‘Cholera knows no boundaries…’

Returning from Ngande, we stop at Siyakobvu District Hospital. A group of Village Health Workers and Volunteers that Save the Children has trained in hygiene promotion are sitting together under a tree. I ask Cuthbert if we can go over and talk to them. He speaks to them in Tonga and they tell me they received 2 hours training on how to recognise cholera from other disease and how to treat and prevent infection. When I ask about the impact on children, one of the women laughs and says ‘Cholera knows no boundaries’.

All of this group have returned to their villages and trained everyone in their communities in turn. The hardest thing, they point out, is to get everyone in the village to come – they have most success when they ‘piggy back’ onto Village Head meetings or food distributions. They said that children can learn quickly about cholera and can be crucial in preventing infection in the home.