Audience:

The workshop is designed for Christian health, agriculture, and community development professionals who work with rural and urban communities internationally or in the US whose health and nutrition conditions are below standard to motivate community leaders to take the initiative in improving the health and nutrition of their people.  All classes are conducted in ENGLISH ONLY.

Registration:

April 16-20, 2012 Registration now open.

October 1-5, 2012 (Registration opens May 2, 2012)

Registration Deadline two weeks before workshop

Anyone needing a visa in order to attend any of our courses must have their visa in place at least 30 days prior to the start of the class.  This policy is required in order to allow sufficient time for processing applications and to give individuals that might be on our waiting list ample time to make travel arrangements.

Course Fee: $595

Details:

Registration and introductions begin at 8:00 am Monday the week of the workshop.

Workshop sessions last from 8 to 5 daily. There is wireless internet access on campus.

Most people travel by plane, arriving into the Fort Myers airport (RSW) Sunday afternoon or evening and leaving Friday after 6:30 pm or Saturday morning. ECHO is not able to provide airport transportation. We recommend MBA Airport Transportation (239) 482-2777.

For those coming by car, click here for directions to ECHO .

Community Health Facilitator

Dan Fountain, M.D., MPH served as a health missionary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 35 years as a surgeon, educator, and community health innovator. In the 1960s he developed a biblically based, church and community centered approach to empowering people and communities to improve their own health. This approach has spread throughout the Congo and in numerous other countries. He is the author of numerous books in English and French on community health and primary health care. Since 1996 he travels widely to help prepare leaders in many countries to promote biblically based and culturally appropriate approach to health improvement.

The Importance of Community Health

Many common health problems around the world come from unhealthy behavior. Motivating people to make behavioral changes is difficult because the roots of behavior are in culturally determined beliefs and values. The arena for promoting behavioral changes is in dialogue about the cultural values and beliefs that underlie behavior. An understanding of cultural anthropology and the practice of cross-cultural communication is essential for successful motivation of changes in community development, and behavior related to health, nutrition, and agriculture.The biblical world view provides fundamental principles of health and healthy behavior and gives core cultural values important for community development. This workshop will bring together biblical principles of health and agriculture, cross-cultural methods of communication, and skills in establishing relationships that facilitate behavioral changes for the improvement of health and nutrition. It is excellent preparation for an inter-cultural ministry of transformational development.

Goal of the Workshop – Empowering People to Improve their Own Health

The workshop will enable Christian health and community development personnel to help people improve their own health, agriculture, and nutrition through understanding and applying scientific, biblical and culturally appropriate principles, and making behavior changes necessary for transformational development.

Objectives of the workshop

1. List basic principles of community health.

2. Identify obstacles to community development and to changing health-related behavior.

3. List cultural values for improving health, nutrition, and community development.

4. Describe principles and practical applications of cross-cultural communication.

5. Describe effective strategies for community development and for changing nutrition and health-related behavior.

6. Describe principles and strategies of non-formal participatory adult education for health.

7. Describe the organization and application of primary health care strategies.

8. Describe principles of working with community leadership in health and development activities.

9. Describe principles of integrated community development and cooperation between all sectors of development.

10. Observe demonstrations of high impact foods.

11. Practice simple methods of growing nutritious foods.

Schedule of Activities

Monday  
8:00 – 8:30                Introduction and getting acquainted
8:30 – 9:30                Principles, problems, and practice of community health
9:30 – 10:30              Tower of Babel – what does this teach us about development?
10:30 – 11:30            The rationale for community health – Why do it?
11:30 – 12:30            Cultural values that favor development
12:30 – 1:30              Lunch
1:30 – 2:30                Cultural values and how to transmit them
2:45 – 4:45                Introduction to ECHO and Global Farm

Tuesday
8:00 – 9:00              The dynamics of culture – how it works
9:10 – 10:10            Starting a community health program
10:20 – 11:20          Changing health-related behavior in another culture – the Mayoko story
11:30 – 12:30          Changing health-related behavior in another culture – the Mayoko story
12:30 – 1:30            Lunch
1:30 – 2:30              Finishing the Mayoko story
2:45 – 4:45 PM         Let’s Restore Our Land

Wednesday
8:00 – 9:00             Impact of culture and why we must understand this for health programs
9:10 – 10:10           Animism and traditional tribal values in health and development
10:20 – 11:20         Key cultural values in Genesis 1 – 3 and why they are important
11:30 – 12:30         Lunch
12:30 – 1:30           Participatory assessment of community health problems
1:30 – 2:30             Participatory search for solutions
2:45 – 4:45 PM        Overview of Appropriate Technologies at ECHO

Thursday
8:00 – 9:00            Adult non-formal education – what it is
9:10 – 10:10          Adult non-formal education methods
10:20 – 11:20        Adult non-formal education - examples
11:30 – 12:30        Urban health
12:30 – 1:30          Lunch
1:30 – 2:30            Organizational structures and how they influence development
2:45 – 4:45 PM       Perennial Vegetables for the Tropics

Friday
8:00 – 9:00            Nehemiah as an example of planning and management
9:10 – 10:10          Cross cultural issues in management
10:20 – 11:20        Dealing with demography and population growth
11:30 – 12:30        Nutrition
12:30 – 1:30          Lunch
1:30 – 2:30            Evaluation of personal projects, and wrap-up
2:40 – 5:00            Land Care and Soil Restoration

Contact:

For questions or comments, email echo@echonet.org