Village Service Research Articles

Health, hygiene and maternal education: Evidence from The Gambia

The paper explores the ways in which women's education influences domestic hygiene practices and use of health care services in a traditional agricultural village in The Gambia. The “environment of health” is one of poverty, high morbidity and low levels of female literacy. A detailed household survey was undertaken in the rainy season when agricultural work is demanding of people's time and energy and morbidity rates are high. Mothers with and without formal education and with at least one child under 5 were included in the study. Small differences were found between the educated and uneducated group in the knowledge and practice of household hygiene. The healthcare services in the village were utilised by all women regardless of whether or not they had been to school, but educated mothers appeared to have a better understanding of health education messages. The case study illustrates the synergy between health, hygiene and maternal education and discusses the implications of the findings.

Teaching safety: evaluation of a children's village in Maryland.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Children's Village, a life safety education facility for children. The study took place in Washington County, Maryland, a rural county. Eight elementary schools with 20 second grade classrooms (410 students aged 7 and 8) were selected to participate. Using a quasiexperimental design, tests were administered to two cohorts of children before (pretest) and after (post-test) they attended the Children's Village during 1993-4. Parent and teacher surveys were also completed after the program. Among children who attended in December 1993-January 1994, there was a significant improvement in average test scores between the pretest (58% correct) and post-test (78%). Among children who attended in April 1994, there also was a significant improvement in test scores between pretest (74%) and post-test (85%). Among parents, 70% reported that their child learned a great deal at Children's Village and 33% reported having made changes in their home as a result. The parent survey also revealed that 25% of children and 35% of adults did not always wear their seat belts, and 74% of children did not always wear bicycle helmets. Teachers' responses to the program were generally positive. Children's Village brought together an extensive network of community leaders, parents, and teachers dedicated to safety education of children. The curriculum had a positive impact on children's knowledge and, to a lesser extent, on parents' safety practices. Program impact could be enhanced by more emphasis on automobile restraints and helmets (behaviors that parents reported were not consistently practiced) and by expanding the village services to parents as well as children. Others considering creating similar programs need to identify community leaders willing to commit the time, effort, and resources required to develop and sustain such programs.

Review of Mental Health Services in the Global Village.

Review of Mental Health Services in the Global Village.

A Difficult Turning Point: A Review of Educational Reform in China's Rural Areas

A wave of reform has swept across China's rural areas. As the peasants who were bound up for so long have been liberated, they have not only produced good harvests in the lands they have farmed for generations, but they have been successful in other nontraditional areas. They have gained prosperity through farming, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, handicrafts, and so forth. With the establishment of numerous village enterprises and service industries, hundreds of millions of peasants have made hundreds of millions of yuan in a short time. However, despite the peasants' desire to press onward, they have discovered great difficulties in making further progress.

Factors affecting dystocia and birth weight in Grati cattle in Pujon, East Java.

This paper discusses factors affecting dystocia and birth weight in Grati cattle in three villages in the Pujon district, East Java. Records of birth weight, dystocia score, village, season, parity, sex, artificial versus natural service, and age and weight of dam, were obtained from 268 parturitions. Village and weight of the dam had a significant effect on birth weight but not on dystocia. Parity had a significant effect on dystocia score. More abnormal births occurred with AI using exotic bulls. Calves from an abnormal birth were on average more than three kg heavier. First parity births combined with Al with exotic bulls had a particularly high incidence of dystocia. It is concluded that farmers in Pujon can reduce the incidence of dystocia in heifers by using local bulls only.

Potable Water for All: The Egyptian Experience with Rural Water Supply

ABSTRACT Egypt during 1952–1960 achieved a more rapid and proportionately larger improvement in potable water supply for its rural population than any other developing country. The way in which this was done laid the groundwork for later difficulties in maintenance and extension of services. Similar problems arose in the Fayoum project in 1953–1964. A program for basic village services initiated in 1979 applied some of the lessons learned in the earlierprogram, but raised new environmental issues. The early change in water service was not followed by striking reductions in prevalence of childhood disease.

Nutrition and health in the first year of life on a Pacific atoll. Observations on Abemama Atoll, Central Pacific

The growth of 50 children on a coral atoll has been studied during their first year of life. Initially the population median weight rose above the international norm, but later declined, resulting in a median weight at 12 months below this norm. Data on age of introduction of foods, diarrhoeal illness and general morbidity indicated an association between growth faltering and episodes of fever between four and 12 months but no association with diarrhoea. No statistically significant relationships were found between the age of introducing solid food and the age of first diarrhoea, or between the ages of introduction of protein or energy foods and growth faltering. The effects of fever on growth are probably mediated by temporary appetite suppression in the context of marginal nutrition accentuated by the difficulties of weaning. Records of village or home treated illnesses highlight the discrepancies between village and health service based records.

