Child to Child

I've decided to keep a little journal of the topics I'm studying in my tropical nursing stuff. It will help me to keep track of what I've covered and hopefully also give you a flavour of the sort of work I hope to be involved in when I get to Sudan.

Today it was the Child-to-Child approach to health education. This is an approach developed by the Child-to-Child Trust, whereby children begin to take responsibility for their own health and the health of their communities through experiential learning. It recognizes the important role that older siblings play in caring for younger siblings in the developing world and how they can be agents of change in their communities. I came across the Child-to-Child resources when shopping from the TALC (Teaching Aids at Low Cost) website when I was doing my Diploma in Tropical Nursing. The resources include a number of books outlining this approach to health education as well as giving lots of creative and practical ideas for implimenting it with children. There is also a series of readers, written especially for school children in Africa, with stories that highlight import health topics. I'm pleased to have most of these key texts in my possession, so I can take them to Sudan with me. Some of my books on training health workers also have an emphasis on Child-to-Child. It's all connected! This is exciting stuff.

Today I also ordered the Rosetta Stone Arabic language learning software and as soon as that arrives, I hope to start learning Arabic! Arabic is one of the two languages I will need to learn in Sudan, in addition to the Mabaan tribal language.

So I have plenty of work to fill my days as I wait here in London...