Adult Health Education Program -“The Stairway to Good Health”

– Miriam Lopez and Elizabeth Murphy

The Stairway to Good Health Program continues its work with over eighty women in the communities of the Palajunoj Valley.

The women's program is composed of three phases.

The first phase deals primarily with preventative health: starting with ten weekly sessions on Nutrition, Hygiene, First Aid, and Natural Medicine, and afterwards continuing with monthly meetings on topics chosen by the participants. Special emphasis is placed on the fact that it is better to invest in healthy food and good hygiene habits for the family rather than having to invest in expensive medications to cure family members.

The second phase consists of ten more weekly sessions on Self Esteem, Gender, Civic Participation, and Leadership. The principal objective of this phase is to help the women realize their own value and that of their gender, and to empower them to allow their voice to be heard in their own family and community.

Upon finishing the second phase, participants are given the options of planning and organizing their own project, or training to become health educators..

We continue working in the communities of Xecaracoj, Tierra Colorada Baja, and Llano del Pinal.

The Xecaracoj group is beginning their second phase with nineteen women, although they already started a project to train women who sell the school snacks in Xecaracoj.

In Tierra Colorada Baja and Llano del Pinal they are now attending monthly sessions on the first-phase topics that they chose, including: Menopause, Uterine Cancer, Diabetes, etc.

Responding to the request of various women that repeatedly asked for the opportunity to enter in the program, we have initiated a second group in Tierra Colorada Baja. The new group is composed of women from various communities that are more than willing to travel to the clinic in order to participate. This group of 33 women has shown a great deal of enthusiasm so far.