 | Homemaking handbook for village workers in many countries source ref: r0039e.htm |
 |  | Section II - What you will teach |
| | Health |
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Teaching health care
Health practices can be made a part of your teaching on almost any subject. Think of ways to emphasize safe and healthful ways of doing everyday tasks.
Throughout your work in the village you will need to keep emphasizing these basic measures so often mentioned in this chapter.
· Always drink safe, clean water.
· Eat clean, nourishing food.
· Keep your home and surroundings clean.
· Keep your body and clothes clean.
· Keep all food in covered containers.
· Keep garbage in a covered container until it can be fed to animals or buried.
· Burn or bury all trash. Do not leave it lying around or let it pile up.
· Keep chickens and animals out of the house, from under the house, and out of the yard.
· Work together to get rid of pests such as flies, mosquitoes, mice, and rats.
· Destroy breeding places of insects and other pests.
· Do not allow water to collect or stand anywhere around the house.
· Use a sanitary latrine.
· Use insecticides on the advice of government officials.
· Get protection against certain diseases by having immunization shots that are available where you live.
· Give the sick person good care at home to help him get well and avoid spreading his sickness to other people.
· If a person is injured, give him good first aid until he can get treatment from a doctor.
· Use birth control methods to have the number of children you want.
Good health is a personal, family, and community responsibility. This responsibility can be put into practice when the people accept the idea that good health is important to them; when they understand how to get it; and when they see good results from new health practices.
Greek village workers attend a short course in home nursing. The bed has been raised on blocks to make it easier for the person caring for the patient. Other equipment can be improvised to make home nursing easier and the sick person more comfortable.
Conducting campaigns. Many villages use a "clean up" campaign as a way of getting interest and involving all the people in:
· Keeping cleaner houses and yards.
· Avoiding diseases.
· Making the village a better place to live.
You can use campaigns to teach many other health practices. For instance, "Drink Safe Water" or "Safe Water for Our Village" are slogans around which you could start a campaign on improving the water supply for a village.
Health materials. Your Ministry of Health will have good materials on health problems in your country. The United States/AID Mission generally located in your capital city will have, or can get for you, a series of simple Extension bulletins on sanitation. These were written especially for use in developing countries. They not only contain basic information on sanitation, but they also suggest many kinds of demonstrations to use in your teaching.
These bulletins are the FES-AID Sanitation Series:
Drink Safe Water, #1
How to Wash Your Clothes, #2
Personal Cleanliness, #3
Wash Dishes Right, #4
Get Rid of Household Pests, #5
Dispose of Wastes, #6
Storing Food at Home, #7
Prepare and Serve Safe Meals, #8
Care for Your Baby, #9
Make Your Own Soap, #10
Demonstrations. There are many practices that need to be demonstrated before people can really understand how to do them. You can show how to:
· Wash and bandage a small cut on a finger.
· Apply pressure and bandage for serious bleeding from the arm or leg.
· Wrap the skin of a seriously burned person.
· Treat snakebite. Show where to make cuts in the skin and how to apply suction.
· Sterilize a knife.
· Perform artificial respiration. Practice on a student. Then have students practice on each other.
· Bathe the patient in bed.
· Store medicines out of reach of children.
· Make a stretcher.
· Make and care for an excrete container for the bedridden patient.
· Prepare a container for a sick person to cough into.
· Make containers for garbage and trash.
· Build a sanitary latrine.
Get the people interested in immunizations by arranging for a group visit to the local health center, dispensary, hospital, or other health facility where they can learn what services are available and what immunizations are recommended. If a visit is not possible, arrange for a person from a nearby health facility to come to your village and explain about immunizations that are available and how the people can get them.
Set an example. If you live in the village or close to the people, remember that you can give good examples of healthful living by practicing the things you teach the people. For example, when people see that you boil your own drinking water, have a well-kept sanitary toilet, and a neat, clean house and yard, they know you are sincere and your teaching is good.
If you are in the village often, you will probably have to give first aid at times. Be sure you know what to do in an emergency. Use these accidents to teach both first aid and safety precautions.
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