Since I was a teenager I dreamed of working in Africa. In 2019 I had an opportunity to speak at a conference in Namibia, but I still longed to do more. When my friends Pat and Becky invited me to work with Nomad Foundation, I was very excited. I have been doing global work in […]
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How are we doing? by Dr. Jones and Dr. Stevens
Dr. Rebecca Jones preface: It has been ten years since a wave of maternal mortalities among families associated with the Nomad Foundation inspired the initiation of our traditional birth attendant training program. The goal all along has been to provide basic education and supplies that could reduce the number of young women losing their lives […]
Pat Manzon’s take on Niger mission 2022
This was a special year for all of us heading to Niger for the first time in 3 years. The pandemic managed to keep us at home all that time. In the end, there continued to be training progress despite our absence. We were excited to see what that progress looked like so we could […]
What We’ve Got Here is Success in Communication–by Dr. Becky Jones
Education relies on communication. When working with non-literate people whose native language differs from the teacher’s, quality communication is challenging. In our matrone training project, we have two groups of trainees who speak two entirely different languages – Wodaabe who speak Fulfulde and Tuareg who speak Tamasheq. In school, Nigerien children learn French from a […]
On to Iferouane 2022
Iferouane is almost a two day drive so we spent the night at Moussa’s camp. In the morning the nomads take their animals out to pasture–here are the goats. The training was held at city hall in Iferouane. Here the vice mayor and the doctor at the maternity in Iferouane and the Nomad Foundation team […]
Friendships
One of the most important reasons for gathering all our trainees together is for them to form friendships and share their experiences. It is a wonderful way to learn and was gratifying to see the old friendships renewed and new ones forming. Mariama and Azarra are both Wodaabe women who live very far apart. They […]
New Team Members
Jennifer Stevens, recruited by Dr. Becky and Pat, is a doctor of public health, midwife, and nurse who has worked globally focusing on maternal health and midwifery education. Most recently she has been living in Bangladesh, working with the United Nations – WHO and UNFPA – while she finished her doctorate. She is a very […]
Translation Project
I spent all of my Agadez time working with the remarkable Mariama Moussa, a nurse, who was helping us translate the medical films we use in the traditional birth attendant training program into Tamachek. The trainees will no longer need to have them interpreted from French. Pat Manzon and Dr. Becky discovered these films and […]
Honoring Randy Strong
Since we met in 2005, Randy Strong has been a dedicated supporter of the Nomad Foundation’s work. Past president of the Rotary Club of Westlake Village Sunrise, he has spearheaded a partnership with the Rotary Club of Ojai on dozens of grants benefitting the nomadic population of Niger. His focus since we developed the program […]
Matrone training continued by local staff
We completed two missions: one at Tamesna conducted by Rabi our former medical director and one at Iferouane conducted by Assalama. 14 new traditional birth attendants have been trained and turned in their first annual reports. These reports showed no maternal mortalities in spite of several potentially critical conditions the matrones were able to address […]
Help for Iferouane Students, Artisans, Seamstresses and Matrones
Last year, when we visited the school in Iferouane, Niger where we had helped them repair the roof which had blown off, we found the kids doing their studies kneeling on the ground–they needed desks.
