As my final project here at SOVHEN, I came up with the idea to do a community health fair. All the neighboring villages would be invited to the fair, where they could get information and counseling, testing, and some refreshments. My idea was to supply knowledge about preventing diseases and other ways to treat conditions other than using medicine. I wanted to have about 5 tables that addressed the most pressing issues in the community: malaria, dental health, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and family planning. I wanted to tach the community what these diseases are, how they spread, and how they can avoid getting them. I also wanted to have some free testing available, but I didn't want that to be the main point of the fair because I think it's more important to understand rather than just rely on a test being positive or negative.
I was really really excited about my health fair idea. I thought it would be fun, easy, and cheap! The only thing we would need to spend money on would be to buy some water, pop, small snacks, and maybe a few testing strips. We would use the medical officials and supplies we have here and rely on other volunteers to advertise the fair. I even wanted to make a flier to pass around the community to remind people about the services we would be offering.
If you're wondering why I keep saying "I wanted..." or "my idea was..." it's because most of my ideas were shut down by the other SOVHEN members. When I first brought up the idea, they all seemed skeptical about it and I wasn't quite sure why. I have been involved in planning health fairs back in the states and they all turn out well. They said if we just offered information, no one would come. They said if we decide to test, we have to give them free medication. They said if we tell them we have refreshments, people will just come for the food and leave. They told me we can't teach about dental hygiene if we can't give them a toothbrush and we can't tell them about malaria unless we have a net to give them.
What I took from our meeting is that knowledge means nothing here.. People don't want to know how to avoid getting HIV, they just want free condoms and free medication when they finally do get it. When I brought up the fact that most cases of hypertension can be treated by just eating better and exercising, they told me the only way to treat it is to give medication. They don't want to learn about eating a balanced healthy diet unless you can give them the food to eat. Basically, I was told that sharing health education knowledge is useless.
I was honestly so struck and saddened by this thought that I almost decided to give up the idea of the health fair completely. I was very frustrated by the people I was working with. I understand that the culture here says "free" is the most convincing argument, but I really thought it was worthwhile to try something different. I get it that the villagers don't have the money to pay for most of the medication they need, but we are trying to offer FREE knowledge about the diseases they can stop harming their community. The culture here calls for medical officials to treat, rather than prevent, but I wanted to do my small part to change that.
In the end, we came to an agreement that best suits the villages. We decided to draw people to the fair by having a soccer tournament. We are planning to set up a few tables on the sidelines that address HIV, malaria, general health, and deworming. A big part of the fair will be administering free HIV and malaria testing, but I have also convinced them that we can also give information about the diseases. I know that what I'm trying to do is very different here, but I don't think they brought an American volunteer here just so that they could continue doing things the African way. I am still very excited about the health fair and I hope that we can do our small part in preventing the most common diseases.
