"Empowering low resource communities through education, infrastructure, and research."
PUBLIC HEALTH
Refresh Bolivia embarks on a variety of projects to holistically improve the health of the communities we work with.
Current Projects
WORKSHOPS
Over 100 given
Promoting healthy practices through educational workshops
PROBLEM
Reports have placed Bolivia below other countries in its region based on indications of general health. Currently, several barriers to access to biomedical care exist in indigenous communities, including limited access and educational limitations. These barriers have amounted to knowledge gaps in topics that adversely affect general health within the community.
DESIGN
To fill these knowledge gaps, our teams have researched and developed a wide variety of informational workshops on topics such as the best sanitation practices, water treatment practices, sexual health education, domestic violence, basic first aid, basic nutrition, infant care, and family planning. To assess impact, we carefully design the workshops in multiple phases. The phases are broken down as follows: initial data collection, workshop intervention, and final data collection and assessment.
SOLUTION
Each workshop is designed with the audience in mind to ensure effectiveness. Community feedback and additional collaborations are used to continuously improve workshops in order to ensure that the workshops are effectively addressing the community in La Zona Sur. Our workshops have reached over 400 people. We hope that these workshops will both promote health seeking behavior as well as address the health gap in Bolivia.
ORAL HYGIENE
1000 Impacted
Promoting better oral hygiene.
PROBLEM
Dental hygiene has been a huge challenge in rural and peri-urban Cochabamba.
Promoting better oral hygiene.
DESIGN
In conjunction with San Lucas, we are dedicated to motivating and teaching students and their families how to prevent dental decay. Through a partnership with San Lucas we distributed toothbrushes, toothpaste, and brochures to 580 children in 9 different school districts in the Amazonian Chapare District of Bolivia as well as in peri-urban areas of Cochabamba, Bolivia.
SOLUTION
Intervention will be paired with oral hygiene education for students, parents and educators. This will ensure that the intervention is well valued and utilized. 190 mothers and women leaders in related regions will also receive both this intervention and education to increase their oral hygiene.
DEPARASITZATION CAMPAIGN
1,500 Impacted
Diminishing the transmission of parasitic diseases through de-worming Campaigns.
PROBLEM
In Bolivia exists a parasitic endemic. These helminths include hookworms, roundworms, and whipworms that are soil-transmitted. Due to poor sanitary practices, transmission is expedited in several communities. The parasites can elicit Neglected Tropical Diseases, or chronic infections, that inhibit those affected from carrying out every day activities like going to school or working.
DESIGN
Through a partnership with San Lucas Foundation we plan to launch two de-worming campaigns. As part of the campaign, we will provide workshops to educate the communities about preventing parasitic diseases by cultivating healthy hygiene habits. Alongside this education, we will provide antiparasitics to Bolivian communities.
SOLUTION
The campaigns will be run by distributing antiparasitics to 580 children in 9 different school districts throughout the Amazonian Chapare and high Sierra Cochabamba, Bolivia regions. These campaigns will be run six months apart to ensure for the sustainability and efficacy of the intervention.