WED-021 - Blended Learning Empowers Low Literate Learners to Be Community Health Leaders

Poster Presenter: Susan L. Stasi, DSCTE – CEO, ROSE ACADEMIES INC Poster Presenter: Selina Stasi, DrPH, MPH – Instructional Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University School of Public Health

Brief Abstract Summary: Find out how 61 poorly educated, impoverished village women in the remote area of Buikwe, Uganda have become community health leaders thanks to the program being offered by Rose Academies!
Learn how the CTE model of blending academic knowledge with the use of research backed application programs combined with hands-on learning is improving poor health literacy and healthcare knowledge of the rural poor.
Discover how the use of simple Android application programs that use visual/digital arts and culturally appropriate graphics was implemented in this study to teach lessons on maternal/infant/child health and care, nutrition, disease prevention, menstrual hygiene management, sanitation, vegetable gardening, and economic enterprise. Taught by natives that speak the local dialect, this case study was a total success as over 370 families’ lives were changed.

Detailed abstract description: Sixty-one Impoverished village women in the remote area of Buikwe, Uganda have become village leaders thanks to the program being offered by Rose Academies!
Poorly educated if at all, these women are examples that show how learning can occur when being taught with a blended learning approach. The idea is the brainstorm of CEO, Susan Stasi, who has a teaching credential in Career Technical Education specialized in digital arts and culinary. She has taken the CTE model of blending academic knowledge hosted on Android tablets with hands-on learning and created a teaching model that is helping disadvantaged, low literate learners improve comprehension of difficult concepts of health. The idea of using an application program to teach about sexual development was created and developed with our working partners at Santa Clara University Schools of Public Health and Engineering. This app and subsequent apps feature culturally appropriate graphics, simple text and run offline internet. Research backed and evidence based, these application programs are a teacher’s tool that are making healthcare knowledge accessible for the most disadvantaged, low literate learner.
This case study was conducted in impoverished villages in Buikwe, Uganda near Lake Victoria where there are high rates of school dropouts, unemployment, cases of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, prostitution and unhealthy lifestyles. Our objective was not only to inspire a select group of rural poor mothers to be community health leaders, but to improve their knowledge of good healthcare practices so they can make better, healthier choices for themselves and their families.
Utilizing the Care Group Approach adopted by the Ministry of Health (MOH) Uganda, Uganda Nutrition Action Plan II (2021-2025) Healthy for Life study was conducted in 2023 in 2 phases of 4 months each. In total, 61 village mothers were selected and recruited that fit the criteria of age (18-35) and of low education levels.Team Leaders were recruited and trained to teach the women lessons about maternal/infant/child health and care, nutrition, disease prevention, menstrual hygiene management, sanitation, vegetable gardening and economic enterprise.
Once the women completed learning the lessons they were tasked to reach out to at least 6 households. Despite some challenges in teaching others in their community, the women were successful in reaching 370 families and indirectly reaching over 1,300 people.
A final assessment of the program showed that the women not only improved their knowledge about family health, but gave them recognition as a leader in their community for which no price tag can be attached.