Implementing and Assessing the AHI Health Promoting School model in a socially deprived area of Distrito Federal, Brasil.
Estrutural community, Brasil.
WHO and UNESCO have launched a new initiative “Making Every School a Health Promoting School” through the development and promotion of Global Standards for Health Promoting Schools. Despite the fact that the concept of Health Promoting Schools (HPS) was articulated by WHO, UNESCO and UNICEF back in 1992, only few countries have successfully implemented Health Promoting Schools at scale. This may be due to a lack of a simple, scalable and sustainable health promoting school model.
The Affordable Health Initiative (AHI) offers a comprehensive whole-school approach that reaches out beyond the school to the community. The initiative incorporates the principals of the Ottawa Charter and delivers a simple, scalable and sustainable operational model for the World Health Organisation’s Health Promoting School initiative. Affordable health Initiative is aligned to two major United Nations and World Health Organisation policies: "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" and “Making Every School a Health Promoting School.” We aim to make a significant contribution to leave a better planet for future generations.
The AHI HPS model consists of four interlinked components which are education, health promotion activities, health care services and community engagement. Activities complement each other and impact in a number of health and education outcomes.
By example, a healthy diet impact on improving nutrition and on protecting against obesity and many chronic noncommunicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dental caries. Those in low-income communities tend to have lower levels of education and income, which is associated with having less healthy dietary habits. This is, in part, because of their higher priority for price and familiarity, and their lower priority for health as a motive for food purchase. Poor food choice motives are clearly associated with low socio-economic position and level of education, access to and availability of healthy food in socially deprived areas. Furthermore, to adopt a healthy diet requires enormous determination, motivation and setting clear goals. Thus, adopting a healthy diet is also influenced by mental, emotional and spiritual challenges. AHI HPS model addresses all these central issues to adopt a healthy diet. AHI HPS model demonstrates the benefits of a healthy diet in the Health Teaching and tackle the socio-psychological barriers and motivators to adopt a healthy diet through the Human Development Teaching. AHI HPS model also address the socio-economic barriers through healthy food distribution to the families of the children enrolled in the programme. Healthy diet/Food distribution is delivered in collaboration with existing approaches, for example as adopted by members of the Global Foodbank Network (https://www.foodbanking.org/).
List of individual interventions
Intervention 1: Human development and Health Teaching
Intervention 2: Evening Talks
Intervention 3: Community Quiz Game Night
Intervention 4: Health Detective Game
Intervention 5: ‘Classroom-based Physical Activity Breaks’
Intervention 6: Ecology and Gardening
Intervention 7: Sport Training and Tournaments
Intervention 8: Active Commuting
Intervention 9: Basic Hygiene Practices
Intervention 10: Healthy Food Distribution
Intervention 11: Medical Health Care Services
Intervention 12: Dental Health Care Services