Children's Healthy Village

Health Literacy Enhances Child Health and Prevents Infant Diseases in the Slums and Rural Villages of India. Sanma Community Education Centers Presents Scalable Development 

A little bit about the program

Children know a lot about coming up with new ideas to play; but not about staying healthy or keeping themselves clean. And that is costing their lives, especially when their parents lack health literacy. Each day thousands of children in south Asian countries fall victim to diseases that can be prevented, if they knew how to practice personal hygiene requirements. Their homes and schools do not have any set health standards.

Children's Healthy Village program of Sanma addresses this problem at the grass root level. Sanma's Health Information Specialists and social workers conduct healthy village seminars at the villages, at Sanma Community Education Centers and at other public schools.

You can too! The beautiful Nine, an upcoming ambassador for a better world!

Nine, a little miracle!

How old do you have to be to make a difference in the life of another person' When you read about Nine, an adorable 3-year-old girl from the Netherlands, it is only a matter of choice as it seems. Nine's parents are good friends of Gerdo and Tessa, medical and literacy volunteers with Sanma, from the Netherlands.

Gerdo and Tessa are on a world expedition, using their time, resources and professional expertise to heal the scars that social injustice and poverty have placed on humanity, one person at a time. Tessa is a nurse, and Gerdo, a teacher. While working with Sanma in India, they adopted three remote villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh, teaching the defenseless children and their families to read and write, and providing health literacy to the child laborers and their families.

When Nine heard from her mom that Tessa and Gerdo were helping children who lacked personal hygiene products such as soap and toothbrush, she wanted to help! Tessa and Gerdo worked hard, and educated the people how to read, write, and practice personal hygiene to prevent diseases. At the end of the program, the gift the children received from Gerdo and Tessa were beyond some good smelling gifts, it was knowledge and products that could make a difference between health and sickness. The children and their families received health literacy.

The vast majority of children who are victims of helminthes (soil transmitted worm disease) live in the slums and in rural villages, where sanitary conditions are dangerously low. People are not educated the ways to practice the personal hygiene necessary to maintain good health. They live in the bondage of poverty and ignorance, and do not have the financial capacity to obtain even basic hygiene products.

Nine's compassionate action made a difference in the life of a child, in the form of better health. To some children, it takes a little miracle to have the things needed to enjoy a hygienic body. Nine became a little miracle to some of them!

Have you ever wondered how to save a million children? Sanma's Healthy Friends program presents you a way. Contact us, and be an ambassador for a healthy village today. Here are some ways you can help financially weak children to practice personal hygiene and prevent helminthes:

 Healthy Friends coloring book and crayons for a child $1

Give personal hygiene products for a child $3

Personal hygiene products for all the children in a Community Education Center $90

• Healthy Friends coloring book contains fifteen coloring projects that teach children to practice personal hygiene healthy lifestyle habits.  To millions of children, this will be the first coloring book they have ever owned.