Health

Illnesses such as malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia and other respiratory infections, and HIV & AIDS, disrupt lives and are leading causes of death in Papua. In an effort to provide critical health information in ways that are easy to understand, YMP3 prepares basic health lessons suitable to teach emerging readers.

The health lessons are in the form of stories with pictures.  Literacy tutors can use the story books to teach about health issues while giving learners the opportunity to increase their reading skills.  Besides these learners, the illiterate and the general population, especially in village areas, are interested in learning about health issues that concern them. To help teach groups of people, pictures from the books can be enlarged and mounted on heavy paper so they can be shown to the group, and be used along with other teaching methods such as discussion, drama, and games.

Health topics include various diseases, how disease spreads, fever, diarrhea, dehydration, wounds, tropical ulcers, the effects of smoking, the importance of taking medications as prescribed, and good nutrition.  HIV & AIDS is a particularly crucial topic, as Papua is now considered to have epidemic levels of HIV and AIDS among the general population, a much higher incidence than the rest of Indonesia.

YMP3 trains literacy tutors and others how to use the health books and teaching aids to teach in the Indonesian language and/or the mother tongue.