The World Health Organisation defines health as a complete state of physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease, and states that the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental human rights of every human being.
Nevertheless we too often confound health with medical care, which is only one tool to attain the objective of health, and the most expensive and less effective.
Maintaining and promoting good health, thus preventing disease, must therefore be the first priority of the community at every level local, national and global. There are obviously diseases that cannot be prevented, as in the case of most of those linked to some genetic conditions. However, determinants of ill health are mostly social, economical or environmental, widely dependent from the type of society we live in, its values and organisation.
It has been demonstrated for example, that more unequal societies, i.e. those were resources are unfairly distributed, are the most unhealthy. Even in the same country, regions or communities with a fairer distribution of income are healthier and experience a lower incidence of disease.
Most people would agree that universal access to good health services, including preventive ones, are fundamentally a result of the kind of policies put in place by the government.
Whereby most people tend to think that adopting a healthy life style (such as caring for the quality of the food we eat, making regular physical exercise, washing hands, drinking clean water, etc.) or abstaining from a risky behaviour (smoking, drinking alcoholic beverages, making use of illicit drugs, unsafe sex, etc.) is an individual choice. Well this is only partially true. In fact, most of people’s choices are heavily influenced – positively or negatively – by external factors, such as marketing strategies, media, traditions, families, influential peers, or in too many cases by socio-economic conditions. Well, all these are also the result of the model of society and economy we Iive, thus very much related to political choices.
Appropriate information and education can help us to understand the issues at stake and make the right choices for our health. Our civic engagement at the appropriate level can induce governments to establish the right policies.
Thus what can we concretely for health? Let’s see a few examples.
Locally with our group
Organise a group working on health promotion. The group could:
- search for appropriate information and learn to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy behaviours,
- map health hazards in the community and built public awareness,
- debate about the individual and social causes of unhealthy behaviours and organize public debates in the community,
- identify appropriate interventions to develop in the community for the promotion of good health. These could include opportunities to practice sports, organize information events about good nutrition, personal hygiene, or with adolescents about safe sex, promote breast-feeding among young mothers,
- collaborate with local health services in inmunization campaigns, or other preventive and health monitoring activities that may take advantage of volunteers
- organize training courses with the support of health institutions and NGOs for emergency preparedness,
- in some communities the group could engage in activities, or establishing social enterprises for appropriate waste disposal, improve sanitation or access to clean water.
- develop a project for local production (fruits and vegetables, poultry, etc.) and or distribution of quality food (establishing a community consumers association to get quality food at better prices)
and many others….
share tour ideas with indaba-network and get technical advice.
Think and act global
- understand global influences on health (Ask yourself questions such as why do mothers abandon breastfeeding? Why all over the world every body is eating the same unhealthy processed food and equally unhealthy industrial beverages? and find the answers joining global networks and linking to civic initiatives dealing with health.
share your concerns with indaba-network and get appropriate technical information and links for action…
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