Health Promotion Programme: Zuolong Township, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province

CCOUC led a group of seven public health undergraduate and postgraduate students to conduct a health promotion programme in Zuolong Township, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province from 10 to 13 August 2018. Through dramas, this trip aims to enhance the public health knowledge amongst the 40 left-behind children who are living in the local left-behind children centre. The health promotion topics were identified based on the health needs assessment trip led by CCOUC in March 2018. These included dental health, healthy eating, handwashing practice, prevention of smoking and disaster preparedness, which have become the health concerns of the community as told by local stakeholders. After the intervention, the team distributed disaster preparedness kits to the students, through which the students will bring the disaster preparedness message home and raise the awareness amongst the family members as well as the community.

As highlighted by the participants, they gained insights into the health status of left-behind children and learnt more about the setting of a rural left-behind children centre. The trip also provided opportunities for the team to acquire experience in applying health behaviour theories into real practices. Since the team visited Zuolong Township and health needs assessment was completed a few months ago, the team had got an in-depth understanding of the local setting, which contributed to the success of the health intervention. This reinforces the importance of in-depth assessment and the comprehension of local context prior the intervention.