The Police and the Nurse

Last Friday morning, a police officer from Angolares, the capital town of the district of Caué, the poorest district of the Island of Sao Tome, followed and stopped Nurse Ana Maria, an ADRA STP worker.
Ana Maria is the responsible person for the ADRA project activities with women and girls in the district of Caué where she works directly with 6 women and girls associations, promoting health, education, income generating and women rights and participation in the society.
After the initial surprise for having been followed by the police – nurse Ana was informed that the Women and Girls from the ADRA supported association from the community of Ribeira Peixe had filled an official complaint and were requesting action from the police.
The reason for the complaint was that after the association organized a cleaning activity in the community, a person from the community defecated in one of the places that had been cleaned. The group decided to make a stand point, denouncing the situation to the police and making everyone know that they stand by new values and that the cleaning of their community protect them, their children and everyone else against diseases like cholera.
With the intervention of nurse Ana, the situation was resolved but the stand point was made and a clear message was sent, the women from Ribeira Peixe stand for hygiene practices.
The project - developing women’s and girls competencies - is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and ADRA Finland.