The Impact of PHC (Primary Health Care) to the Community

          As I go on with my online course, I just want to share with you the relevance of our course to us all. It is a 5-week course with the main concern on the impact of PHC (primary health care) to people especially to those who are less privileged in terms of health issues. 

          Our recent chapter involved some resource videos. Among them, I was overwhelmed to discover the development of PHC along all those years. Enriching, moving and so powerful- those are the words that I can extend to describe the lecture of Dr. Carl Taylor in one video. Indeed, he noted the immense development in the field of primary health care along the years. What was touching in his sharing is that PHC becomes a tool to extend health care to those who are deprived and sufferings.

           Another resource person of the lecture was Dr. Abhay Bang-Shodhgram who in his video shared that "PHC is crucial to empower the people so as to save the poor and the unborn"1. If realized, this is a great development and help to those who need it. As I reviewed both of these resource speakers' videos, I found out that their point and emphasis is very much similar to each other.

imagecredit

          Another interesting contribution  which I got from the resources is that "women are trained to be local agents of positive health and social change"2. The proponent of this is Raj Panjabi who became a co-founder of TH (TIYATIEN HEALTH). By tapping the resources of women as agents to extend positive health care to others especially to their fellow women, the quality of the women's life will be promoted. 

          Further readings and quotation were given in the class and those mentioned above were personally the dominant ones when contributions to the upliftment of the life of the poor is based. However as I end this post, can we also ask ourselves this question, " Have we allowed ourselves to become agents of change for others?"

                                                                                

1.Video: Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) by Dr. Abhay Bang-ShodhGram
2. Video: Post- Conflict Health: by: Raj Panjabi

A REFLECTION: LIFE IS SO WONDERFUL

          Each day that I wake up, I always reflect on what this day brings to me and on others.At times, we worry so much on life's trivialities such as material things, wants and the like. Amidst all of these, I realize that my Divine Creator has been so understanding and generous to me each day. Thus instead of focusing solely on what  I will attain this day, I change my focus instead to how could I express my gratitude to God for His unending generosity for me. Multiple blessings have come in my life everyday and they become concrete manifestations of His love for me.

         The present challenge is how to extend and share this great love from God to others especially to my family- my wife and my little boy. I could reflect of so many things to perform yet I believe that even simpler things would be as big as they are in His eyes. He never measures my deeds rather I know that what counts most for HIM is the genuineness of all my actions and kindness towards myself and others. Hence there is always this personal and constant invitation to be a living instrument of God for others and I know that this entails a lot of sacrifices for me.

          However, believing constantly that He is always here, there and everywhere to guide and give me strength, I am positive that I can always perform my deeds as a person- an instrument of peace and love for others.

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

“Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.”- Og Mandino

by: MINDER, www.pixabay.com

          Augustine "Og" Mandino II, a famous inspirational author, was once an alcoholic in life. Consequently, his family including his wife Mirriam and their only child abandoned him. Such predicament was so intense that he reached a particular point in his journey that he was entertaining the idea of committing suicide. What changed his life was when he made himself busy by reading books of self help. He then eventually became a famous writer and  speaker. (Source: Wikipedia-the free encyclopedia)

          Indeed, we all have our own "Og Mandino story" in our life. A certain point wherein we seemed overwhelmed by those odds before us. Life is such a colorful journey that it is but natural for us to encounter its ups and downs making it more interesting to live by. Amidst of all life's colors, it is so noteworthy for us to also count our own blessings. 

          No matter how we assess life as a struggle, as a constant battle between right and wrong, a persistent tug of war between two opposing forces of this earth, still we all need to embrace all the goodness that we have received and experienced. These are the so-called blessings in our life. We need to count them....we need to constantly remind ourselves that after all, life is still one of the greatest gifts we have received from somebody up there. 

by: TPSDAVE, www.pixabay.com

          May we not merely focus on what others have, may we not be overcome by our limitations such as discontentment, disillusioned, remorse etc for they will just make us blind to see as well as appreciate our own giftedness. Let us count our blessings everyday and thank whoever give them to us. Being as such, we are also invited to share these blessings with others especially to those people who have lost their will to move forward. 

          Remember always the wonderful feeling when we realize that we then become instruments for others so that they will also see the light after each of every darkness that comes into their life. Just like the example of Og Mandino's life, may we constantly strive to get up and face the world after every fall. 

WHAT REAL LOVE CAN DO...

          LOVE is such a very complex and vague matter that many meanings are attributed to it. Yet in the midst of all these complexities, there still exists a reality that true love exists. Indeed, it takes a while for true love to prosper. It is like  a rose  that needs to be consistently nurtured so that it will blossom into a beautiful flower. 

from Kozzi Inc.'s Portfolio

          Try to reflect on your own relationship in life especially in marriage. As the years go by, when the two of you being husband and wife reach a level of deep understanding for each other thus resulting to a feeling of being mutually comfortable with each other no matter what the situation is, then both of you can claim it to the world that real love exists between the two of you. 

