Community engagement to enhance environmental health education to reduce communicable diseases in developing countries
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Benjamin Mwangi [1]
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[1] Nakuru Regional Cancer Centre, Nairobi, Kenya
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- Localización: Environmental health literacy update - new evidence, methodologies and perspectives / Rafael Felipe Moreno Gómez-Toledano (aut.), 2024, ISBN 9781837697663, págs. 53-67
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
This chapter describes increasing and sustaining environmental health literacy (EHL) within the less disadvantaged and minority communities in third-world countries. People from developing countries experience systemic barriers to quality and affordable health due to economic disadvantages and lower educational attainment levels. Traditional cultural practices in developing economies reflect values and beliefs held by members for periods spanning generations. However, harmful conventional methods include female genital mutilation (FGM), forced feeding of women, early marriages, taboos, and religious beliefs that prevent women from controlling their fertility, nutritional taboos and traditional birth practices, early pregnancy, and bride price, among others. These undesirable practices affect public health negatively and increase the risk of otherwise preventable diseases. This chapter discusses community-based education approaches to promote healthy living styles and improve attitudes toward clinical interventions and treatments. The chapter contains examples of community-engaged education initiatives to promote EHL in various contexts, like community-initiated training that creates public awareness. Community-based education systems can contribute to building and sustaining equitable access to professional health and partnership between communities and stakeholders in the health sectors, emphasizing mutual co-learning and knowledge co-creation to meet unique existing and emerging needs.
