38. Donde no hay doctor

Los puntos claves


Jobs of the promotora:
a) be kind. Treat others as equals (what would I do if it were a member of my own family?) and treat the sick as people (be kind to their families too, especially those who are dying)
b) share your knowledge. Teachteachteach. How to keep from getting sick, how to recognize and manage your illness. Including home remedies and common medicines
c) respect your peoples traditions and ideals. Use them in combination. If something is dangerous you should work carefully and respectfully to change it. Recognize that change will be slow and careful.
d) know your limits. Do not try things you have not had enough experience doing. Know how far away help is. If it is close do less, if it is far you should often try what you can. If the danger is greater if you do nothing do not be afraid to try something if you can be reasonably sure that it will help.
e) keep learning. Study more, study often. Do not pass up a change to take a refresher course. If your first job is to teach and you do not keep learning sooner or later you will run out if things to teach.
f) practice what you teach. Have a latrine before you ask others to do so. Wash hands. Do all that you teach in an obvious and public way.
g) work for the joy if it. This work is improving your villiage and helping your friends and family to be healthier. Do not work for money but for the joy of service. Never refuse to care for someone who cannot pay.
h) look ahead. Do not wait for people to get sick. Take action and teach others to take action to protect health. Look for causes of death and disease that may seem a stretch: like economic, family or social.

Things that affect healthcare: Food protection, land distribution, education, personal relationships,  Short sightedness and greed.
Health is well being in body, mind, community, soul and spirit.

Your concern is for all the people, not just the ones you know or even the ones that come to you. Go to your people, understand their fears, joys, concerns, habits, diets, schools, fields.

Felt needs: what the people see as their biggest problems ie a chough
Real needs: the specific steps needed to correct these problems: ie stop smoking to correct the cough
Willingness: are they ready to address the real needs to get at the felt needs?
Resources: persons, skills, materials, money needed to carry out activites decided upon.

Needs assessments should be short and important to your area. Felt needs, housing and sanitation, population, nutrition, land and food, healing and health, self help

Use local resources to address needs:  the most valuable resource for health us the people themselves. Consider people number, people skills, materials at hand, local organizations, religion, local business, leaders, and connections.

Nutrition:  the most important question of health.  the first question is enough food, not which foods to choose. (solutions:family gardens, contour ditches, irrigation of land, beekeeping, fish breeding, natural fertilizers, food storage, smaller families, rotation of crops - some plants return nutrients to the soil: beans, peas, lentils, alfalfa, peanuts, or other plant with seeds in pods).

A healthworker must know ways to help the land feed people. Family planning and land balance help, but many children often is social security. Family planning works when it is the peoples choice.

The social meaning of love is justice.

Importantly, while nutrition is prolly the #1 concern, you must first address the sick and suffering. Immediate needs before long term. This builds trust. Thus one must teach them to treat minor illnesses in casa as prevention. Early treatment is a form of prevention. Treatment is a doorway to prevention.

Medicine counts as a “dependence inducing outside resource.”

Cough: water and warm water vapor. Cold: liquids rest aspirin.

Diarrhea: water and food!

When trying a new idea start small: start it yourself. Test with different conditions to maximize your crop. Change one condition at a time!

Many things do good only because we believe they do good. Many things do harm only because people believe they are harmful.
Babies should be kept dry until their imbilical stump falls off.

Willow bark tea delivered aspirin.

Rules for home remedies: how to tell if it is not helpful:
a) the more remedies there ere the less likely any of them work
b) foul or disgusting remedies do not help and are often dangerous
c) remedies using human or animal waste are dangerous and harmful
d) the more a remedy resembles the illness the less kiely it is to work.

Plants:
Angels trumpet: very dangerous hallucinogen but good in small doses for intestinal cramps, gallbladder pain, stomach aches. 2 leaves, 7 tablespoons of water. 10-15 drops per hour
Corn silk: tea from this is a powerful diuretic.
Garlic: 4 cloves, mixed with 1 glass of liquid to kill pinworms. 1 glass daily for 3 weeks.
Cactus: (Cardon cactus). Can be used to clean wounds and stop bleeding.  Use a clean knife and cut a chinch out (a disc from and arm is good). Place on wound with pressure.
Aloe Vera: burns and wounds. You can also make a drink with pieces soaked in water overnight then drinking slimy sour liquid every 2 hours to treat gastritis and ulcers.
Ripe papayas have tonnes of vitamins.  Especially good for weak old people. Also the juice from the trunk when cut or a green papaya when mixed with equal parts honey or sugar and then mixed in hot water will treat intestinal worms.  Or use dried and powdered seeds with honey and water 3x daily for 7 days.  This milk from green fruit or trunk can also help clean pressure sores: soak a sterile cloth in it and dead skin will fall right off.

To stop a back of the nose bleed: pack it, or tilt head forward and have them hold a cork on their mouth to keep them from swallowing and thereby disrupting the forming clot.

Cooking in an iron pan, or cooking with some iron in a pan gets you iron. Cooking with tomatoes gets you even more.

Nutrition for the poor:  main food to provide daily energy: cerals, grains, starches (potatoe, banana, plantain, breadfruit, wheat,maize, rice. Pasta, etc). Add energy helpers to get enough calories per day without eating so much. (fats, foods rich in fat: coconut, olives; nuts, oils, sugars).  Add protective foods (veggies and fruits) and body building foods (proteins like nuts, legumes, oil seeds, and animal products) whenever possible. The big battle is to eat enough calories each day.

Put iron nails in lemon juice then make lemonade from the juice: get some iron!