The education behind the project

On Friday I went out with Tula to visit her and one of our groups during one of their educational sessions. The four groups that are participating in this health initiative gather every other week to learn about a new health topic related to improvements that each family can make in their houses to ultimately better their health. The educational session this past week was on Respiratory Infections - how to prevent and cure them - and one of the main factors helping the family do exactly this is the construction of better mud stoves to eliminate smoke in the kitchen. The session was held in Santos' house. The group of about 10 mother's and daughters gathered in her dark living room while Tula prepared a 'movie' that was broadcast through her laptop. Tula was very interactive and informative with our women. They asked questions, responded to her answers and in the end learned a thing or two about respiratory infections. Each family made a promise to work on 1 specific action to prevent infections in their family members; for example, provide more ventilation in their house to air out their "germs and bacterias" or to cover their mouth with their arm and not their hand. Simple things.

About mid way through the session the women had a difficult time hearing Tula speak because the construction workers entered into Santo's kitchen to work on her stove. It was great that they were there to make some progress, it just happened to be bad timing for the educational session. Regardless, everyone walked away from the session with their health homework and new information about the health of their family members.

Santos is pictured here in her kitchen while the construction workers make some advances on her stove.