By Fatima Reyes | Resource Mobilization Officer
The Mobile Health Clinic aims to keep street children healthy by educating them and instilling in them the values of proper hygiene and basic health care.
It is a difficult task, since street children have been used to growing up in dirty and hazardous environments. They do not prioritize taking care of their health, as they are more concerned with the struggle to survive daily.
Still, efforts are underway to empower street children and urge them to better take care of their health and maintain a healthy lifestyle. A group of medical students from the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH) are supporting Childhope in endeavors to make health services more accessible to street children and their families.
MODULE ON ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
The medical students from ASMPH are developing an Alternative Education Module on Environmental Health and will help train the Street Educators on how to implement it.
“Our advocacy is to promote health, and health does not simply mean the absence of diseases. We want to help Childhope by making a module that is sustainable, that the street children can apply well in their daily lives,” said medical student Jethri.
The students are in the thick of finalizing and fine-tuning their module through trials and research. It will cover several topics including food safety, noise, air, and chemical pollutions, and the like. They want it to be very specialized and applicable to the street children’s urban setting and lifestyle.
The challenge is translating and simplifying theories into concrete action. They want to ensure that street children understand the topics well so they can readily apply their learnings in their daily routine.
“We realize that there is a need to strengthen foundations in terms of educating street children on health. The Mobile Health Clinic opens opportunities for street children to better take care of themselves,” said Jerson.
“It is humbling to be given the chance to know more about street children’s plight. We hope the module will help them understand their bodies, diseases, and their environment so they can better protect themselves. We hope that in our small ways, we help address the gaps in health care for street children,” he added.
MORE THAN JUST A MEDICAL MISSION
The medical students’ engagement with Childhope is under their Learning Experiences in Communities (LEC) --- a part of their medical education curriculum. They are grateful for the opportunity to go beyond the four walls of a classroom. They are able to see underprivileged communities for what they really are, and are more inspired to make changes and help in every way they can.
“We are happy to be able to do more than just medical missions. We hope to make the module simple yet interactive and deep. We hope that through the module, street children will be empowered and be more proactive in taking good care of their health and their environments,” Rainier said.
The medical students are now working on completing materials, graphic representations, simplifying terms, and activity sheets. They plan to implement the module and train the Street Educators starting February 2018.
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By Fatima Reyes | Resource Mobilization Officer
By Fatima Reyes | Resource Mobilization Officer
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