The Women and Youth Empowerment project includes learning about health topics. Participants had a lesson about healthy living and how important good nutrition is and were challenged to read the book, “Healthy food”. One of the participants reported, “My husband was interested in healthy food. When he read the section about proteins, he started buying more healthy food in the market like peas, lentils and beans.” Another participant said, “After the lesson on healthy food, I stopped giving my children money for little packets to make sweet drinks containing unhealthy chemicals.” One of the participants who is a teacher, Harry, discouraged his pupils from buying instant noodles and instead encouraged them to eat fruits. He also told the children that they had to bring bottles with boiled water to drink during the day so that they wouldn’t get sick from drinking dirty water. Also, he shared information about HIV and AIDS with the other teachers at school. It raised a lot of debate among the teachers. The other teachers struggled to believe that HIV/AIDS is not transmitted by handshakes, sitting next to each other or sharing food. They read one of the official brochures about HIV and understood that Harry was correct. They found specific information about where HIV tests could be done in different areas of the country very useful. Harry also taught the Grade 10’s and 11’s about HIV, who often go to Russia soon after completing school. One of the other participants, Sarah, works as a cleaning lady at a hospital laboratory. During tea time and lunchtime, she has often shared about things she had read in the books as well as information she had learned about HIV/AIDS. Her colleagues requested books to be able to read themselves. Sharing quality health information is a small aspect of the Women and Youth Empowerment Project, but it is making a big difference!
Image: Harry sharing about issues in his community
Knowledge promotes healthy living
The Women and Youth Empowerment project includes learning about health topics. Participants had a lesson about healthy living and how important good nutrition is and were challenged to read the book, “Healthy food”. One of the participants reported, “My husband was interested in healthy food. When he read the section about proteins, he started buying more healthy food in the market like peas, lentils and beans.” Another participant said, “After the lesson on healthy food, I stopped giving my children money for little packets to make sweet drinks containing unhealthy chemicals.” One of the participants who is a teacher, Harry, discouraged his pupils from buying instant noodles and instead encouraged them to eat fruits. He also told the children that they had to bring bottles with boiled water to drink during the day so that they wouldn’t get sick from drinking dirty water. Also, he shared information about HIV and AIDS with the other teachers at school. It raised a lot of debate among the teachers. The other teachers struggled to believe that HIV/AIDS is not transmitted by handshakes, sitting next to each other or sharing food. They read one of the official brochures about HIV and understood that Harry was correct. They found specific information about where HIV tests could be done in different areas of the country very useful. Harry also taught the Grade 10’s and 11’s about HIV, who often go to Russia soon after completing school. One of the other participants, Sarah, works as a cleaning lady at a hospital laboratory. During tea time and lunchtime, she has often shared about things she had read in the books as well as information she had learned about HIV/AIDS. Her colleagues requested books to be able to read themselves. Sharing quality health information is a small aspect of the Women and Youth Empowerment Project, but it is making a big difference!
Image: Harry sharing about issues in his community