[English] Focus Area 2: Health

When visiting the school, KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) Volunteer Joe Lim finds out that there is malnutrition among the students. The students were not eating well, and this not only affected the physical growth of the students, but caused low levels of attention and energy in the classroom. To help with this situation, a new member was added to the team, a KOICA volunteer nurse Yoona Choi.

Yoona was volunteering at a maternity hospital in Quito at the time

Photo with the doctors and nurses of the clinic after a meeting

Yoona first examined the children and coordinated with the Government-run neighborhood clinic last February to do a medical inspection of clinical pathology on each of the children throughout the months of March~June (blood test, urine and stool sample test), as well as the routine measurement of height and weight.

One of our successes in our work with the clinic was that they were willing to give a full medical examination for each of the 223 children, which was far more extensive than the normal check-up services they provide for the students (height and weight measurement).

Doctor Arcos taking blood samples from a student at the school

According to statistics, 80% of the students were underweight, and 26% had important health issues. 8% was diagnosed with serious malnutrition, and 9% of the students had parasite infections, including amoeba. About 4% had anemia due to malnutrition. We concluded that this was caused by multiple factors--it wasn't just the high poverty level of the area, it also had to do with the lack of nutritive and hygenic knowledge in the neighborhood.

The clinic began distributing vitamin and iron tablets, as well as adequate antibiotics and anti-parasite drugs to treat the simptoms. However, to offer a more long-term and sustainable solution to the issue, we are planning with Ecuador's Ministry of Social and Economic Inclusion (MIES) different types of programs to educate the children in choosing the right food to eat, and also informing the parents how to cook nutritive food with little money. We are also looking for different companies that would daily provide affordable breakfast and milk for the students.

Yoona also dedicated herself to working with the students' hygene, starting with a simple school-wide campaign to wash one's own hands. With KOICA's help, she installed soap dispensers to the newly remodelled school. After Yoona's short presentation about personal hygene through videos, we watched and smiled as the students dashed to the bathroom to wash their hands.

The students washing their hands after the presentation

How the sinks changed after the Ministry of Education remodelled the school, Yoona installed the soap dispensers

The teachers were also taught how to keep themselves cleaner to lower the risk of disease. A short course on the use of the emergency kit (which were also installed) was also given.

The contents of the emergency kits

A poster used as part of the Personal Hygene Campaign

Since 62% are under the poverty level in the Santa Maria neighborhood, and another 35% are under the extreme proverty level, we realized that our work needs to incorporate many aspects, such as health, in addition to the efforts on education. With Yoona we are making small efforts for the community's health, working to first diagnose and identify the health issues, then working together with the community towards an integrated solution that will result in the students' well-being inside and outside the school.

Other posts of the project
[English] Paul&Mark Seminar  [English] Focus Area 4: Agriculture [English] Focus Area 3: Library [English] A video interview and photo slideshow [English] Focus Area 1: Training [English] Project "Escuelas de las Montañas"

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