4 Promoting Communit y Environmental Health
What made this health organizing successful?
Salud para el Pueblo was very successful at stopping cholera and moving on to
solve other problems. This happened because the health promoters:
• worked with people in their homes. Salud para el Pueblo workers trained
people house by house to keep their water supply clean. This helped
the health teams learn about other problems and gain trust in the
community.
• brought many groups together.
Local organizations, local
government, national and
international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and the
Ministry of Health all worked
together. This made sure all of
their resources and experiences
were available to help stop the
epidemic. Because they worked
together, they avoided the
problem of one organization
doing the same job as another
organization, or working against
one another.
• valued people as the most important resource. They did not blame the
villagers for the health problems, and they did not
depend only on help from
outside the communities.
Instead, they used the
peoples’ own experience
to work toward a
common goal. They used
games, puppets, songs,
discussions, and popular
education activities
to bring people
together to share their
knowledge and abilities.
These activities
built self-confidence
and motivation as
the villagers saw how
their own knowledge and
participation solved serious
health problems.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012