Completed Site - Ma'anqiao Village
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Profile |
Details |
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Geographic location |
Ma'anqiao Village, Xinan Township, Huili County, Sichuan Province |
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Ethnic minority / Proportion of a specific minority among the local population |
Dai / 85% and Yi |
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Common natural disasters |
Earthquake, flooding |
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Number of subgroups in village |
7 |
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Number of households in village |
255 |
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Total population in village |
1,258 |
Specific Public Health Issues – Environmental Health Issues Related to Behavior
- 61% of the households allowed farm animals to enter their homes, leading to potential health problems.
- Although 90% of the households had designated facilities to dispose human excretion, 45% were surrounded by animal or human waste.
- 59% of the households had trash around their houses and 66% claimed no place to put regular waste.
- 73% of the households cooked indoor.
- 91% of the households used biomass as fuel.
- 60% of the households had smokers.
- 29% of the smokers always smoked indoor.
- 77% of the households had mosquitoes flying around their houses.
Disaster Profile
The 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Panzhihua has added burden to this deprived village since 30 August 2008. Ma'anqiao village is one of the most seriously hit locations. However, with minimal media attention and external support, the village has been isolated with very limited care and support from the outside world.
With reconstruction work underway, an academic-architectural community initiative based in Hong Kong called the Wu Zhi Qiao Charitable Foundation (WZQ) aims to support sustainable development of the village. With WZQ as a partner, a project was proposed to build a “Healthy Village” under the World Health Organization (WHO) healthy communities planning framework.
Photo Gallery
In the Field
Health Needs Assessment
A health needs assessment was carried out in March 2009 and findings indicated the ethnic minority population in the area had poor health outcomes and knowledge of general health awareness and behavior practices when compared with the average of the province. A proposed project titled “Healthy Village: Ma'anqiao Village Project” was set up. This project had two main components: “Physical Environment” and “Behavior, Practice and Health Knowledge”.
Health Intervention
In total, 8 staff members and students from CUHK joined the trip, which benefited 110 participants.
Health intervention topics:
Disaster preparedness (earthquake)
Proper hand-washing skills and personal hygiene
Discouraging indoor smoking
Health Evaluation
In total, 27 staff members and students from CUHK were involved in the trip, which benefited 125 villagers. 171 evaluation forms were collected to evaluate the 3-year program.
Health intervention topics:
Disaster preparedness (flooding)
Awareness of non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
Waste management
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