INCREASING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN COLLECTIVE CLEAN AND HEALTHY LIVING PRACTICES THROUGH A COMMUNITY HEALTH CULTURE APPROACH IN OECUSSE VILLAGE, TIMOR LESTE

Abstract

Clean and healthy living behavior is directly related to efforts to improve the level of public health. Therefore, it must be applied starting from households, educational institutions, workplaces, public places, to health facilities. The activity was carried out with the aim of increasing community participation in collective clean and healthy living practices through a community health culture approach in Oecusse Village, Timor Leste in September 2023. Implementation used the "individual and group counseling" method. Where, all communities are given counseling with the aim that they can individually and in groups understand, change their daily culture regarding personal and environmental hygiene and determine attitudes and actions regarding the source of their own and collective environmental health problems. The evaluation process was carried out before and after the activity to measure the abilities and changes in attitudes of 35 families with 85 participants regarding the counseling material. The pre-test results found that the majority (89.8%) of the counseling participants did not understand the importance of establishing a culture of clean and healthy living both individually and collectively in supporting efforts to improve the level of public health. However, after confirmation from the results of the outreach, it was discovered that 100% of religious leaders could understand the culture of clean and healthy living. This starts from indicators of ability to answer and choose the type of PHBS tool that must be used and knowing how to use it in the simulation stage.