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About Health Education To Villages
Health Education To Villages (HETV) was launched by The Mother and Child Health and Education Trust, to address the challenge of improving health
education in underdeveloped countries. HETV is a private, non-profit
development group that works within the existing health framework of
developing countries to establish and promote health educational programs
that will provide rapid and long-term capacity-building to improve health and
quality of life, and will give mothers and communities more control over
their health status. Partnered with national and state governments, we work
to assist in educating mothers and children, teachers and students, doctors
and village health workers, and a variety of community leaders, in the
targeted areas of health, water, hygiene, and sanitation. We employ all the
media available to us - education satellites, computer-based training,
television, radio, cinema screens, posters, and more - to better inform and
educate communities, so that good health practices spread as quickly as
possible.
HETV is currently working with the state of Maharashtra
in India - a state of 120 million people - as the pilot state for many of our
programs, with the hope of developing education networks that will expand to
the rest of India, and eventually to nations all over the world. We are
developing and executing targeted programs designed to reach a wide variety
of audiences. The programs include computer-based training of health workers
(in local languages), educating villagers about safe water disinfection,
health educational television and radio programs, and providing mothers with
simple learning materials about health, hygiene, and disease management, with
a primary focus on diarrhoeal diseases and Oral Rehydration Therapy.
In developing countries some 1.2 billion people - one sixth of the world's
population - do not have access to clean water, and almost 2.5 billion lack
knowledge of basic hygiene. Without safe and sufficient food and water,
disease spreads far too easily. According to the World Health Organization,
250 million people suffer yearly from diseases caused by dirty water, and
6,000 of these people die every day. These water-related diseases are the
leading cause of death around the world, far ahead of war, terrorism, and
weapons of mass destruction combined. When such great numbers of people are
malnourished, dehydrated, and underfed, they lack the immune systems to fight
disease. When disease does spread, they lack the health education and
resources to use simple solutions and manage disease before it reaches a
crisis. Health crises quickly escalate, and the effects are socially and
economically devastating. As such, the cycle of poverty, malnutrition, and
disease perpetuates.
But this cycle can slow down, and eventually stop entirely. At HETV, we
believe that health education at the community level, along with social
development, is the first and most important step toward prevention. We look
forward to a day when more communities have access to clean water, when more
mothers know exactly what to do when illness does strike, and when fewer
children die from diseases the world already knows how to control. Together
with our international and local partner organizations, and with the
commitment and motivation of families, village health workers, and community
leaders, we are leading the way to a healthier living environment in villages
everywhere, and to a better life.
This web site deals with broad programmes involving large numbers of people,
and it often cites statistics to discuss the health concerns of these people.
We wish to remember, then, that every statistic is comprised of a large
number of individuals - individuals loved by their families and communities,
and individuals who work hard to contribute to those communities. Too many of
these individuals die before having a fair chance at life, and many more
live, but are left to lead a life forever handicapped by a childhood of
hunger, illness, and both physical and mental underdevelopment. Behind all
our efforts is the sense that every life has enormous value, and every
unnecessary and avoidable death is a great tragedy. We wish to remember,
finally, that health education is at its core an attempt to value these
lives, and that a new order of health can be achieved to save these lives,
which is our true goal and purpose.
Focus
The aim of HETV is to establish and promote health educational programs that
will provide rapid and long-term capacity-building to improve health and
quality of life, and will give mothers and communities more control over
their health status. Health gains associated with safe drinking water can be
achieved by providing people with simple, affordable technologies, such as
chlorination, filtration, solar disinfection and improved storage in their
homes. Worldwide, surveys have shown that hand-washing alone reduces the
instance of diarrhoea by as much as 43 percent.
Partnered with national and state governments, we work to assist in
educating mothers and children, teachers and students, doctors and village
health workers, and a variety of community leaders, in the targeted areas of
health, water, hygiene, and sanitation.
The Long-Term Effects of Childhood Poverty
Most poor children achieve less, exhibit more problem behaviours, and are
less healthy than children raised in more-affluent families. Looking beyond
these well-known correlations between poverty and negative outcomes in
childhood, recent studies have assessed the effects of childhood poverty on
later attainment and health. Experiencing poverty early in childhood may
prove harmful later in life, and can be linked to adult outcomes such as
earnings and work hours as well as obesity and other health conditions that
impair productivity. The evidence suggests that prenatal and early childhood
poverty have a substantial negative association with adult earnings, work
hours, and certain health conditions, but not with behavioural outcomes such
as out-of-wedlock childbearing and arrests.
hetv.org
Any part of this site may be freely
reproduced, with appropriate acknowledgment.
Health Education to Villages (HETV) encourages the reproduction of
articles on this site for non-profit making and educational uses. Please
clearly credit HETV as the source and, if possible, send us a copy of any
uses made of the material.
All works published are open access. Everything is immediately available
without cost to anyone, anywhere -- to read, download, redistribute,
include in databases, and otherwise use -- subject only to the condition
that the original authorship is properly attributed. Copyright is
retained by the authors. Health Education to Villages uses the Creative
Commons Attribution License.
Note:
The information on our web site is for general purposes and knowledge
only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice or
treatment and should not be construed as definitive or binding. HETV
cannot answer questions about specific medical conditions.
Because each person is medically different, we strongly recommend that
you contact your personal physician for these specific medical questions
and/or treatment. Patients and laypersons looking for guidance are
strongly advised to review the information retrieved with their
professional health care provider. However, we do review questions to
help guide our priorities for ongoing content development.
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