities in Nyarugusu camp, but remains the main medical provider in Nduta camp where the organisation runs a 175 bed hospital and six health posts cheap Canada Goose.