Tigray (cont)
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E-drug: Teaching mothers to provide home treatment for malaria in Tigray (cont)
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I hope you are not really surprised at these results Richard and that you
are mainly excited at the research methodology. Mothers, even the poor and
uneducated ones, are quite willing to help their children once they are
approached in the proper way. This is easy to say, complicated to do etc,
etc. Once the communication process is worked out (culture; words;
approach; media type etc.) the bottom lines are: 1) Integrity of the
communicating person or persons i.e. the mums have to believe what you are
saying and that depends so much on the person and how they get their message
over, and 2) there has to be an effective treatment for whatever problem you
are dealing with. Once results start happening, word spreads throughout the
community.
When I returned home in 1977, I was repeatedly told by all the local
experts, medical and others.,that the mothers would not listen to the ORT
message. Arrogant lies. The mums were desperate for health education as
long as it was kindly expressed by someone with some sort of empathy for
their situation. In one year we decreased admissions and mortality for
diarrhoeal disease at both major hospitals by 50% and the message has stood
the test of time. From 1976 to 1981 an average of 200 children died a year
from diarrhoea. Since 1994 there have been 5 deaths. Other factors no
doubt helped, water supply, refrigerators, breastfeeding rates increased.
The point is, the mothers will listen to a kind, competent word.
David E. Bratt Paediatrician
former senior lecturer Child
Health, Faculty Medical Sciences,
University of the West Indies, Trinidad
36 Ranjit Kumar St., St. James,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, West Indies
"David Bratt" <dbratt@trinidad.net>
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