What do Boxers and Midwives have in common? Public Health!

This week we have been rolling out more public health in Panama.  First with a youth boxing club and then with the partera of Valle Escondido.


For the boxers, we did a short EMT/Sex Education course.

Captive Audience at the Boxing Training

Practicing the Heimlich

Condom Demonstration

 We covered the following topics with the boxers:

Choking/ Heimlich Maneuver
Wound Care
Burns
Sprains

Sex Education

For the parteras we focused on nutrition.  First, we interviewed them to see what kinds of foods they were eating and how often.  Jenny has been a volunteer for the past few months and she did an excellent job with explaining the best food choices.

One topic that was discussed was the nutritional difference between a potato and a bag of potato chips.  To my surprise, the women were shocked at the discovery that a bag of potato chips would be less healthy than the potato.  They had no idea that there was so much salt and sugar and preservatives.  The women were so excited to learn it was fantastic. 

In addition to our discussion, the parteras demonstrated how and what they cooked.  They made a delicious, traditional soup called "rondon" with plantains, acorn squash, bread fruit, fish and coconut milk.  We also ate the leaves of yuca, a mashed banana and coconut milk, and some hot chocolate.  It was so delicious and I cannot wait to try making variations of these dishes when I get back home to my kitchen in North Carolina.

 Talking about nutrition with the Parteras (photo by Cybill Esguerra)