Project: “the great awakening”
Aware people about the health issues and social taboos ;enable them to address such problems and take best action regarding that.
In Pakistan, people are unaware of their rights, needs and they aren’t even aware of their health issues. due to lack of awareness, social taboos and stereotype behavior emerge. Having a healthy environment and good health are the basic needs of people. Unfortunately people are unable to realize the importance and need of health. Health issues are getting advanced with the passage of time. Many people live with minor unordinary symptoms for a long period until something serious happens to them and then are diagnosed with chronic diseases.
Millions of women in Pakistan face maternity problems due to their negligence toward their self-care. Poverty rate is also influenced by health issues. Many poor families get infected by contagious diseases due to poor hygienic conditions. In Pakistan, the prevalence rate of hepatitis is 4.8% (second largest burden of hepatitis). Similarly, many other illnesses affect a majority of the population and remain undiagnosed due to less awareness regarding health issues. The COVID situation exists due to lack of responsibility of common people. not alone the healthcare system and Govt. can’t bring change in society; it’s the people who can bring change.
According to statistics, about 50 million people in Pakistan are suffering from mental health issues. These mental health problems cause greater damage to families, societies and even generations. In a nutshell, the prevalence of health illnesses and their prevention can be done by giving health literacy to people. In this way, mortality rate and health expenses can also be reduced.
Awareness about reasons behind the problem may also make people self dependent and in return they’ll uplift the society toward betterment by breaking stereotypes and social taboos.
Health literacy
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health literacy comprehends the ability to access healthcare, communicate and understand issues arising in health-related encounters. This includes having skills that enable patients to improve disease management, focus on health promotion and, most importantly, provide a sense of empowerment and enablement to healthcare recipients.
Why It’s important?
According to the Statistics 0f Pakistan Bureau , 1/3rd 0f the population has primary level education and 0nly 20% attain middle school education with women lagging behind men. 7 A 2012 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 0rganization (UNESCO) report on education ranked Pakistan 113 out of 120 in the Education development index, highlighting the state of education in our country.
Solution of the problem:
making people understand the cons of their ignorant behavior and enabling them to understand their problems and needs. fore mostly enabling them to resolve such problems and improve healthcare.
Interviewed:
In order to understand the need for awareness, I interviewed my maid. when I asked her about health issues and what she thinks caused them. she said, i suffer from many problems. I work the whole day and when I go home; i face family drama. i often think a lot about my problems. Whenever I get sick, at first I don’t pay attention. When it gets worse I’ve to go to the doctor. i spend money but i don’t get recovered then, i stop using medicines.
I personally think the problem lies in her being unaware. She takes her health for granted. She waits to seek help until condition gets worse.
This whole experience was insightful and made me realize how important health literacy is. For the first time I thought practically about an issue. I’m still unsure how to implement the idea but I’ve high hopes that I can play an active role in mitigating the problem. And together with the collaboration of people we can bring change.
In Pakistan, many problems, drug abuse and misuse also occur due to illiteracy. which further arise many issues. There’s a need to address this problem and resolve it timely unless our future generation gets affected due to the same issues and our society remains unchanged.
