Community Health for 4 Moroccan Villages

The 2013 Community Health Awareness Days will focus on the two core villages of Zawiya Ahansal, Aguddim and Amezray. The program will be spread over a time frame of two weeks and incorporate a variety of activities including: roundtable discussions (community leaders and government officials, elementary school students, female and male heads of households); presentations at the elementary school and tutoring program; community educational workshops (garbage storage, composting, garbage disposal, connected health issues); fieldtrips to water sources, current garbage collection areas and specific areas of impending concern; and garbage clean up days.

The following goals have been set for the 2013 Community Health Awareness Days.

• Compile the community’s concerns and beliefs about garbage and refuse.

• Gain an understanding of current garbage disposal methods and locations.

• Educate the community on garbage’s affect on individual, family and community health. Long-term and short-term. 
• Discuss impact of untreated garbage on soil and water sources
• Discuss impact of untreated garbage on domestic animals
• Importance of clean homes and villages to detract flies
• Importance of clean homes and villages as source of pride
• Impact of tourism on garbage accumulation
• Discuss relevance to the connection with climate change and current global strategies to slow current trends
• How to separate garbage
• How to reuse and recycle
• How to compost

• Provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to brainstorm and discuss their viewpoints.

• Clean up the villages.

• Create a list of potential options for attacking the garbage issues.

• Prioritize locations and situations for improvement.

The first annual Health Awareness Days were held in the four villages of Amezray, Aguddim, Taghia and Tighanimin in May and early June 2012 in partnership with the Atlas Cultural Foundation and the Iqra Fund. The gatherings were a huge success and were received with great enthusiasm by the women, as well as leaders of these villages. In the setting of small, participatory discussions, the women expressed their challenges, concerns and accomplishments in many areas including health, nutrition, access to water, childbirth, sanitation and education. The information was gathered with the help of local students then compiled by Dr. Genevieve Chabot, Iqra Fund founder and MSU Faculty, and her team.

Using the information collected at these awareness days, we are excited to continue to develop our community health program for 2013. Some of the top items that were highlighted by the women that we will focus on include:

1). Topics on Community Health
2). Topics on General Health
3). Topics on Infant Health
4). Topics on Midwifery

The importance of clean water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition cannot be underestimated in the overall picture of health, and that is where we are focusing our energies for the Community Health Program 2013. Expanding on the processes in place, our goal is to provide education and resources that achieve long-term health for these four remote communities of Morocco.
Specifically, the goals of the Community Health Program are to:
1. Increase utilization of the Zawiya Ahansal clinic and Azilal hospital by local villagers.
2. Provide education on safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
3. Provide education on improving nutrition, especially for women and children, and proper food storage strategies.
4. Provide general health education for the community.
5. Identify key community health promoters and facilitate leadership to ensure program sustainability.

Links:

• Atlas Cultural Foundation