INTRODUCTION

Emwatsi village is an ICRAF site, it has been used since 1990 to implement agro forestry practices, and currently the sites are used in field measurement of greenhouse gas emissions to compare emissions from agro forestry farms, woodlots and maize farms. The event was held on 7th December 2012 and started at 9.00am on arrival of ICRAF Kisumu staffs and MOH jiggers disinfection experts at Emwatsi primary school.

Activities

Spraying classes

At 9.30am a few affected children and parents had arrived at the school. It was therefore agreed by both teams that the program be altered so that spraying of the classrooms begin then health education to follow. The Technical team comprising 7 people divided themselves into two groups and sprayed 14 classrooms using Actelic. The students assisted by the PTA chairman contributed greatly by arranging the furniture in the center of the classrooms thus enabling the sprayers have easy access in the rooms.

Health education

At 10.45am Mr. John Asembo a village elder appointed by Assistant chief welcomed all those present at the school. He greatly thanked ICRAF for the good gesture and reiterated that jiggers were a big problem in the village and sub-location as a whole. Other speakers included Mrs. Rose Onyango, Mr. Georges Aertssen, Mr. Thomas Nyangweso and Miss Sheila Abwanda who stressed on the value of personal and environmental hygiene. The Divisional Public health officer Mr. Patrick Juma then took time to give a detailed health education on cleanliness as a whole and on jiggers’ eradication in particular. He advised the parents and pupils to maintain Environmental and personal hygiene in order to prevent diseases. He stressed the need to smear houses regularly with cow dung to avoid cracks on the floors and walls which act as very good breeding grounds for jiggers. He dispelled myths that jiggers were caused by demons stressing that jiggers was basically a hygiene problem

Treating infected pupils

At 11.30am the technical team started cleaning the feet and hands of affected pupils using 6% Lysol solution. A Plastic basins and a bar of soap was given to all those infested. The parents were told to watch keenly how the cleaning was done so that they repeat the same at home. 34 children were treated and supplied with a liter of 6% Lysol to carry home and repeat treatment 3 days later.  Out of the 34 children treated, 25 had been captured during the initial assessment while 9 were picked in crowd. 5 children who had been earmarked for treatment failed to turn up.

Cleaning of jiggers infested hands in clean water with soap

Cleaning of jiggers infested feet

A child being helped to soak feet in Lysol 6% after cleaning in water

A child soaking both hands and feet in Lysol 6% to kill the jiggers

Jiggers infested children being issued by ICRAF staffs, basins and soaps that are used in treatment exercise.

Tree planting

At 12.00noon Mrs. Rose Onyango and Mr. Georges Aertssen planted trees in the school compound to mark the occasion. A total of 200 agroforestry seedlings mainly Grevillea robusta and Casuarina were bought by ICRAF where 100 seedlings were planted in the school and 100 seedlings were issued to the local people to go and plant in their farms. 

Mrs. Rose Onyango-ICRAF East Africa Administrator planting tree in the school compound

Mr. Georges Aertssen- ICRAF Kisumu site manager planting tree in the school compound

Treating homes and infected villagers

The technical team moved from house to house treating the affected people and also spraying the affected houses with Actelic solution. They also gave health education talks to household members. ICRAF had purchased plastic basins, bars of soap and packets of maize floor for each of the 14 affected Households, which were distributed as treatment was going on. Treatment continued up to 2.00pm.

Conclusion and recommendations

 At 2.00pm the teams re-assembled in the school for final briefings. This session was led by Miss Sheila Abwanda of ICRAF Kisumu.  During this session the ICRAF team and the technical team shared notes on how the activity had progressed. The activity had generally taken place well, members of the technical team advised that a follow up assessment be carried out within 90 days to ascertain success. The main lessons learnt were;

• The jigger menace is rampant in the area and the other side of the Sub-location seems to be even more affected. Any corporate or individual willing to assist is welcome.
• There is stigma about jiggers amongst the villagers, during tracking most people denied being affected but when they saw the technical team in action, most people opened up and requested that their houses be sprayed too.
• Most people in the area have the habit of sharing their dwellings with domestic animals, a practice which encourages spread of some diseases from animals to man. This practice though deeply rooted in the community is not good and needs to be discouraged.