Healthy Action: An activity book for teachers and learners

EI has worked with the Education Development Center and World Health Organisation to present their latest EFAIDS resource: ‘Healthy Action: An activity book for teachers and learners’.

The publication has been designed to help teachers and learners to adopt healthy behaviour and make healthy choices for better teaching and learning. It includes activities for teachers and classroom activities for learners covering four principle topics which are all inter-connected through the theme of maintaining overall good health. These include: tobacco, alcohol and other drugs; nutrition and physical activity; hygiene and sanitation; as well as, injury and violence prevention.

All the activities proposed are designed according to the life-skills based approach and participatory learning methodology. The same angle was used in previous EFAIDS resource materials, ‘Leadership in the HIV and AIDS response’ and ‘Learning for life’ (both publications are downloadable at http://www.ei-ie.org/efaids/en/documentation_ei.php).

While EFAIDS resources are used primarily by EI affiliated teacher unions around the world, they can easily be adapted to work with other target groups.

To download ‘Healthy Action’ or to get any additional information on the book and other EFAIDS resources, please visit the EI EFAIDS website at: http://www.ei-ie.org/efaids/en/documentation_ei.php or email Delphine Sanglan at: delphine.sanglan@ei-ie.org

source:http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1529&theme=hivaids&country=global

'Right to education helping kids' health too'

New Delhi: The Right to Education (RTE) Act, besides giving children between six and 14 years access to free and compulsory education, also helps their health as voluntary groups often target schools for their programmes, experts said on Thursday.

Deworm the World (DTW), a voluntary organization giving deworming medicine against intestinal parasites to children between 6 to 14 years, will soon be covering the capital's government schools and slums.

"After a year-long successful work in seven districts of Andhra Pradesh since 2009, we will now target Bihar and Delhi where our prevalence studies have been going on for quite some time," DTW's executive director Lesley Drake told the sources on her visit to India.

"We realized how effective health plans can be when they are pitched in with educational schemes. RTE is an important catalyst for our policy in India," added Drake. 

The NGO, in its massive action plan, stated that the programme in Bihar will be rolled out in over 67,000 schools of its 38 districts from February to April.

"Deworming is often ignored in developing nations because it does not affect the mortality rate. The need is to realize its impact on the cognitive growth of the child, his education, mental and physical abilities," explained Drake. 

The deworming schemes will also rope in the state governments and additional technical support from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"In Delhi, our studies across slums and schools are underway, and a school-based deworming programme will be launched in identified at-risk areas later this year," said Prerna Makkar, regional director of DTW's south Asia wing.

"Adequate sanitation, hygienic living conditions, and safe drinking water are other key approaches to the deworming plan," added Makkar. IANS

source:http://indiaedunews.net/Today/'Right_to_education_helping_kids'_health_too'_13460/