Current Project:
Empowering Youth Through Health Education
Below is the project plan. For the current status of our project, click on Our Blog on the left for volunteer updates, or on Updates on the right for a more technical status.
The biggest challenges facing rural communities in Peru:
Difficult access to healthcare: Some communities are two to eight hours walking distance from the nearest health post. Health posts are often understaffed and understocked. Emergency situations can limit the ability to reach a doctor. Families wait until an illness or injury is much worse and more difficult to treat before making the trip to the nearest medical facility. And even then families often are unable to pay for treatment and may be turned away.
Low self-esteem: Children and youth are often maltreated. They are used as free labor. By the time they are youth, their aspirations have faded, and they may only expect to be able to stay and inherit a piece of the family land to farm and raise a family. Discipline still exists in the form of a beating, insults of stupidity, or other humiliating treatments. As a result of the low self-esteem, youth do not focus on studies, many do not even attend high school, and they are jaded and defeated from dreaming before they reach the age of twenty. The community as a whole does not believe they can change their lives.
Lack of knowledge about health: Many of the illnesses children get are avoidable. The top illnesses threatening children's lives between the ages of 0-6 are respiratory illness, diarrhea, and malnutrition.
Respiratory infections are due to the poor kitchen conditions, with open fires and little or no ventilation. Even children as young as three years old are expected to help cook in a kitchen filled with smoke. In young children whose lungs are still developing, they are especially susceptible to infection, and even deadly pneumonias.
Diarrhea is a common illness since basic prevention is rarely taught. Hand-washing, sanitary food preparation, and raising animals away from the kitchen, are important health concepts that are not well understood or used. Families commonly believe they should not eat or drink when they have diarrhea. Therefore, diarrhea often causes death through dehydration.
Finally, malnutrition simply requires appropriate eating habits. Unfortunately, knowledge about proper nutrition is slight. Meals are made from whatever starch is currently in season, whether it be potato, corn, or wheat. Therefore proteins and vitamins are deficient, and children have a hard time staying awake or learning in school. They are also more likely to fall ill from other diseases. 62% of children in the community in which we will be working are malnourished. 52% have chronic malnutrition.
Project Goals
Working with MIRHAS-Peru in the department of Piura, our 2009 Project will take place n the district of Canchaque. The project will have the following characteristics:
1) Formation of 10 to 20 youth (13 to 18 years old) as Youth Advocates for Health. A volunteer will be sent to ensure the training of these youth. They will be trained in basic preventative health, youth-specific issues and peer-counseling, as well as in Project development and implementation.
2) Execution of projects designed by the Youth Advocates for Health. With the help of the volunteer, MIRHAS-Peru, and MEJOR Communities, the youth will plan and execute at least one small health project in their community. This will strengthen their leadership and self-esteem, as well as inspire the community to become involved in new projects.
3) Parent School. This goal aims to a) train parents in basic health for their families, b) Give the youth an opportunity to practice spreading their knowledge, and c) Lower the incidence of family violence through raising self-esteem and providing anger management skills.
Project Details
Where: The village of San Francisco is located six hours from the department capitol of Piura in Peru. It is inhabited by around 300 people on the side of the Andes Mountains, most of whom are subsistence farmers with limited income generated by groves of coffee, cacao, and fruit trees. Although the village has one grade school, the nearest high schools are one hour walk away. The youth do not have access to many learning resources other than the school system centralized around rote memorization. The village has just received a sewer system and electricity from their municipality. They have a health post that is visited by a doctor once every two weeks. It is also manned by a local health technician when he is in town every other month or so. Otherwise the nearest hospital is over two hours away.
Population: 288 inhabitants, 80 families.
Youth between 13 and 18 years old: approximately 80
Chronic malnutrition rate of children under six: 52%
This project will be carried out by two volunteers sent from the U.S., to live with families in the community for 6 month increments. Due to flooding during the rainy season, volunteers will be sent only from June to December. By having trained volunteers live in the community, we assure both the interest of the community, and the development of a trusting relationship necessary to help make information exchange effective. The volunteers will also be a source of direct support for the youth in their endeavor to complete a community project, and a direct example of leadership, confidence, and social responsibility.
Youth ClassesYouth will be trained in various basic health concepts, leadership and project development through interesting, interactive classes. Youth will be quized on health subjects before and after classes to determine their level of comprehension and absorption of the material. Health subjects covered will include Integral Health, Anatomy, Nutrition, Hygiene, Basic Illnesses, Dehydration, First Aid, Communication and Peer Counseling, Self-Esteem, Puberty, Drugs and Alcohol, Sexuality, Teen Pregnancy, Healthy Pregnancy, and Healthy Environment. Other classes to help with leadership and project management include Education, Leadership, Project Planning, and Managing and Evaluating Projects.
