Doris, Blue Flag Volunteer

What is a Blue Flag Volunteer?

A Blue Flag Volunteer knows how to recognise and treat diarrhoea -  a disease that still kills a child every 15 seconds worldwide.

Volunteers like Doris mean that mothers who are worried about their children can now get free treatment right on their doorstep.

I came to Kroo Bay in 1970 to get married. When I came here the community was much smaller. There was water where the clinic is now. After the war, a lot of development took place. This was when the clinic was built.

During the war many people came here. Now it is too crowded.

I have eight children - five boys and three girls. When my children were growing up they got malaria, fever, chicken pox, measles and polio. There was no health centre then.

It’s better now because the children have vaccinations to protect them against many diseases. I lost two children - one to malaria and one to fever.

I’m a member of the Area Development Committee. We asked Save the Children [and Concern] to help us stop our children dying. They trained us to identify diarrhoea, to tell people how to prevent it, and how to treat it.

We were also trained to talk to the community about hygiene - such as washing your hands after going to the toilet and keeping your environment and house clean.

What she does

I’ve got my Blue Flag hanging outside my house. We were given a bucket, a cup, a spoon, a bottle of dettol and some oral rehydration salt sachets. Although we were given oral rehydration salts at the end of our training, there weren’t enough so we have to make our own sugar and salt solution.

When we’re brought a sick child, we look for symptoms - sunken eyes, dry lips, lack of elasticity of the skin, etc. If it’s very serious or isn’t diarrhoea we refer them to the clinic or hospital. 

In one week I had three cases. I treated one and referred the others. They were put on a drip. All three have survived.

It makes me feel happy to be able to save lives.

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