Mission 2020–The work goes on during the pandemic
We are all navigating the major disruptions in our lives that COVID-19 has brought. I hope you are all doing that successfully and in good health. Some of the necessary changes have not been all bad. We have been trying for many years to find a way for our programs to be completed entirely by […]
Handing it over–a beginning
Since the beginning of the Traditional birth attendant program with Dr. Bob Skankey in 2012 we have worked toward the goal of sustainability. We had thought we had a trainer to take over the program in Achicha, a nurse who helped us for four years. But she decided to get married and move to France, […]
On to Iferouane
We got to Iferouane after and exhausting two day drive–the highlight was stopping at Dabous the magnificent neolithic carving of a giraffe–considered to be one of the best in the world. It is life size! The road was so terrible we arrived to a welcoming committee after sunset–so the planned party was very short and […]
Tamesna matrones
Arrival at Tamesna is kind of like coming home. We put up our decorations (wall hangings, paintings by guess who, fairy and solar lights in the trees) and settled in to await the arrival of the matrones in the afternoon. Dr. Becky and Pat packed the pills that the matrones need for their work and […]
Back from an amazing mission
As I always do–I post our news after I have returned from the mission in Niger. (security reasons) I am sitting in the Paris airport for a few hours so I might as well get started. After the same looooonnnnnngggg trip from LA to Agadez that I have done for 25 years I arrived at […]
Presentation at Johns Hopkins
Rebecca Keene Jones, MD. PhD and Patricia Manzon MSN, CNE presented the work of the Nomad Foundation at the 12th Annual Johns Hopkins Women’s Health Research Symposium. Known to us as Dr. Becky and midwife Pat, they have been working hard, running our training program for nomadic traditional birth attendants since 2016. This poster summarizes our […]
Dr Becky’s words from mission 2018
On social media, new mothers can bake bread in their skinny jeans whilst blissfully nursing their newborns, who also sleep through the night. Volunteers on medical missions can miraculously save lives on shoestring budgets staffed by highly skilled, selfless providers in dangerous environments. As a mother and obstetrician on many missions, I see these boast-posts […]
Matrone program expands to Iferouane
After finishing up at Tamesna we headed out for the great unknown–even though I have been there many times, there are always many unknowns when you go to the dunes–(like are we going to get back alive!) First we were taking our training to a new group of women. We took along one of our […]
Tamesna Training 2018
Since Dr. Bob Skankey started the program in 2012, we have been training traditional birth attendants at Tamesna. Some have been there from the beginning. When Dr. Becky Jones and her mid-wife sister Pat Manzon took over the program in 2016 it became an all female team with Tamesna clinic director Rabi. The matrones had […]
We go bearing gifts
We are headed soon to Niger with a full schedule and many suitcases full of materials to make all our programs happen. Right now a program is taking place which is training 20 young nomads how to repair motorcycles–their camels, I guess, are too slow. The motorcycles are very useful–last year one of our students […]
New Mission to Niger–Fall 2018
It is time to prepare for our next mission to Niger in October. Dr. Becky Jones and midwife Pat Manzon will recertify our existing traditional birth attendants at Tamesna and expand the program to Iferouane–a remote community known as the gateway to the dunes. We have worked with them for 20 years, helping with artisanal, […]
Midwife volunteer–Pat Manzon’s thoughts on Mission 2017
As the floral henna design fades from my feet, thoughts of Tamesna and Niger sneak into my consciousness. It is cool here on the east coast which I have been enjoying as a pleasant change. The heat of the desert can at times seems all enveloping, annoyingly, relentlessly, hot. It is difficult for me […]
Dr. Becky’s report of mission 2017
I departed the US on October 3 and up until that date, was repeatedly required to explain the location and importance of Niger to anyone I could engage about my mission. Forty-eight hours later, when I arrived in Agadez, Niger had catapulted into American consciousness with the tragic loss of US special forces agents and […]
Goodbye to Tamesna
Our work at Tamesna was not yet done. We got the community together to create a management committee for the clinic. We have a very good reputation and as a result, are turning a profit beyond the cost of replacement meds and supplies so this money needs to be managed and the decisions as to […]
Not all work
