Public Health education
St RCHF has for the last 12 years worked in collaboration with The Ministry of Health via its public health disease prevention department in Iasi City.
Public health covers everything in the medical domain from a cough, simple cold to major alert infection that is within the population of any country. Our role is one of an educational one direct to the public at large and includes children in both kindergartens and schools.
In a countries for instance like Romania & other former communist countries health care is at a standard far lower than in western European countries, because of budget deficits and lack of modern medical diagnostic aids in many hospitals which also themselves have only basic conditions for patients when interned ill, despite having highly trained medical staff.
Millions of Romanians daily still draw water from a street water well and not only in rural areas but also in some urban areas, thus testing of water for bacteria is vital to public health as is disinfection of water wells and water buckets, but this rarely happens and so we educate on the dangers of boiling water from wells before drinking or using for food preparation, plus on the subjects of food hygiene and storage here taking into consideration that many families still store food in a hand dug out cellar under their home and in such conditions if food is not properly stored and covered the risk of infection is very high.
Tuberculosis is a major health problem in Romania and a strong part of our public health education. Please see our Tuberculosis page!
HIV/Aids along with hepatitis and the dangers of alcohol consumption, drug abuse, plus tobacco use are other subjects within our young people educational projects in schools.
Charmant art Intervention
St RCHF thanks to Charmant Art in The Netherlands has been able to educate children via our basic hygiene book which is animated, plus has interactive coloring pages and is a great success in education of young people on this important subject as a lack of hygiene is a major cause of infection and disease.
Because of all of the above it is vitally important that the public of all ages know and understand about the basics like Hygiene, but also about serious illness, the causes and where to get help quickly if these signs appear in the family household. (See also page titled Timmy Mouse)
We also educate on climate as Romania has tropical summertime temperatures and sub zero winters, thus it is important for instance to educate people about the loss of body fluids caused by temperatures over 25c (and in Romania reaches up to 38c in the summer days) and how to address this by drinking at least 2-3 liters of clean water per day, especially those who work on the land or in outside jobs. Likewise in the winter sub zero temperatures affect those who suffer cardiac complains, breathing difficulties as well as asthmatics and senior citizens along with children of a tender age and here education on subjects like wearing the correct corresponding type of clothing and home heating is essential, but not so easy in families with no means and we help to overcome these problems together. Also we teach older people and those with medical conditions not to venture out early in the mornings or at night when temperatures are at they’re lowest.
Public health education is a huge subject taken very seriously by St RCHF in its voluntary work and backed up by a full range of posters and leaflets we have designed to help acquaint the public to health dangers before they affect their family and cause illness that often can be prevented!
