Warm Heart at Work

I recently looked at the blog published by Paul Kuehn at Global PACT. I really liked the fact that it combines posts about real people doing real things to solve real problems. It’s not just about how the dot.com billionaires have decided to find a cure for AIDS. It’s about how groups of college students have solved some small but significant problem in their university’s neighborhood using the knowledge they learned in class. I love to have evidence to point to when people say - as so many do - “but what can I do?”

The other thing I like about the Global PACT blog - http://blog.globalpact.org - is that it’s got lots of information about how to make change. After all, wanting to do something is seldom enough, knowing how to do it makes you a whole lot more likely to succeed!

Reading the Global PACT blog also made me think that it would be useful for us to offer links to other blogs that deal with our areas of interest: community development and activism, kids, sustainable development, microenterprise, microfinance, alternative energy and the environment, women and development, public health.

Do you have any favorites to suggest? Please let me know in a comment.

The Water Team is extremely excited to announce that the long-awaited water testing kit has arrived! It was an emotional moment as the deliveryman made his way into the Warm Heart Office with equipment in hand. There was much cause for celebration as the package was signed for, since it is now possible to begin running tests on the water to identify potential contaminants in the Phrao watershed. These tests will determine which treatment methods are necessary for each village.

In addition to the testing kit, the team has also accomplished several other goals this past week. David Pal, a Rutgers University Engineers without Borders member, created a database for the health surveys. Jessica Kretch, another RU Engineer without Borders, and a Warm Heart translator, Khem “P’ Da” Narim, are in the process of translating and collecting surveys. The finished surveys are being uploaded into the database to be analyzed. And an order has been placed for a number of standard solutions that are required for the testing.

On Tuesday, a few team members will begin testing the water supply of Nong Bua. The team will perform all of the standard tests in the water testing kit, as well as a biological test and a few chemical tests. The samples collected will be brought to a water-testing lab in Chiang Mai.

The team is also working on obtaining information about the health status of the people and the healthcare system of Phrao district. This information will be obtained from various public health offices within the district with the assistance of Areeluck “Rose” Parnsoothorn of the Public Health IT database team.

Last week, Areeluck “Rose” Parnsoonthorn was able to look extensively at the three programs that are currently in use for the health center database and she quickly realized that she would need many materials and personnel that are not available in Phrao. Since Khun Surasak Sittipon from the Maepung Health Center will not be around until July 21^st, Rose was able to relocate to Chiang Mai for the time being to obtain these software programs and begin recruiting coders.

Thus far, Rose has found a Computer Science graduate at Chiang Mai University who is willing to help write the program. He is also helping to recruit Geology students to help with the water project. Rose is now in the process of further networking with different universities in Chiang Mai in order to recruit students from other disciplines for the different projects at Warm Heart Thailand. Next she plans to meet with the university’s department heads, informing them of our organization in an attempt to recruit more students to come and work for Warm Heart Thailand in exchange for course credits.

A major setback in this project has been the incompatibility of MAC with the programs that will be used. Rose is now in the process of finding out if the program “Parallel” will be the best solution. If Rose’s MACBOOK can handle the excess stress of running two operating systems, then it will be installed and running today. Otherwise, a laptop PC will need to be borrowed or rented to get things started as soon as possible.

The current public health project involves the transfer of the existing health database created by public health officers at the sub-district of Mae Pung in Phrao onto an internet-based platform. The further development of this database will allow for the effective collection and utilization of individual’s medical information, a key component in the creation of a more accessible medical catalog in Mae Pung.

And so it begins.

Today, Warm Heart’s IT database developer, Areeluck “Rose” Parnsoonthorn of UCDS, paid a visit to the Mae Pung Health Center. After studying the existing database structure, and evaluating the relationships of data tables, it was determined that the current system is well-functioning and easy to work with. Rose believes that there is good potential for the supplementing of additional database modules to create a single master database that encompasses all necessary information. Rose was able to install the program unto her computer (after receiving the proper consent, of course) for further research and development.