Here is a description of your company. Proin ex id consectetur lobortis. Aliquam, velit vel faucibus dapibus, augue justo ullamcorper turpis, nec convallis metus nunc vel turpis.
“A world in which every child has access to the necessary tools to fulfil their potential and flourish.”
Affordable Health Initiative (AHI) is a campaigning charity organisation, registered in the UK in June 2019.
AHI does not accept donations and does not fund implementation of interventions. Instead, it supports collaborators in developing fundraising proposals and post-graduate projects.
All children have the right to good health and quality education. Get involved>
“Making every school a Health Promoting School.”
AHI has developed a simple, scalable, and sustainable HPS model, piloted it using an implementation research methodology, and is implementing it across the world. The scalable Health Promoting School programme and technical support are available to motivated people to implement it across the world, in their own locality, under request.
LEARN MORE>
Health care at school setting
The AHI HPS Primary Health Care intervention addresses the Julian Tudor Hart law “those who most need medical care are least likely to receive it. Conversely, those with least need of health care tend to use health services more (and more effectively), by ensuring that no school children in low-income populations are left behind.
Addressing the causes of mortality and morbidity in schoolchildren and amilionate their long-term impact on health capital.
Vaccination is one of the most efficient tools for controlling infectious diseases.
LEARN MORE>
Assuring that all school children are vaccinated.
Health care includes surveillance and organising referrals for vaccination of school children missing recommended immunisation, and treatment of diseases identified in the health screening questionnaire and the stool sample analysis. AHI works in partnership with the local primary health care sector to run this activity.
“Eradicating toothache in schoolchildren.”
“Putting the mouth back into the body”
Around 1 in 3 children worldwide experienced dental pain, causing a considerable suffering, and a major social and economic burden.
Dental health care at school setting
Tooth decay is the most prevalent disease affecting humanity.
The AHI HPS programme offers a modern biological approach to prevent and manage tooth decay, at school setting.
AHI is campaigning for UNICEF to include tooth brushing with fluoride in the WASH strategy.
Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle.
Sport, including martial arts, walking, cicling, running are physical activities. Classroom-based physical activity breaks’ increase daily participation in physical activity in schools and improves academic performance.
A healthy diet is not complicated but expensive. This intervention aims to support behaviour change and facilitating adoption of a healthy diet in low-income communities as well as to reduce food waste and the impact of food waste in the environment. Food distribution is delivered in collaboration with existing approaches
AHI implements the UNICEF Wash, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme in schools to improve the effectiveness of promoting hygiene behaviour, safe water and toilets. AHI added tooth brushing with fluoridated toothpaste WASH to prevent dental diseases.
Promoting Education.
AHI HPS model moves beyond the outdated belief that risk awareness-raising programmes lead to behavioural change. Instead, it uses health promotion approaches in line with the Affordable Health Initiative theoretical framework.
The AHI HPS model adopts the constructivist pedagogical approach, which includes somatic education as the main practice in this activity.
Teaching what matters for life.
Learning through play.
Gardening
Community education
The AHI HPS programme includes two educational games: the “Health Detective Game” where children play the role of a health detective to empower them to take control over their health. The “Quiz Game” is a form of game, in which the players attempt to answer a series of questions correctly, to test their knowledge about specific subjects. “Gardening” provides opportunities for increasing scientific knowledge and understanding, and improving literacy and numeracy, pupils’ confidence, resilience and self-esteem. Educating a parent by including them in the school educational activities significantly increases the likelihood of success of the AHI HPS model in educating children.
Research opportunities
A multi-centre study was designed to assess the implementation and impact of the Affordable Health Initiative (AHI) Health Promoting School (HPS) model. The recruitment of centres and co-investigators is based on dedication and commitment to a team effort to achieve goals that cannot be reached via a single centre effort.
LEARN MORE>
Research activities
AHI is piloting the implementation and evaluation its Health Promoting School model in District Federal, Brasil (LEARN MORE>); state of Minas Gerais, Brasil (LEARN MORE>); and State of São Paulo, Brasil (LEARN MORE>), in South America; Afigya Kwabre South District, Ghana (LEARN MORE>); Ife District , Nigeria; and Somalia, in Africa.
Currently, there are over 40 research associates carrying out projects in collaboration with the AHI. SEE OUR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES>
The AHI HPS Programme
Click to watch a presentation >
Individual interventions that compose the AHI HPS programme and desirable outcomes of each intervention:
Structural Town Project, a pilot study.
Using implementation research methodology, the Affordable Health Research Centre collaborators have demonstrated that the feasibility of implementing the AHI HPS model in low-income localities.
Theoretical Framework
Health, Education, and Income are strongly interconnected.
In early life, healthier children achieve better results at school. Later in life, educated people are more likely to understand their health needs, follow health instructions, advocate for themselves and their families, and communicate effectively with health providers. Poor health and low education are associated with lack of job opportunities and lower income, which has a major negative effect on health. Having sufficient income enables adoption of a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, low income and fewer resources force people to live in socially deprived neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods are often economically marginalised. They congregate and amplify health risk factors. These are lack of safe drinking water, lack of sanitation, fewer high-quality schools, less access to sources of healthy food with an oversupply of fast food restaurants and outlets that promote unhealthy foods. Furthermore, they are more prone to environmental hazards such as higher levels of toxins, air and water pollution, hazardous waste, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. LEARN MORE>