Having finished the matrone training we got ready to go to a big Wodaabe festival. This was supposed to happen last year and got postponed, so I was anxious for the new team to see this remarkable thing. We had a morning to kill since it was windy and we knew the dancing would not […]
Eyes on Africa–Thanks again
Eyes on Africa once again comes through with hundreds of pairs of readers and sunglasses which we distributed all through our mission. We left 100 readers and 100 pairs of sunglasses at the clinic for Rabi to distribute as needed. We are working on a mission to do cataract operations next year, but maybe these […]
Graduation
After four intense days of training on the last day Dr. Becky and Pat went over complications at birth, administered exams to verify the level of comprehension—and happily everyone passed. We were visited by the Prefect of Ingall, who is the governmental leader of the commune and the Tuareg traditional chief over all the communities […]
Our Fabulous Matrones
The traditional birth attendants we have been training since 2012 with Dr. Bob Skankey and now for that last two missions, with Dr. Becky Jones are known in Niger as matrones. The previously trained matrones brought their medical bags and their reports. Fatima again is in the lead with 70 deliveries since May. Tinzere […]
Arrival at Tamesna 2017
Although I am now back in Agadez having completed our mission I am now able to post with photos–so here we go from the beginning. We arrived at Tamesna midmorning and started packing pills, preparing the matrones medical bags and matrones began to arrive. Following in Dr. Bob Skankey’s footsteps is not an easy task—given […]
Dr. Becky’s thoughts from mission 2016
Since returning from Niger, I have shared photos and stories from the trip with many people. These encounters have helped me appreciate the importance of the mission while at the same time alerting me to questions in the minds of people unfamiliar with Niger and nomadic peoples. The Project: I have had the good […]
Agadez 2016
After some serious shopping for nomad gallery in Togo, a lovely meeting with the us ambassador to Niger, who was very complimentary of our work, I arrived in Agadez to be greeted with enthusiasm by Djado. We must cancel our annual tamesna festival this year because of an outbreak of Rift Valley fever. The authorities […]
New Mission to Niger 2016
A new team is headed out to Niger to continue our work with the nomads. Dr. Rebecca Jones, with her midwife sister Pat Manzon will continue Dr. Bob Skankey’s midwife training program and medical work at the Tamesna clinic. We are very grateful to Ventura Global Health Project who helped fund Dr. Jones participation in this mission. […]
Mid wife training follow up mission–turning it over
In our effort to turn things over to the local management in Niger, Dr. Skankey devised a schedule for Achicha and Sidi to visit the remote camps to check on the newly trained midwives. They made their first mission in June to follow up our training of the new midwives and check on the previously trained. […]
Eleven new mid-wife trainees–and the program gets a new director
The midwife program started by Dr. Robert Skankey in 2011 has completely changed the maternal and infant mortality rate among nomads in Niger. In 2011 one in five women in Niger had a lifetime risk of death in childbirth. In 2015 our matrons have assisted at over 300 births with no maternal deaths and no […]
Bob Skankey’s Mid-wife follow up
Dr. Bob Skankey has been directing a midwife program which serves the nomadic population since 2011. The women he has trained have proven invaluable to their communities. At the level of training they have received, they are called “matrones” in Niger. This mission was to refresh the skills that the women have acquired, replenish […]
Niger Mission Cancelled–but not completely–life in Agadez
It was with terrible sadness that I had to cancel our medical mission scheduled in February. We were to wind up the 2nd phase of midwife training with follow up training in the individual mobile communities of the nine midwives who had received training. Dr. Bob Skankey, his wife Louine, and Linda Lamb were to […]
Sheri Hanna–a volunteer’s experience
At the end of each trip, I ask the volunteers to let me post something they have written about their experience. Here is Sheri Hanna’s contribution… I’ve been searching for words to describe my recent trip volunteering with the Nomad Foundation. However, it seemed that mere words couldn’t convey the experience well enough, as it […]
A Final note
Every mission is a ton of work, but we manage to have a great time too…
Volunteers–Sherri and Jennifer
We are lucky to have volunteers join us for each trip. This time we had two great ones–Sherri Hanna and Jennifer Hall. Sherri had been to Niger because she breeds and raises Fennec foxes who inhabit the Sahara in Niger and and visited with the Sahara Conservation fund. She wanted to go back to experience […]
