Projects: Healthy Communities

Project Goals:

The project focuses on three primary goals:

• Improving mothers nutritional practices to reduce malnutrition among children under 5 years of age
• Improving reproductive health practices among women in order to reduce the occurrence of breast and cervical uterine cancer
• Educating young people to practice safe sex and prevent HIV/AIDS transmission

Project Activities:

Volunteer work with local partners to do a variety of activities including:

• Train youth to be peer educators using life skills to prevent HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy. This national initiative is called Escojo Mi Vida ("I Choose My Life")
• Train women to be health promoters in the areas of family nutrition and women’s reproductive health.
• Implement community latrine projects.
• Implement egg production projects by working with women to raise hens.
• Implement garden projects with the community.
• Work with families to build clean burning stoves to reduce the smoke inhalation of children.
• Work with families to obtain birth certificates for all of the children so that they may have access to public health care and education systems.

Individual Project Descriptions

• Danielle Rackers
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Women Health Promoters. I worked with my women health promoter group of about 20 women. On the first day of the month I gave a workshop all about breast cancer: importance, how to, and frequency of SBE, risks of cancer, who is at risk, prevention, etc. Each woman received a pink ribbon to wear on their shirts every single day for the entire month. Every time someone questioned the significance of their ribbon, they had an opportunity to share their knowledge. They also received 5-10 ribbons to give out to others and at the giving of a ribbon they were to explain yet again the significance. As I walked through the community during that whole month, I saw women I had never met before wearing their pink ribbon! All the local stores had pink poster board cutouts of ribbons with info written on them. Everyone knew about breast cancer... mission accomplished!
• Callie Simon
• The women of the rural community of El Cuey had very little to look forward to in their day. They wake up before the roosters and begin their chores. They cook, clean, wash, and try to keep watch over their 5 or 6 children. They live without any electricity or running water and they have no job or school opportunities.
  
  But when I began to work with the local women on nutrition and women's reproductive health they suddenly had something to look forward to. They became motivated, passionate, and ready to work. About 20 women, most of whom could not read or write, gathered each week to sing, dance, act, and learn about various topics in health. We cooked new and nutritious meals each week. And slowly but surely these rural women began to put into practice what they were learning. They proudly cooked with less oil, less salt, and even added green leaves to their meals to increase the vitamin content. The women took pride in the changes they were making in their lives and told everyone in town about it.
  
  Eventually, 20 women in El Cuey graduated from three different courses. The last course was called "How to Be a Health Promoter." This course was incredibly important because the women of El Cuey went from practicing their new skills and knowledge in their home to spreading their knowledge all over the community. The new Health Promoters of El Cuey became a uniform club, a team of women dedicated to teaching about health. They routinely present dramas, songs, and poems to their community about health topics. The community has gained a new respect for the women and seeks them out for advice about health topics. The women of El Cuey have found a passion; they found something that makes them feel proud of their homes, their families, and their community.
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I think everyone’s experience is different and you’ll figure it out in your own way and time.Kelley DouglasFormer volunteer in the Dominican Republic 2005-2007.