      True love also happens when one could learn to forgive and forget everything painful that is done to him/her. That in spite of the pain with its natural tendency to inflict pain in return, it is rather forgiveness that is showered to the other party. Real love is ready and eager to do everything for the welfare of the beloved. 

from Kozzi Inc.'s Portfolio

          In the midst of life's suffering especially in one that is inflicted by another party within a relationship, the ideal response should be to embrace sufferings and to shower forgiveness. Meanwhile, suffering is the most difficult thing in life that we all want to eliminate or  at least avoid it. It may be either physical, mental or emotional but we cannot fully understand why it exists and affects our lives. Suffering is so much a part of life that we must accept and go through with courage and patience.  

          Our hope for perfection in any relationship surely does not make our sufferings less real and painful. The only possible answer to this situation is a real love that is radiated from one's heart. To be able reach this level, we all need to ask for grace and wisdom to go beyond what is superficial in life. While it is so difficult for us to grasp the real meaning of love, we can nevertheless open ourselves to whatever grace where we can get strength on. 

          Hence,  may this be our constant desire to enter into a relationship where true and real love exists.

GLOBAL WARMING: Am I personally Affected By It?

          Global warming is such a worldwide phenomenon and is actively affecting every human being on this earth. It is such a massive issue that nations big and small are having serious discussions to asnwer to this recent worldwide challenge. As I read in one of the blogs which refer to this subject as a serious phenomenom affecting everyone and everything on earth, its writer Rafi Miller said, 

" For most scientists, the evidence is overwhelming. They see it in the data, the models, and the massive climate shifts happening before our eyes. Every authority on climate, including NASA, NOAA, AMS, NAS, AGU,ACS, and APS, warns unequivocally of a grave threat to our welfare."

          It is then very evident that global warming's threat is such a very serious one that it entails an urgent action as well on humankind. Rafi Miller continued, 

        "This is an obviously tragic sentiment. But a serious question underlies it. And among my friends, it’s often the first question they ask once I explain the gravity of the disaster we face. What can we do about global warming? Do we have to give up our cars and air conditioning? Are we supposed to turn our economy upside down with new regulations? Should we board spaceship and move to the moon?"

          There are several answers to this questions yet it is most probably beneficial if we can also personally ask ourselves on what can we do in a special way to help prevent global warming's worsening threat to humanity and the world.

          We can think of so many things to answer this question. Some of those are through information drive. We need to inform ourselves how serious is the effect of this climate change to humankind. Recent man made catastrophe such as intense heat stress, more universal drought, uncontrollable wildfires here and there, fatal epidemics, the rise of sea level,  disastrous floods and many other local effects just visibly manifests the fatal effects of climate change.Thus, it is very positive to constantly consider whatever ways that can make us positive contributors to stop the spread of global warming. Several grassroots response that we can think of can be any of the following: energy, forests, education and agriculture. 

          Worldwide, there are several actions undertaken by groups to respond positively to this challenge on climate change. Numerous actions are undertaken such as the program to provide electricity to 500 students in Belize, the project to provide 1,500 clean cookstoves for Haitian families, the program to conserve thousand of acres of Tanzanian rainforest so on and so forth.

          Thus, may we consciously participate in our own ways to take part in these activities. Let our desire to extend concretely to these worldwide projects to stop climate change grow intensely day by day. Let us be persistent in educating ourselves on climate change's negative effects. Let us unceasingly ask ourselves, " How can we become agents of change to counter the evil effects of global warming and climate change to humankind?" 

THE LORD OF THE RING..............

good vs. evil....light vs. darkness......yin vs. yang.....these are the two contradictions in life.....however for every person there is no safer ground...one has to choose....am i for righteousness or the other way around? ......will you choose good rather than evil?....I believe that everyday we make choices ......and some of these choices lead us either to goodness or badness......

what i think is ought to be so necessary for us all is to endow ourselves a constant time and space to look deep into ourselves what is there deep inside of us......remember everyday is always  a MATTER OF CHOICE ......just like in the movie LORD of the RING the main characters made their choices---to make a difference. Are we ready to do choices which could also lead us into goodness?......kudos......

QUALITY TIME WITH FAMILY

          One of our considered treasures in life is our family. Thus it becomes a very essential part of our everyday living. Apart from our own life, it is the family that stands as one source of strength for all of us. We can learn bountiful things from our interactions inside our family. Certain values we can attribute to our family are  respect, love, affection, truthfulness, certitude, compassion, faith etc.

