HYGIENE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN AND ADULTS IN GALICIA (END OF THE 19th – 30s OF THE 20th CENTURY) IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PRESENT

Abstract

The article analyzes the leading trends in hygiene education for children and adults in Galicia from the end of the 19th to the 1930s. It identifies the potential use of this historical experience in contemporary conditions in Ukraine. Emphasizing that the driving force behind hygiene education during the studied period included medical and social activists, educators, students, conscious peasants, women's movement activists, united in the Ukrainian Hygienic Society, «Narodna Lichnytsia» («People's Hospital»), Ukrainian Medical Society, «MedychnaHromada» («Medical Community»), «Vidrodzhennia» («Revival»), Ukrainian Pedagogical Society «Ridna Shkola» («Native School»), «Prosvita», «Akademichna Hromada» («Academic Community»), Petro Mohyla Society, «Silskyi Hospodar» («Farmer»), «Soiuzukrainok» (Union of Ukrainian Women), and other Ukrainian civic institutions. They directed their efforts towards combating infectious diseases, developing advisory activities, preventing the spread of infections, providing hygiene education for Ukrainians, maternal medical care, fighting infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, and more. The conclusion is drawn that effective forms, original mechanisms, and means of mass hygiene education for children and adults were created during the researched period, significantly influencing public health. Similar initiatives were undertaken by Polish civic societies (sometimes Polish and Ukrainian societies collaborated in the fight against tuberculosis). In the context of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus and wartime conditions, the analysis of this pedagogical retro-experience is projected onto the development of a scientific concept of hygiene education. This involves substantiating theoretical approaches to studying this issue, creating a comprehensive state program aimed at preventing infectious diseases, restoring the gene pool of Ukrainians, formulating clear recommendations for adhering to hygiene norms and conditions, conducting educational preventive measures in educational institutions for children and parents, among the adult population, and providing information on the prevention and characteristics of the spread of infectious diseases in wartime conditions, and more.