First 5

Let's take a small quiz.

What are the first 5 things you do when you wake up in the morning?

1.
2.
3
4.
5.

I wager that at least 3 out of those 5 activities require adequate sanitation and potable water.  What do you do when do you do not have access to either of these?

If you live in my village you grab your machete, take a walk out in the the jungle, and take care of business.  Since you have to bathe, brush your teeth, and get water from the river, you may defecate in the river.  It's hard to imagine, but the same way we don't think twice about turning on the tap or flushing the toilet, people in Alto Playón are accustomed to using the river for all of their water and sanitation needs.

Make Special Drink

I recently read a book called 'Made To Stick' which is based on the notion that ideas can be communicated more effectively if they follow a certain structure.  Structure in creativity?  The authors studied thousands of advertisements and campaigns to find that the most successful ones had similar underlying components them:

Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories

I'll leave you to read the book to fully develop the ideas.  I followed this framework in 2 health talks that I give in my village.  Health promotion is essentially engaging in behavior change.  How do you change behavior?  Convince people of your ideas.

I took advantage of a Panamanian Ministry of Health (MINSA) health visits that come into my town to give a talk about how to make Special Drink, or suero.  Having them present with me made what I had to say more credible because it came from Panamanian authority.  This drink is meant to be given to babies who run the risk of dehydration when they are are suffering from diarrhea and vomiting.

I kept the talk straight to the point and very simple by talking only about how to make and administer the drink.  It is made very easily by mixing 8 spoons of sugar, 1/2 spoon of salt, in 1 liter of purified water.  Parents should give this to children by the spoonful until they see signs of improvement in the condition.  It is not a substitute for going to the hospital, but can save a child's life when they are severly ill and one cannot reach the hospital.  There is no conventional transport to or from Alto Playón between 6PM to 6AM.

We presented the talk on a sheet of paper full of pictures on how to make the drink.  Then, I unexpectedly made the mix in front of them, pouring 8 spoons of sugar and 1/2 a spoon of salt into a bottle of water.   A cup of the drink was passed around to the room full of women for them to try, a concrete sample of what they should make.  Finally employed their emotions by elaborating a very common story:  it is 9PM, your child is crying uncontrollably, has diarreah or vomiting, and it is pouring rain outside.  What do you do?  MAKE SPECIAL DRINK.

For the next couple weeks I would ask the women: "How many spoons of sugar & salt?" and they were able to repeat the recipe.  One women told me that the recipe helped when her child had diarrhea, and that makes it all worth it.  We did the talk again 3 months later and the women were able to repeat the recipe and were even more responsive to the talk.