Classes are made as interactive and fun as possible to help include all members of the group, as well as get them engaged in the learning process. Peruvian schools are often taught through rote memorization and humiliation for wrong answers. The underlying goal of these classes is to encourage the students to participate, get excited about what they are learning, and ultimately think critically about the information they are presented with. Once that connection of knowledge and real-world application takes place, they will be more prepared to undertake real-world challenges with confidence.
One way in which youth will begin to practice leadership throughout the classes will be through class participation, in which during each class section one or two youth will assist the volunteers in teaching the information to the rest of the group. Also, smaller projects throughout the classes will help prepare them for a larger community project at the culmination of the classes. For example, the youth will implement a community clean-up day, and present small skits to the rest of class.
Trash Management Youth ProjectWhat: At the culmination of their classes they held a community meeting where they successfully carried out a community assessment of their needs and resources. The meeting ended with a brainstorm of project ideas which the youth could take on as a means of improving their community while also honing their new leadership skills and knowledge. After careful consideration and a community vote, developing a trash management system was ranked as a top priority.
As we want to allow the youth to develop the project and have ownership of the outcomes, we also let them develop the project plan. They have decided that the trash management will include two focuses. One is the collection and removal of inorganic waste. This will be done by providing the village with public trash receptacles which will be labeled for inorganic matter only. The youth will take turns collecting the trash in a larger container which will be given to a local driver who has already agreed to take the inorganic trash to the nearest landfill a few hours away in San Bigote every week or every other week, depending on the amount of trash that has accumulated. The authorities in San Bigote are aware of and in agreement with this arrangement. Although MEJOR Communities wishes to fund the transportation of the trash over the first six months to help motivate the communities compliance, we realize it is not sustainable. The community is aware that after six months they will need to divide the costs of transporting the trash on their own. We hope that by that time they will have seen the beneficial effects of having clean streets and streams and continue the removal of the trash. With around thirty families participating, the costs will be minimal, adding up to a total of only $.17 per week at most.
Landfills are hard to come by in Peru, however the youth are also interested in exploring the possibility of creating a landfill closer to them and the neighboring villages, to make the access to trash management more possible for everyone. Although this is not in the scope of the current project, it is important to note that the project has growth potential.
Organic trash will also be managed better through a community compost project. The fertilizers resulting from the compost will be used both as nutrition for the organic community garden the youth started during this past year, as well as for the family orchards, and fields.
Finally, the youth will design and paint a mural reminding the village to throw their trash in the new trash cans and how important it is.
Why: San Francisco lacks an adequate place to deposit trash. Trash is thrown in the streets, backyards and in a creek in the center of town, which contaminates land and water supplies. Pigs, cows, chickens and dogs are eating the trash. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the community for a solution. Yet, there is currently no available land for a landfill. We propose setting up public trash cans and education programs to begin separating organic and inorganic trash and teaching town members about the health risks of inadequate trash disposal. By establishing a weekly trash pick-up with a local driver and truck, inorganic trash could be regularly and safely deposited in an adequate landfill, while a local compost area would be established for organic trash. Future adaptations may include a recycling program and/or long term communication with municipal authorities about the construction of a permanent landfill for San Francisco.
Materials:
Metal trash cans (with post and chain)
Paint/Signs
Video tapes
Paint brushes
Memory card for video
Timeline:
November and December 2009
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010-
November/December 2010-
December-
These classes are designed to help get parent-appropriate information out to the rest of the community simultaneously with working with the youth. Youth and other health figures will be invited to help present the information where appropriate. Specifically classes will include Nutrition, Hygiene, Alcohol and Drugs, Family Togetherness, Self-Esteem, Environmental Issues and any other classes that the volunteers determine would be helpful to this particular community.
Although this goal specifies classes as being the main focus, all projects designed to help educate and spread information to the entire community will be included under this heading. For example, at least three videos will be produced by the youth to be a permanent resource for the rest of their community. These videos will cover First Aid, Nutrition, and Trash Management to compliment the youth project.
Project Budget
The project budget is subjective to many factors. However, below is our current budget for the project 2009-2010, which includes both phases of the project.
Budget Total: $16,150
First Phase: Youth Classes and beginning some Parenting Classes
Volunteer Stipends = $4,020
Administrative costs associated with the project = $3,196.70
Annual Travel to monitor project = $0
Project Costs = $180
Second Phase: Youth Project and continued Parenting Classes
Volunteer Stipends = $4,020
Administrative costs associated with the project = $2,184.30
Annual Travel to monitor project = $1,940
Project Costs = $611
This budget has not yet been met. Please see our How to Help page to make a donation.