WAJAMAMA Newsletter - January to May
JANUARY
Coming into the new year, we had a goal of reaching more of our community. We kicked off 2020 by being featured in the amazing Swahili Coast magazine, and launching our bi-monthly Mama Cafe - an initiative aimed at creating a safe space for women to talk about health, wellness and other topics that impact women’s lives here in Zanzibar. We were honoured to have special guest Ndileka Mandela (Nelson Mandela’s eldest grandchild) here to lead our first discussion around “preserving women’s dignity”. The discussion was open, honest and extremely powerful. Everyone who attended left feeling empowered and this set the bar high for our future Mama Cafes.
WAJAMAMA Fitness Center also made steps at the beginning of the year to improve our wellness services to community members. A new roof was installed over our outdoor fitness floor to allow for more class times on our schedule. We also introduced two new classes to our roster - Hatha Yoga and a coed “WAJABABA” class. We are determined to continue improving the quality of the fitness services offered in our space.
FEBRUARY
As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread around the world, it became our mission to help educate and inform our patients and the Zanzibar community about how to stay safe. Although there were no reported cases in Tanzania at that time, it was clear that we would eventually be affected. We therefore felt compelled and obligated to be in frontlines in the fight against COVID-19. With disease prevention at the forefront of our work, our social media health information campaign began with promoting messages around proper hand washing and infection control.
It wasn’t long until community groups and organizations began to reach out to WAJAMAMA for support in helping their communities prepare for what was coming. The WAJAMAMA team delivered its very first Hand Hygiene and Infection Control Workshop to the health volunteer organization, Try Medics, at the end of February.
February was another busy and successful month at the clinic and we continued to make new and exciting plans for March for both the clinic and the fitness center. Little did we know, our lives were about to be turned upside down!
MARCH
In early March we were excited to welcome Farha Rashid, a physiotherapist specializing in the prevention and treatment of pelvic floor dysfunction and diastasis recti. Farha offered assessments and consultations at the clinic, and our community kept her busy all day long! We look forward to welcoming her back to provide this much needed specialization for the women of our beautiful island.
On March 8th we celebrated International Women’s Day with 30 women from our community. With a focus on Movement, Connection and Reflection, we hosted a full day of fitness and wellness activities at our Fitness Center. Our trainers, Lulu, Vero, Msoma and Ayda, each led classes including our signature “Power Hour” and “Bodytune”, as well as Hatha Yoga, self-defense, and meditation sessions. From this event, we were able to raise $200 to support our “Mamas in Need” initiative, which provides free gynecological and prenatal consultations to women in need. A special shout out goes to all of the amazing women who contributed to this cause.
Shortly after hosting these two women’s wellness events, COVID-19 arrived in Tanzania. We deemed it necessary to put our clinic’s and fitness center’s work on hold and do everything that we could to help our community fight the global health crisis. WAJAMAMA’s “Operation Pandemic” became our primary focus.
By focusing on the behavioral approach model, our engagement with local communities is dedicated to educating and raising awareness, not only about COVID-19, but also the transmission of other communicable diseases that have always plagued our society. We delivered Hand Hygiene and Infection Control workshops to 150 staff members of schools, hotels, businesses and community groups and began collaborating with volunteers to set up 100 handwashing stations in high traffic areas, thanks to a U.S.A. donor. Groups like Zanzibar Community Sinks followed suit by installing hundreds more handwashing stations on the island of Unguja.
It was important for us to continue to support our patients, without compromising the safety of our patients and staff. In order to continue offering high-quality health care services to the community, our clinic made TeleVisits available to the community. Our Fitness Center closed temporarily and began offering complimentary virtual fitness resources.
APRIL
In April, more cases of COVID-19 were being reported in Zanzibar. We ramped up our social media campaign to try and reach as many people as possible through shareable posts and videos in both English and Swahili. Tanzanian influencers such as social entrepreneur Nancy Sumari and fashion designer Doreen Mashika, as well as our friend Ndileka Mandela, also contributed to our efforts by making their own educational videos about COVID transmission prevention. The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive with thousands of views and reposts.
