Our goal is to cut the incidence of illness and accidents among children in SCC's educational programmes and to instil in them hygienic habits and a healthy way of living. As an educational organisation SCC is concerned with the prevention of illness rather than treating it.

THE PROBLEM

The poor and underfed are more susceptible to illness. Therefore we aim to prevent the illness in the first place. The incidence of transmissible disease can be cut by simple remedies such as washing hands before eating and after visiting the toilet. Obvious as this may seem this is almost unheard of in many rural areas where we work. Up to 50% of children in some rural communities may be infested with intestinal worms.

OUR PROGRAMME

We concentrate on three topics:

• Personal hygiene
• Tooth cleaning
• Avoidance of accidents (one of the major causes of death in Vietnam)

We work in primary schools, mainly in the mangrove swamps of Can Gio with a total of 4,000 pupils. We train teachers in participatory methods designed to drive home the link between habits and health and to bring about lasting changes in the children's habits.

We monitor changes in the children's behaviour by, for example, conducting regular plaque tests to see how effectively they clean their teeth. Routine tests for the incidence of intestinal worms show improvements in personal hygiene. Changing understanding, behaviour and habits is a slow process with few easily visible results. In the long run, however, we believe this is the most effective way to bring about lasting results.