Working for Change 29
To help you use this method of solving health problems
yourself, here is a chart with a list of all of the steps. On the
left are the steps and on the right are the parts of Juanita’s
story that go with each step. Any time you have a health
problem you can use this chart to help you remember this
method for thinking about and taking action to solve the problem.
The Steps
Juanita’s Story
1. S tart with doubt.
2. F ind out as much as possible
about the problem.
Ask questions.
3. T hink about all the different
illnesses that could be causing
the signs.
4. L ook for clues that can tell you
which answer is most likely.
1. D on Pedro did not know what caused the problem. He
needed more information.
2. D on Pedro asked Juanita questions to find out what could
have caused the problem.
3. D on Pedro thought about all the illnesses with these
signs: an STI, another kind of vaginal infection, or cancer.
4. D on Pedro tried to find out if an STI could have caused
Juanita’s illness.
5. D ecide which answer is
probably the right one.
5. D on Pedro decided Juanita probably had an STI.
6. D ecide on the best treatment.
7. If there are no results,
start over again.
6. D on Pedro did not know which germs caused Juanita’s
infection, so he chose a treatment that works for several
STIs.
7. Juanita took the pills but did not improve and developed
new signs. So Don Pedro asked Valeria for help.
8. L ook for the root causes
of the problem.
9. P ut the causes into groups to
think about what can be done.
8. Juanita and her friends thought about the reasons why
there was this kind of sickness in their community,
such as poverty, unequal land ownership, the ways that
men and women were expected to act, and lack of
information.
9. T he women put the causes into physical, environmental,
social, political, and economic groups.
10. D ecide which causes you and 10. T hey decided to work on the “social” causes.They think
your community can change.
they can get their partners to use condoms.
11. D ecide what actions can
make those changes happen.
12. M ake a plan for carrying out
the actions.
11. T he women decided to practice how to talk to their
partners about using condoms, to see if the health
center will give out free condoms, and to ask Don Pedro
to talk with their partners about STIs.
12. T hey made a plan for each action they decided to take.
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012