Summary
Compone, Peru was PHBB’s first international trip, after which we completed four additional trips. We implemented interventions focused on road safety, dental hygiene, stress, nutrition, and adolescent development.
Topics
Water, nutrition, hygiene, dental hygiene, road safety, adolescent development
The first PHBB international trip began as a collaboration between a few public health students and the UMD chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) on a project centered around the installation of a water chlorination system. Public Health members went around and did qualitative interviews about health challenges, needs in the community, and water. Interviews done with many including families, the health department, general stores, the mayor, and other community members. These evaluations concluded that an overpass and nutrition education was needed in the community. PHBB has traveled to Compone four times since the initial trip in January of 2014.
During the first two trips, PHBB members held educational workshops on water chlorination, oral rehydration therapy, and hygienic practices with adults and children at the local health center. The team shifted topics in conjunction with the engineering team, with members conducting focus groups and interviews with community members related to road safety, in preparation for the implementation of a project to reduce the number of road traffic deaths in the community.
In the summer of 2017, our team returned to Compone where they worked with Engineers Without Borders to facilitate the implementation of a footbridge by teaching the community about road safety. They also implemented an intervention regarding how to manage stress through yoga on this trip.
In 2018, our team implemented three interventions focused on adolescent development, specifically the emotional and psychological changes adolescents go through, food safety in the kitchen, and nutrition, specifically the fat, sugar, and salt content of various foods.
During the 2019 trip, our group partnered with the UMB dental school and conducted an intervention around dental hygiene. They also conducted another adolescent development intervention on bullying and promoting positive peer relations, as well as a nutrition intervention focused around anemia prevention.
Photos From Peru
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Calaba Town, Sierra Leone
Our second international project in Sierra Leone traveled for the first time in June 2014. The team traveled with Maryland Sustainability Engineering (MDSE) to collaborate on a water sanitation project at Abigail D. Butscher Primary School in Calaba Town, Sierra Leone. PHBB members led educational workshops on water sanitation, hygienic practices such as hand-washing and tooth-brushing, and Oral Rehydration Therapy.
Varanasi, India
PHBB's fourth international team traveled for the first time in July 2016 to Lucknow, India. The trip served as a way to form partnerships with contacts in India. While there, the team provided health education in local schools via the Sesame Street campaign. They conducted 30-minute interactive lessons related to sanitation and hygiene in 17 different schools.