Repair The Tears

Last week during Mikael’s and my visit with the girls, we noted how many of them had mosquito nets with holes for the little critters to sneak through to suck on some sweet blood throughout the night. 

Hence our reasoning to hold a net repair fair yesterday.  As we took comfort on their dorm room floor, which was converted from an empty classroom where many of the girls sleep on a 2-inch mattress on the cold cement, we took to explaining to them how to do a whipstitch to fix their net.  The girls took their needles and threaded it with the various colors we provided.  Hole by hole we threaded them up and even when we thought we finished, there were many more.

As we completed the net repair part of the day, we headed outside to talk about net washing and drying.  Mikael brought along an extra net that we were able to practice on and two hours later we were able to confidently leave knowing that they would sleep safe from the malaria carrying mosquitoes.

The girls were happy with the outcome and eagerly told us that they were excited to go home on term break and educate their family members about how to repair their nets and the importance and simplicity of preventing this deadly disease. 

The next stop to helping out the girls in this area is addressing the dorm area.  Currently the dorm has 6 bunk beds but houses approximately fifty girls.  The matron only approves of nets on the bottom bunks because hanging draping them over sticks from the top bunk “does not look smart.”  Then there are all the girls who take space on the floor.  There is no rope to hang the net from or way for them to get covered, which blows my mind.  It is like the girls are being exposed before being given a chance to creatively come up with a way to protect them.  A part of me wants to march straight to the Headmaster or Matron and explain the importance of getting them under nets, no matter how it makes the dorm look yet I also know that this is not the most culturally appropriate way to handle this situation. 

My solution?

Talking to my organization, who works with the school, and seeing if they can have any influence to address the problem.  When in doubt, I feel that asking a Ugandan to help bridge the cultural gap is the best way. 

Now I just have to convince them.