Iron Deficiency Anemia In a Pueblo Indian Village

To the Editor:— Routine outpatient services in a typical Pueblo Indian village in New Mexico suggested a high incidence of anemia in infants and young children. A study to determine the incidence and severity was performed during the period from May through July, 1966. Background:— The Acoma Indian Reservation occupying 94 square miles and lying 65 miles southwest of Albuquerque, NM, has a total population of 2,512. 1 Living conditions are somewhat primitive. The homes are constructed from rock and adobe in the typical Pueblo Indian fashion. Electricity and plumbing are lacking in most areas of the reservation. However, two villages have electricity and plumbing facilities were installed in one village in 1966. The average working income per capita is $950 and 58% of the families have an annual income less than $3,000.1 The illegitimacy rate was 33% in 1965. The economy of the Acoma tribe is supported by sheep

Nutrition and infection field study in Guatemalan villages, 1959-1964. VII. Physical growth and development of preschool children.

This paper evaluated and compared the growth and maturation of preschool children in 3 study villages in Guatemala. Specifically this study sought to determine the extent to which the observed growth responses could be attributed to the nutrition program in the feeding village or to the program of environmental sanitation and health services in the treatment village. Sequential measurements of height weight skinfold over triceps and head circumference were made for all preschool children but those of height and weight were the ones concentrated on for the 5 years of the study. Head circumference although equal at the start of the study increased for the boys faster than for the girls in the 3 villages. Preschool children of both sexes in the feeding village had greater head circumferences than their counterparts in the treatment or control villages. However in all 3 cases these measurements were significantly smaller than for comparable groups in the US. Increase in skinfold measurements with age was similar for boys and girls in all 3 villages. For gain in height with age the general patterns in the 3 villages were similar although children in the feeding village tended to grow faster in height than those in the other 2 villages. Rates of gain in weight with age followed a similar pattern. Average age-specific gains in height and weight were less among children in the treatment and control villages than in the feeding village. The maximum growth potential was generally greater for boys than girls although differences were not significant. Estimates for maximum growth potential for both sexes do not differ among the villages. For weight gain in children under age 1 there were no significant differences between the sexes among the 3 villages in maximum growth potential or growth acceleration. Boys and girls (ages 1-4) in the feeding village have significantly higher rates of gain in height and weight. No significant relationship was found between days of illness and height or weight gain. Clearly children in the feeding village displayed superior nutritional status as seen from growth curves and data on bone maturation and head circumference. However they were still significantly retarded when compared to well-nourished children. Actually the nutritional status of children even in the feeding village was far from optimal due to the irregular consumption of the food supplement. Their better growth performance may have been due to the nutrition education program rather than the supplementary feeding. The 1st hypothesis that the nutrition in the feeding village would improve nutritional status was supported by moderate gains in height weight bone age skinfold thickness and head circumference. The 2nd hypothesis was not supported; that the introduction of environmental sanitation disease prevention and medical care would reduce frequency and severity of disease to allow for an improvement in nutritional status.

Village and Rural School Health Service in Oakland County, Michigan

Village and Rural School Health Service in Oakland County, Michigan

Church Music: A Plea for a Simple Service in Village, Town, and Cathedral

Church Music: A Plea for a Simple Service in Village, Town, and Cathedral

Art. III.—Notes on the Early History of Northern India. Part II

In a paper printed in the Journal of this Society in July, 1888, I adduced reasons for believing that there existed adequate evidence to prove the truth of the following statements with regard to the early history of Northern India, (1) That Northern India was peopled by Kolarian and Dravidian tribes long before the Aryans came into the country. (2) Of the two races who preceded the Aryans, the Kolarians were the first immigrants. (3) The Dravidians, when they assumed the government of countries originally peopled by Kolarian tribes, retained the village communities established by their predecessors, but reformed the village system. They made each separate village, and each province formed by a union of villages, more dependent on the central authority than they were under the Kolarian form of government. (4) Under the Dravidian rule, all public offices, beginning with the headships of villages, were filled by nominees appointed by the State instead of being elective as among the Kolarians. (5) The Dravidians set apart lands appropriated to the public service in every village, required the tenants to cultivate these public lands, and store their produce in the royal and provincial granaries; this being the form in which the earliest taxes were paid. (6) They also in the Dravidian villages made every man and woman bear his or her share in contributing to the efficiency of the government, but this process was not followed out in the same completeness in Kolarian villages, where the people were not so ready as the Dravidian races to submit to the same strict discipline, to which the Dravidians had been accustomed long before they entered India.