          On the other hand, it is very essential to ask ourselves: " Do we spend quality time with all the members of our family?", "Are we willing to commit ourselves to spend more time with our loved ones?", "Do we treat all  members of our family equally regardless of their rank, achievements, roles, etc?"

          These are but just some of the questions that we can constantly ask ourselves since being a family man or woman is a day to day commitment. It is such a wonderful feeling when we see all members of our family bonded together by love, affection, trust, acceptance and mutual support.

BE HAPPY INSIDE YOUR FAMILY

          Moreover, each family is a unique entity of any community. Whatever the uniqueness of each family yet there would always be a unified element among all other families. LOVE then becomes the most important component of every family and this love is radiated to all others. Being able to maintain a spontaneous and a positive relationship among all members of the family will result to a healthier environment. Members then will become more gentle, intelligent and likeable person to others.

          Hence I would like to reiterate that spending quality time with our family serves as a positive tool to produce productive members wherein someday, they will also grow as matured members of our society then finally they will also build their own   wonderful families.

FASCINATING FAT FACTS

            The last time I visited my doctor, I was told to lose weight so that I can maintain a healthy lifestyle. He further mentioned that it is typical especially at this age that certain hypertensive related illnesses such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and the like occur. These disorders can be avoided through certain ways and one of them is by practicing a healthy lifestyle. Performing regular exercise, observing balanced food and diet, refraining from smoking, achieving weight loss etc. are methods of  living a healthy lifestyle.

          Reflecting on my doctor's words, I thought of extending to you this research by Rachael Hill, a Weight Loss Resources (WLR) nutritionist on fats.

"Fifteen Fascinating Fat Facts

By Rachael Anne Hill (R.P.H.Nutr)

1. We all need body fat to live. In fact, it is so essential to normal, healthy functioning that an average, size 10, slim female carries approximately 100,000 calories of fat on her body.
   
   That’s equal to 54 packs of butter in total but before you get too depressed, it’s also enough to fuel the energy required to shop for 86 days!
2. Thinking can make you fat! Brand new research, conducted at Laval University in Canada has shown that although thinking hard and concentrating doesn’t require any extra calories, it does stimulate the body to feel hungrier. 
   
   So much so in fact that volunteers of the study that were asked to carry out mentally challenging tasks went on to eat 253 more calories (almost 30% more) in just one meal than those that were told to daydream.
3. Most people gain an average of just 1g of extra body fat a day - but before you reach for that second slice of cake consider this...
   
   1 gram a day equals 365 grams of extra body fat a year. 
   
   A gain of 365g every year after the age of 25 would mean that by the time you hit your 50th birthday you’d have laid down an extra  20 lbs (almost one and a half stones) of excess body fat – or as it’s better known ...middle aged spread!
4. A typical adult has approximately 50 billion fat cells which means there are more fat cells in one human body than there are people on the earth. 
5. First the good news…fat cells generally do not increase in number after puberty so even if you gain weight the number of fat cells you have remains the same.  Now the the bad news...  Each fat cell simply gets bigger and can expand up to ten times its normal size.
6. Fat cells exist in all parts of the body except the eyelids, parts of the esophagus, the brain and the penis. 
7. Female breasts are composed almost entirely of fat which is one reason why, when dieting, they tend to reduce in size long before you lose the wobble elsewhere!
8. Spot reduction, the term used for attempting to reduce fat by exercising the muscle underneath fat deposits (such as doing sit ups to get rid of abdominal fat or thigh raises to get rid of fat stored on the hips) does not work.
   
   If it did, all gum chewers would have skinny faces! 
9. 1 pound of body fat is equal to 3,500 calories.  To burn off 3,500 calories the average woman would need to do 6 step classes, walk briskly for almost 9 hours or run for 33 miles. 
   
   To eat 3,500 calories she’d need to chomp through almost 50 apples or just two and a half Indian takeaways.
10. At 9 calories per gram, fat is the most calorific nutrient we can eat. 
    
    Alcohol contains 7 Kcals per gram.
    
    Protein and carbohydrate contain approximately 4 Kcals per gram.
11. The places you predominantly store fat and the places you lose it from first are largely determined by your gender (women tend to store it around their hips, bottom and thighs, men around their abdomen) and your genes – so choose your parents wisely! 
12. Fat cells live for an average of ten years.  Once a fat cell dies the body makes a brand new one to take its place. 
    
    However, once brain cells die they are gone for good which is why as we age we may lose our memory but love handles can stay for life!
13. Fat cells die at the rate of 150 per second. 
14. An average fat cell can only store half a millionth of a gram of fat therefore it takes 4 million fat cells to store the energy equivalent of a Tic Tac.
15. The ‘Tape Worm Diet’ is one of the craziest diets ever invented to reduce body fat. 
    Under the plan, followers simply swallow tapeworms then allow them to sit inside their intestines and dine off their dinner.
    
