By Dr. Josefina Pamela Olalde-Carpio | Project Officer, Mobile Health Clinic
A group of fourth year medical students from the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH) went out of the hospital and into the streets of Metro Manila to conduct alternative education sessions on Environmental Health for the beneficiaries of Childhope Philippines.
Childhope Philippines, a non-profit organization and the pioneer of street education in the country, has been teaching street children about their rights, health, protective behavior, and basic literacy and numeracy, armed with ten Alternative Education modules and a hardworking team of Street Educators.
Environmental Health is a welcome and long-awaited eleventh module, pushing Childhope to the present as it tackles a very important issue concerning not only the country but the entire world.
“Ang dami ko pong natutunang bago, gaya po ng dapat pala ay hindi ako nagtatapon ng basura kung saan-saan, at hindi din po dapat [ito] sinusunog,” says Lisa, a street child from Divisoria, after participating in the second teaching session. (I learned a lot of new things, such as not to throw garbage anywhere, and not to burn them.)
“Kaya po pala mga doktor ang nagtuturo sa amin ngayon, Ate,” says Joey, another street child from Lawton, “Kasi hindi lang po pala kami nakaka-apekto at nakakasira sa kapaligiran. Kung hindi po namin aalagaan ang kapaligiran, magkakasakit din po kami.” (That is why doctors are teaching us now. We don’t just affect and destroy the environment. If we do not take care of the environment, we will get sick.)
This is a two-year project of the medical students as part of ASMPH’s Learning Experiences in Communities, and was meticulously developed under the supervision of Childhope’s Physician.
The students’ two-week community rotation was the culmination of their LEC, where they taught street children from Lawton, Divisoria, and Monumento, that one’s own personal health and the health of our environment are very important and very much interconnected.
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