Health workers
Carly and I have two jobs. By day we are public health workers, and at night we are child entertainers. Our public health program is called Familias Saludables, which is Healthy Families in English. It is a brand new program, designed by the project physician, Dr. Richard, and tweaked in many ways by us, the implementers.
We have found many things that look nice on paper but don’t actually work in the field.
The basic idea is that we have a list of families for each of us, families that have chosen to learn and work in the program, and we visit them every work day for a month, which ends up being about 20 days.
We tried to pick needy families, which isn’t hard because all of them are needy, but we did go to the edges of town, to the run-down, rolling-over, bottom-up houses.
This in itself proved to be a problem because it is hard to talk to someone about nutrition when they don’t have any food to eat. How can you say “Let's work on adding more protein to your diet,” when they don’t even have access to the most basic of carbohydrates—rice, yucca, and platano? It has been a challenge.
Every day during our house visits we fill out a check sheet which allows each family points in five areas—nutrition, hygiene, financial planning, home environment, and family cooperation. This means that even if the family can’t afford food to rank up points in the nutrition area, they can get points for picking up the trash in their yard, or having more time together with the family, or working together to achieve family goals.
We’ve learned a lot about what it means to be a family, and how a family can address and work through many kinds of problems. We have learned about teamwork, responsibility, and the importance of trust. It is important that they trust us, and it is important that we build good relationships.
We have found many things that look nice on paper but don’t actually work in the field.
The basic idea is that we have a list of families for each of us, families that have chosen to learn and work in the program, and we visit them every work day for a month, which ends up being about 20 days.
We tried to pick needy families, which isn’t hard because all of them are needy, but we did go to the edges of town, to the run-down, rolling-over, bottom-up houses.
This in itself proved to be a problem because it is hard to talk to someone about nutrition when they don’t have any food to eat. How can you say “Let's work on adding more protein to your diet,” when they don’t even have access to the most basic of carbohydrates—rice, yucca, and platano? It has been a challenge.
Every day during our house visits we fill out a check sheet which allows each family points in five areas—nutrition, hygiene, financial planning, home environment, and family cooperation. This means that even if the family can’t afford food to rank up points in the nutrition area, they can get points for picking up the trash in their yard, or having more time together with the family, or working together to achieve family goals.
We’ve learned a lot about what it means to be a family, and how a family can address and work through many kinds of problems. We have learned about teamwork, responsibility, and the importance of trust. It is important that they trust us, and it is important that we build good relationships.
posted by Ansley at 6:42 PM
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