This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Nicholas Ruhly.
The read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE. The project was designed to replace the toilets, sinks, and related plumbing in the four indoor bathrooms and in the kitchen at the Rehabilitation Center in Bazar-Korgon.
A summary of Nicholas’ report is as follows:
The Bazar-Korgon Rehabilitation Center (in the town Bazar-Korgon) hosts children with chronic conditions and illnesses/injuries that require extended supervision. About 600 children stay at the center each year, with a typical range of 1-3 weeks that each child stays. These children’s health status can be further jeopardized by communicable diseases.
The scope of this infrastructure replacement project was to renovate the current four inoperable indoor bathrooms (sinks and toilets), kitchen sinks, and all related piping. The existing infrastructure was a remnant of the time Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union, and has not had remodeling since the mid 1980’s. occurrence.
Kunduz eje, the director of the Bazar-Korgon Rehabilitation Center, had a professional plumber and architect come out and determine all necessary materials needed for the remodeling job, and went and collected all the information on related pricing for the infrastructure supplies. She also arranged for community members to volunteer the labor of replacing the old infrastructure, which is a significant undertaking.
This stage of the project, while delayed, went smoothly. We purchased all major infrastructure items in the nearby Jalal-Abad city (which at a population of around 90,000 people is the third largest city in Kyrgyzstan) and shipped them to the Rehabilitation Center in our town Bazar-Korgon.
The last part of the project was health trainings, which we started in November. A fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, who is here in Kyrgyzstan under the Health sector, joined me to train five nurses at the Rehabilitation Center. We shared resources, reviewed the topics we wanted discussed, practiced potential activities they could use in their trainings, and wrote the questions for the pre/post-tests. The nurses will continue to offer these trainings weekly, and I will be documenting the first six lessons to compare the pre/post-test performance to judge the effectiveness of the lessons.
The end result is a beautifully remodeled Rehabilitation Center, with toilets and sinks in indoor bathrooms, and several more sinks in the kitchen and medical office. Also, about 30 students have been trained in the first health lesson, and more will be reached in the coming weeks.
I would like to extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to Water Charity for making this project become a reality. Because of Water Charity’s generosity, hundreds of ill and injured students at the Bazar-Korgon Rehabilitation Center will have access to running water and indoor bathroom facilities. This will help prevent further avoidable illnesses, and increase the quality of life at the Rehabilitation Center. Also, I would like to thank all people who donated, helping to make future projects like mine possible.
We, in turn, extend our gratitude to Nicholas for completing this important project.
