Women’s Health Education Project: Blantyre
We have been working with a support group for women from Soche Baptist Church since August 2011. The purpose of the project is to provide basic health education for women living with HIV/AIDS and other health issues. Each month, a different body system is selected by the women as the focus for our sessions. Every two weeks, nursing students from Edgewood College provide information about basic anatomy and physiology of the particular body system. The women of the group will then send any number of questions they may have about this particular area of the body. In a follow up session, students provide answers to each of these questions. The group varies in size, i.e. there have been as few as 10 and as many as 56 women in the group at any one time .
To date, the nursing students have provided basic health education regarding the respiratory system, circulatory system, the skin, and the reproductive system. We are currently working on a grant proposal to expand on this work and train a small group of women to serve as “health advisors”. These “health advisors” will then be able to travel throughout their communities sharing this information with their neighbors.
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