Final Day of CHE Training and Certificates!

Today's training started out with a focus on home visits and the factors that are instrumental in helping families adopt good health habits. They learned to praise the good practices they observe during the initial visits and, at the same time, use it to discretely notice unhealthy conditions and practices that may become the subject of future lessons. This lesson brought out the importance of asking 'open ended' questions to encourage more sharing and thus find out more of the family health history and situation. An emphasis was placed on building trust and encouraging a growing confidence that can lead to a willingness to change their behavior.

The next lesson covered the use of a 'baseline survey' to record the health conditions of the community so that progress can be measured as time passes. This information is valuable when evaluating the methods used to foster good health practices. There were two types of surveys introduced.

The afternoon started off with a lesson on using picture booklets especially as a follow up on health lessons given. The students discussed the advantages of using picture booklets and why they would enhance learning home treatment and prevention. An explanation was given as to the separate sections of the picture booklets and the important points of how to present the material.

Lastly, the students were asked to answer some evaluation questions of this week's training.  Some of the questions were: 1) Name one or two core values which you understand better now because of the training this week? 2) What new ideas did you gain this week? 3) What is something new that you gained from this training that you will do when you go back to your community? 4) What was most useful to you?

At the end of the day, certificates of completion were presented to each student in recognition of their participation and hard work as they discovered new principles, practiced new teaching methods and processed a lot of new material throughout the week - David Crist

Jung remarked how wonderful it has been to have David Crist and Joanna Geiger back for this CHE training. He noted, "They are spiritually mature, understand the culture, and are, most of all, humble servant leaders."  He also added his thanks to everyone for your support and prayers for this ministry and the students.

As Dr. Bjorn Nilson and Rick Astone arrive to continue the medical training of our students, look forward to more reports and updates on the Barefoot Doctor School.  Thanks for reading these posts, and thanks for your prayers.

Jon Ulm