Hesperian Health Guides
Working for Change
HealthWiki > Where Women Have No Doctor > Chapter 1: Women's Health Is a Community Issue > Working for Change
It does not have to be this way
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other ideas of how your partner can helpThe way societies are organized forces many women into lives of poverty and poor health. But societies could be organized in a way that favors health instead of disease.
Since the causes of poor health exist at the family, community, and national levels, changes to improve womenâs health must happen at each of these different levels.
Working for change in your family
You can improve your health by learning about common health problems and by making changes in your own life and in your family. Talk with your partner about what you each need to have better health, including practicing safer sex and sharing the workload fairly. You can also work to improve the health and future of your children. Here are some ideas:
Raising our children for a better world
How we raise our children, from the moment they are born, will determine much of what they believe and how they act as adults.
Every day, our children learn from us as parents. For example:
- When our husbands and sons are fed first, we teach our children that girlsâ and womenâs hunger (and health) is less important.
- When only sons are sent to school, we teach our children that girls do not deserve an education and the opportunities that come from it.
- When our sons learn that it is manly to be violent, we raise violent men.
- When we do not speak out against violence in our neighborâs house, we teach our children that it is acceptable for someone to beat the people in their family.
As parents, we have the power to share positive lessons with our children. For example:
- If we teach all our children to be kind and compassionate, they will grow up to be kind and compassionate family and community members.
- If we teach our daughters to value themselves, they will expect the same from others.
- If we teach all our children to share and take pride in household work, no one in the family will suffer the burden of overwork.
- If we can teach all our children to finish school or learn a skill, they will gain more security and better contribute to the community.
- If we can teach all our children to respect people for who they are, they will grow up to be responsible sexual partners.
We can raise our children for a better world.
Working for change in your community
Because social conditions affect them differently, different groups of people may need to find different solutions for the same health problems.
You can improve your health and the health of others in your community by sharing this book and by talking with them about health problems faced by women.
Talking with others can be hard. Many people feel shame when talking about parts of the body, or they fear what others will think. Yet talking with others is the only way to learn more about health problems and to discover their causes. Often you will find that other people are worried about the same things and want to discuss them.
Get a small group together to talk about health problems in your community. Try inviting friends, neighbors, or people you work with. Once you have identified a health problem that many people share, it is often helpful to meet again and invite others to discuss it and learn more. When you meet, think about the root causes of the health problem, and plan the changes you can make in your families and community. See ways to work with a group to plan and carry out actions for change. Also, Hesperian's Health Actions for Women is filled with ways to work together for change.
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Think about involving all adults in the community in discussions about womenâs health. It may be difficult at first to talk about topics that are considered taboo for men or âwomenâs secrets.â But men are often in positions of power, so their help can be useful. Look for men who are supportive of women, are good role models, or treat women and others as their equals.
Here are some other activities that can help improve health in a community:
- Share information. Find ways to spread helpful information about common health problems in your community, so that everyone will know about them.
- Form support groups. People who share common problemsâsuch as those who have survived rape or abuse, new parents, women with disabilities, or sex workersâcan form groups to support each other and work together to overcome challenges.
In Zimbabwe, the Musasa Project was created to help women who experienced violence, particularly violence in the home and sexual assault. Musasa found that women who were beaten by their partners were not protected by the law. Many people said that men should have power over women because it had always been that way. Some people said that regular beatings reminded women of their âplace.â
Musasa changes these attitudes through public education and by working to change and enforce laws (they helped pass a Domestic Violence Act in 2007). Musasa also provides free 24-hour phone support, counseling, and shelter for survivors. In this way, women, men, teachers, students, police, and health workers are learning that violence is an unacceptable abuse of power.
- Work toward more independence. Projects that help women earn money and improve their working conditions also help women start to make their own decisions and gain self-esteem.
- Develop community projects. For example, try to find ways for everyone in the community to get enough to eat or to improve community sanitation and access to clean water.
In a tiny Mayan village in Guatemala, a group of women formed a weaving group. They sold their weavings through a cooperative store for womenâs crafts in the capital city. The women now earn more income than most of the men in their area. As a result, women have gained new status in their families and communities and have more opportunities in their lives.
The Green Belt movement in Kenya has involved many women in planting and protecting trees, which prevent soil erosion and provide fuel. Their success at protecting the environment and providing fuel for their families has built their confidence and helped them earn a living.
As one Green Belt member said, âOur forests were running out because of our constant need for firewood. We meet weekly to collect seeds, to do potting and fencing, and tend the trees in our nursery. We also talk to groups and schools about the environment. In this way, we are both helping ourselves and bettering the environment.â
Simple and low-cost community efforts can make a difference
When you first look at a problem, it often seems very hard to make changes. But, in fact, communities can make many improvements that do not cost too much. For example, here are some of the suggestions in this book for preventing or helping solve womenâs health problems:
- Start a community stove project. Low-cost cook stoves that are safer, use less fuel, and produce less smoke can prevent many lung infections, burns, and back problems.
- Establish an emergency transportation system. Many deaths from complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion can be prevented by reaching medical care quickly .
- Low-cost cancer screening can prevent many deaths from cervical and breast cancer. Cancers are much easier to treat if they are found early.
- Make family planning services and good prenatal care accessible to all. This can prevent many deaths due to complications of pregnancy, childbirth, and unsafe abortion.
- Train more health workers to care for womenâs health, including pelvic exams, Pap tests and visual inspection, manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) and medical abortion, breast exams, and counseling. They should also learn how to use medicines for womenâs health.
Working for change in your country
You can improve your health and the health of many others in your country by joining with other groups in different parts of the country to get laws changed that neglect some people's needs or discriminate against them. For example, groups might work to make safe abortion available or get laws changed about who can own land or property or demand that men who rape or abuse womenâand those who attack gay or transgender peopleâare punished.
Many people are organizing to get their governments to:
- equip rural clinics and train health workers to treat common womenâs health problems, so rural women will not be forced to go to urban hospitals for care.
- pay for people from poor areasâespecially women and others whose health is often neglectedâto get health training. This will help relieve the shortage of trained health workers.
- keep companies from damaging the environment and advertising products that harm peopleâs health.
- force companies to provide fair working conditions and decent wages for all workers.
- make it easier for people to grow food for their own communities, not for export.
- distribute unused land to those who have been forced from their land
Gaining power over our own health
Just as âwomenâs healthâ means more than having babies, it also means more than access to health care. To be truly healthy, all people need the chance to make the decisions necessary for good health. And they need access to a fair share of the resources in their communities and in the world.
By joining others in the struggle for health, we can demand the chance to live healthy, full, and joyful livesâfree of disease, pain, discrimination and fear.