Youth Exploring and Achieving in Health—YEAH!—is a new Kavango, Namibia region-wide network of health clubs created by United States Peace Corps Volunteers. These health clubs create innovative and safe platforms that encourage learner participation and community involvement in discussing health issues impacting local communities. Our goal is to establish a sustainable program in creating health
clubs within schools. We are initially targeting schools within the Kavango and Caprivi Region that specifically have Peace Corp Volunteers involved in the school system for the implementation of this program. Peace Corps Volunteers will pick two learners from their school to bring to a week long "health camp" to learn the topics, create a “health club” network, and share the information back at their schools by creating a health club. Those two learners will assist the Peace Corps Volunteer and other teachers within the school in facilitating the health club. We will collectively create a general curriculum of all health topics that each health club will follow throughout the course of the year. Each month will bring awareness to a specific health problem within the communities. To engage and provide incentives for the learners and facilitators, we have created a point-system scale which will award the top health clubs each month. The point system is based on volunteer participation and community involvement. Possible activities include but are not limited to: Poster making, Slogan writing, Essay contests, School debates, Health days, Clean-up campaigns, Garden tutorials, Hand-washing stations, Skits/dramas, Story writing, Radio announcements, Brochures, Songs , Dances, Newspaper articles, Quizzes, Guest speakers, Movie showings, Field trips, Picture codes/flannel grams, Mural Paintings on local businesses, and Community & school presentations/demonstrations. Each activity will be awarded specific points. For example, weekly club meetings will be worth 5 points, a mural painting on a shebeen is worth 25 points, watching a movie on that month’s health topic is worth 10 points, community skit/presentation is worth 10 points, etc. At the end of every month, each club will tally their points and the winner(s) will be given a prize for their entire health group. The more activities the health school participates in, the more points they will earn. Prizes are donated by local and regional businesses.
