环球英语—955:Village Health Workers

Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I'm Adam Navis. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
The village of Jawalke, India is like many other poor villages in India. Houses have dirt floors. Animals walk around outside. Clothes dry on a line. Small fires cook bread. But Jawalke does have something different than many other poor villages.
Voice 2
Sarubai Salve and Babai Sathe are two female health workers. They walk through the streets every day visiting people. They are responsible for keeping the people of the village healthy. They help women before, during, and after pregnancy. They measure blood pressure. They visit old people and people recovering from diseases. They are village health workers and this is their story.
Voice 1
But today's Spotlight is on more than just these two women. Today's Spotlight is on how village health workers like Salve and Sathe are changing life for the people in hundreds of villages in India. And while they do this, they are changing their own lives as well.
Voice 2
It is difficult to keep a doctor working in a poor country. Often, doctors leave for richer countries. There are many reasons that this happens. Most doctors from poor countries became doctors for the same reason that anyone becomes a doctor: to make a good living. Doctors can earn more money in more wealthy countries. There are programs that encourage doctors to work in poor countries. And some doctors do work in poor countries because they have a caring heart. But adding doctors to a poor country may not be the solution to a country's health problems.
Voice 1
The country of Malawi is a good example. It has three doctors for every one hundred fifty thousand [150,000] people. Even if it could have two times as many doctors in the country, there would still not be enough. Also, doctors often stay in larger cities where there are hospitals and more resources. In places like Malawi and India, village health workers offer a real chance at improving the health of poor people outside the large cities.
Voice 2
In 1970, doctor Raj Arole and his wife began a program called, "Jamkhed." It is named after the village where the program began. The goal of this program is to encourage health among the very poor. They found an old animal hospital and they made it into a hospital for people. This served as their base for their work. Tina Rosenberg, a writer for National Geographic Magazine, writes,
Voice 3
"Arole knew that treatment could do very little for the poor. They needed to encourage the prevention of sickness in the villages. So they decided to work with the villagers themselves. Arole says that a village health worker can take care of eighty [80] percent of the village's health problems. This is because most problems are related to food and to the environment. Child death rate is three things: severe lack of food, diarrhoea, and breathing diseases. For all three, you do not need doctors. "Rural problems are simple," Arole says. "Safe drinking water, education, and getting rid of poverty will do more to aid health than medical tests and drugs."
Voice 1
Jamkhed is the program that trained the women health workers Salve and Sathe. When they first became health workers they were extremely poor. They were members of India's ‘Untouchable' group. They could not touch things that would touch people from higher groups. They could not wear shoes or pump their own water.
Voice 2
Neither woman had much education. Sathe was married at age ten. Salve was married at two years old! Neither felt they had much to offer. But Arole knew that this kind of woman was the key to encouraging health. He says,
Voice 4
"An educated woman probably comes from a higher group. She may not want to work for the poorest of the poor."
Voice 1
Arole believed that it was important that health workers could relate to poor people. They needed to know how people lived. They needed to be willing to work in difficult conditions. They needed to not care about praise and honour. This is why he started the Jamkhed project. The biggest problem was getting the women to believe in themselves.
Voice 2
When women begin the Jamkhed program, they would not look people in the eye when they talked. They did not feel they were intelligent. If someone asked, "Who is more intelligent - a woman or a rat?" They would answer, "A rat." The women slowly began to believe in themselves. But it was a process. Even once the women are health workers they continue to gather together. They discuss problems in their villages. They encourage one another in their work. They continue to learn more about different medical conditions.
Voice 1
The positive effects of having health workers like Sathe and Salve have come slowly. But it has made a big change. Salve has been working in Jawalke since 1984. She says that she has helped five hundred and fifty [550] mothers give birth. Not once has a mother or baby died in birth in her care.
Voice 2
Today there are health workers in three hundred [300] villages. In these villages, many of the traditional problems are almost gone. These include childhood diarrhoea, babies dying before birth, malaria, skin diseases, and tuberculosis. Almost half of children in India do not get enough to eat. But in villages with health workers, there are not even enough hungry children to count.
Voice 1
The Jamkhed program addresses total health. So the villages have improved their environment as well as their bodies. In places where there were no trees, trees have been planted. People are growing different fruits and vegetables. Each village now has clean water.
Voice 2
One of the greatest changes happens to the women who have become village health workers. Here again is what Sathe said to writer Tina Rosenberg:
Voice 5
"When I started as a health worker, I had no support from anyone. I had no education and no money. I was like a stone with no life. When I came to the program, they gave me shape and a life. I learned courage and boldness. I became a human being."
Voice 1
The writer and producer of this program was Adam Navis. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. Computer users can hear our programs, read our scripts, and see our word list on our website at www.Radio.English.net. This program is called "Village Health Workers."
Voice 2
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