Around this time, our grant proposal to the Rotary Club of Zanzibar was approved and we were thrilled to receive $2000 to purchase vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that was donated to the Ministry of Health. This was only the beginning of our PPE delivery to health care workers in Zanzibar.
As we continued our fight against COVID-19, it was clear that tackling this deadly disease in the private sector of Zanzibar was a huge task. Collaborations and partnerships with local businesses and community groups were therefore instrumental. Forming partnerships and support groups meant reaching a much wider audience than any of us could have reached on our own.
With an eye on the global situation, it wasn’t long before we realized how vital cloth mask making was going to become. We brought together our Masks4AllinZanzibar team, which includes Zanzibar Apparel, K&K Masks, Ozti, Doreen Mashika, Jenga and Zivansh. This amazing group, as well as groups like the WHY organization, Pamoja Zanzibar, Tumaini Project, Barefoot College and Zamani’s “Kavaa Barakoa Zanzibar” initiative, to name a few, have been working tirelessly to design, make, and distribute masks to as many communities as possible. Mask making also enabled these inspirational groups to keep staff and community members employed during the global health and economic crisis.
Once mask designs, our infographics, and educational material that were to go out with each mask were approved, with permission from the Ministry of Health, we started our mask distribution efforts. In addition to distributing masks, we also handed out hand washing soap thanks to a generous donation from Inaya Zanzibar. Organizations like Tentickle Tanzania also helped us with mask and soap distributions.
Judging by what was going on around the world, it was clear that tackling COVID was not only relevant in the health care sector, but also in sectors such as tourism, economics, and food security. By April, more of the community was coming together to contribute towards efforts to address areas that the pandemic could impact. It was important to coordinate all of these amazing initiatives and therefore “Zanzibar 2020” was born.
In order to be more effective, we knew that we would need more funding. We therefore started a GoFundMe campaign to fundraise for our COVID-19 prevention efforts. On April 16th we began calling to friends and family - far and wide - to contribute what they could. In just a few weeks we raised over $8000, which more than sustained our efforts against COVID.
A new-found partnership with Zanzibar Tourism and Local Development (ZTLD) came as we learned about their innovative design of a “no-touch” hand washing system. Thanks to our donors, we were able to purchase and set up 30 of these systems to provide more hygienic facilities for communities, helping to prevent cross-contamination. Meanwhile, Pamoja Zanzibar was also distributing their “no-touch” hand washing systems around the island.
April was challenging for our WAJAMAMA team, but the incredible generosity and efforts of people in our community and around the world, was encouraging and invaluable. We deeply appreciate everyone who has supported our efforts through fundraising, donation of resources, and to those who kept us going with thoughtful gifts of cake, coffee, and care packages!
MAY
They say that each and every struggle offers an opportunity, and COVID-19 has given WAJAMAMA the opportunity to connect at a deeper level with our local communities. During the month of May, while taking all the necessary safety precautions, we visited homes, shops and communities in Mbweni, Chukwani, and Buyu to hand out cloth masks and Inaya soap, set up hand washing stations, and provide educational materials to families.
We also sent our first shipment of 100 hand washing stations, soap and cloth masks to Pemba. A huge thank you to the Zanzibar Milling Corporation for handling the shipment and to the ZALT farmers AKA “Team Chumvi” for distributing our donations in Pemba, and to Ash Gallery for coordinating and documenting the handouts. A huge shoutout to Healing Earth for making an incredibly generous donation of liquid soap to go along with our hand washing stations!
In May we spent time preparing to safely serve our community again, and we were so excited to announce that at the beginning of June we would be opening the doors of our clinic and the Fitness Center with extra safety precautions in place. We also added the feature to book fitness classes online!
We are looking forward to continuing our Infection Control efforts through community education and engagement. We are also looking forward to reconnecting with our friends, family and community and getting back to our focus of supporting our clients in their wellness journeys.
