By Sara Leonard | Development Specialist - Grants
Meet Portia Zulu, a Health Education Manager at the HOPE Centre in South Africa. Since we last spoke, Portia and her team of Peer Educators have been implementing a new program in the effort of combating diabetes and hypertension in Zandspruit. The program, 5 Steps to Self-Care, equips patients with knowledge about their health and stresses the importance of knowing their numbers when it comes to hypertension.
"The program answers questions such as: What is hypertension? What are high numbers? What are low numbers? And what are the warning signs I should look out for?" Portia, a Health Education Manager, explains. "It also teaches people what they should and shouldn't eat." The course is 25 sessions and includes hands-on lessons including healthy cooking demonstrations and exercise classes, which might soon include Zumba!
Another program sponsored by one of the HOPE Centre’s partners, Eli Lily, is Conversation Maps. The idea is to get patients talking and asking questions while highlighting common lifestyle choices and how those choices affect diabetics. Topics include portion control, proper exercise, and busting myths that surround diabetes. Portia explained how a patient’s culture might affect his/her lifestyle choices – for example, large family gatherings with plenty of unhealthy food can leave patient’s feeling obligated to partake. Other patients, when they begin to feel the negative effects of diabetes, may visit a traditional healer instead of seeking medical attention which can lead to ineffective treatment or no treatment at all.
The success of these programs wouldn’t be possible without a dedicated, motivated and educated team to bring this information to patients. Portia and her team work to bridge the gap and make it easy to understand the ins and outs of preventing and managing diabetes and hypertension. There are currently 90 people participating in the 5 Steps to Self-Care program and the team expects more participants to join.
Thanks to your loyal support, Portia and her team can continue to help others make healthy lifestyle changes. For more information on the HOPE Centre, check out the latest guest blog on the Lilly Pad and exciting announcement from the country director for Project HOPE in South Africa, Julie Brink.
You can also visit the HOPE Centre's blog for regular updates and photos. Until next time!
By Sara Leonard | Development Specialist - Grants
By Sara Leonard | Development Specialist - Grants
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