PEER-TO-PEER P2P EDUCATION AMONG CHEYENNE
RIVER LAKOTA INDIANS
I have just spent five full days at the
Youth Diabetes Prevention Programme, under the guidance of MS M Walking Elk.
The days flew past, despite it being long days from 6 am wake up to 12 midnight
going to sleep. But each day was exciting and extremely satisfying.
I had just been with Maurits van Pelt and
Rin the Primary Peer Educator of the Programme, MoPoTsyo Education in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia. I realized that what Ms MWE and her staff of dedicated local
people were doing was just that, Peer-to-Peer Education. So I concentrated on
this visit, on the education and learning experience of the Peers, in this case
Lifestyle Guides for the Indian children. On the last day, a Friday when the
bright weather had changed into windy and rainy, I gave an anthropological
opinion of our experience together.
Seven out of Ten children and their
families have made some sort of changes that would be reflected in the body
measurements, most welcomingly the decrease in body fat percentage!
In the article I had mentioned in the
previous blog citing a study from the Harvard University, which credits the
social factors and interventions for the reduction of childhood obesity in
Massachusetts.
I could honestly say about Youth Diabetes
Prevention Programme of the Lakota at Cheyenne River, the following, regarding
the right direction of the outcome of their hard work:
Good Management of the Staff by Ms MWE.
Each member of the staff has a unique personality but they blend in well
together and produce what is promised.
The Staff members feel a sense of freedom
The staff was carefully chosen for their
dedication to the objective, which is the continuing good health into the
future of the Indian Children. They were very eager and keen to learn more
things and asked questions for which I had to prepare answers each night.
The Peer Educator, called the Outreach
Worker, was from the community they were serving and new the target population
very well. This is a spread out reservation and distances are large.
I thoroughly enjoyed my days with the
Cheyenne River Lakota and I bid adieu to them, knowing well that they will be
in my heart in the days to come: regardless of where I would be, Indonesia,
Cambodia, France or Cuba!
MERCI BEAUCOUP, MES AMIS LAKOTA!