    Apart from the bit where you actually eat the worm and the side effects of bloating, nausea, and diarrhea there was a very real danger that the worms could lay eggs in other tissues, such as the nervous system, which could cause seizures, dementia and meningitis."

          Furthermore we need to understand better the significance of fats to our health. Maintaining fats in our body is needed yet it also has to be moderated since there is a strong risk that too much fats can cause hypertension. After all, we need to  consistently bear in mind that HEALTH IS WEALTH.

HOW TO KEEP FIT ALL THE TIME

          Our health is one of our greatest treasures in life. No matter how rich one is in terms of material possession yet if he/she is deprived of the faculties to enjoy them specifically due  to illness hence there is no sense anymore of achieving  great amount of happiness in the midst of this prosperity.

          As one author said, "To keep fit and healthy, follow a healthy and balanced diet everyday. Make sure that your everyday diet includes lots of fruits, vegetables, and protein. You should cut down on red meat, junk foods, caffeine, and sugar intake. Avoid soft drinks or canned fruit juices. Instead, opt for a variety of fresh fruits, vegetable salads, freshly made fruit juices, milk, nutritious energy drinks, etc.

          You need to be more active in order to keep fit and healthy. Modern life has become very sedentary, with fewer scopes for physical activities. You need to exercise in order to burn those calories. Minimum physical activity slows down your metabolism rate. So, you can put on weight even when you eat less. On the other hand, exercise and a more active life will burn up the calories, even when you eat a little more. You can simply go for a brisk walk, or jog, or you can join a gym. The important thing is that you must include some physical exercise in your everyday life, because fitness and health cannot be achieved without some physical exercise".

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=William_Messruther

          Thus it is very clear that one among the many ways to stay fit is by being disciplined in our lifestyle especially with the way we take our food. We need not to be that classy so as to become healthy and fit. What we rather need is an inner will to direct and redirect ourselves to what is best for us. 

          William Messruther above clearly mentioned that we need to keep on moving everyday.....we need to practice a very active life. Avoid any temptation to be idle. Nevertheless, if we know how to be creative in our lifestyle and shun any activity that can only do us more harm then I am quite sure that becoming fit everyday is positively attainable. 

A COMPASSIONATE HEART

          One of my daily habits is to read the daily news and update myself with what's happening around me. Consequently doing this daily routine gives me various feelings such as awe, joy, sadness, compassion etc. My sharing with you today dwells on my attention to all children who are greatly affected by the sad plight of poverty. It is a plight which is beyond their control. I am moved with pity and compassion to reflect on this reality in life. 

            Yes indeed I am understanding the sufferings and limitations of these poor children. I am moved with compassion to hear these displaced children's condition. Being in contact with underprivileged children before when I was still a member of  the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, I understand it clearly that they are deprived of enough resources to attain efficient education. There are those who  are deprived of food and shelter thus they stay in a drop in center. Some of them are living on these city streets which at times tend too risky for them. 

imagecredit: 
A HEART FOR ALL...

         The craving of my heart is to constantly offer compassion to them- bringing them light and hope. I know that there are plenty of people who offer compassion to them like the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. Yet it will continue to be my heart's desire that more people will learn to endow compassion to these underprivileged, poor and deprived children. Extension of heart to them could be in any form and some of these are as follows:

• sponsoring them to school
• offering prayers for them
• guiding them the right direction to life through free counselling
• accompanying and offering them food, school materials, etc
• many more that you could ever think of.

          Hence may you and me unceasingly involve these children to our daily concern and at the same time, we will extend to them our own way of sharing our compassionate hearts to them.

  
                                                         

Body Health

          As we grow older, we tend to be more prone to certain illnesses since our body's immune system is also starting to be more intolerant to them. We will start to realise that we no longer posses the same enthusiasm and vigour comparing to when we were still in our peak years. Thus I want to share with you this short information below on low food diet. I am doing this with the intention that it can generate help to all readers especially those who are strongly monitoring their day to day health. 

       The moment that we read this short knowledge,  may we also continue to research on information which are directly related to our constant monitoring of our body health. Our health is one of the most precious gifts that we can enjoy on this earth. Hence let us all take care of this gift.

What is a Low Fat Diet?

kerisatina: The basic structure of a low fat diet includes keeping fat intake at about 1/3 of the total daily calories one consumes, this means focusing on foods that are or contain whole grains, fruits and vegetables. This type of diet lends to weight loss and maintenance and the treatment of certain diseases. (Source: Ask.com)

ASR Search Engine