First Day of Community Visits

6/17/13

            After our visit to Zuluhauna, we went off into the community surrounding the school We had seen a potential source for health education in the schools and were now interested to see what is enforced in the household. As we walked through the community, we stopped at ever single home along the way. A translator always began by thoroughly explaining our intention to learn from the community and compile the research to help better their future, particularly towards health.

            While questions were phrased in different manners, the objective of the questions remained the same. These questions focused on matters regarding health education in the village including, but not limited to, the topics of: water, preventative health measures, access to healthcare, and access to education.

            Some of the community claimed that it health education is learned in the schools, while others claimed the contrary and stated that health education is almost non-existent. This is amplified by the fact that most all villages have Village Health Teams (VHTs) that aim to educate the community, but often lack funds to travel and accomplish their objective.

            Based on our interviews, an obvious trend existed when inquiring about the preventative measures practiced in their household. Almost all of the households mentioned the maintenance of a good diet and the practice of boiling water before consumption. Some of the time, they mentioned the use of mosquito nets and good hygiene. However, the practice of hand washing before meals and after the use of latrines was only mentioned once – this was out of the 12 households we visited.

            Another educational trend had to do with the traditional subsistence farming way of life. A major challenge of this way of life is brought to light when you see a society that is using paper money more and more, instead of pure trade, as an exchange for goods and services. A main gap in knowledge within the community is how to generate income from their labor. In other words, people are having a very hard time learning how to translate their farming lifestyle into one in which they can receive money. If people can learn to generate income from their labor, they will not only be able to provide goods and services to the community, but will also be able to increase their standard of living.