I'm guessing at this point you are all wondering what good I'm doing in Fiji. Trust me, I was wondering the same thing as of Wednesday morning. Luckily the rest of this week has been jam packed with information on the projects we are able to work on.
On Wednesday I went to a World Health Orginization training. They are working here in Fiji doing their Health Promoting Schools (HPS) Campaign. Each week WHO hosts a training in a different city of the island and invites head masters and principals to learn about the campaign and begin setting goals to make their school an HPS. Similar to the US, one of the major health issues in Fiji are Non Communicable Diseases (i.e. diseases that can not be passed from one person to another, e.g. heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.). The five major areas of improvement for educating children are tobacco, alcohol, sexual activity, physical activity, and nutrition. Sound familiar? Wednesdays training was the introduction to the campaign along with brainstorming for solutions to these five problems. After the trainings are completed in the next few weeks schools are expected to set and implement goals to make their school an HPS.
A girl here is working closely with WHO and I am helping her make an evaluation form to evaluate the schools once the proper implementation has taken place. While it's not exactly what I came here for, I'm finding that so many of the projects that are available to me can use my business knowledge and will teach me more about development and growth that I would be able to learn in the US.
I'm heading into town (it's Saturday here) for lunch and shopping but I'll update you on the other project I was able to learn about this week later.
Moce from Fiji.
sounds awesome karli... there is TOO much to learn outside the states. glad you're finding that out :) <3 hillary
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