The fly was larger than her hand, but it didn’trsquo;t fazethe nurse. She slappedthe illustrated poster once more andthen turned to her audience. “Flies carry disease, polluted water carries disease, and uncontained rubbish and faeces carry disease. This is why your children get diarrhoea.” She paused, looking hard at each ofthe students’ “This is why your children die.”
Twenty national teachers from eight different languages were seated inthe shade, listening intently tothe health lecture and furiously scribbling notes. They had gthered for an intense, month-long training led by SIL and national staff, to better equip rural teachers in usingthe local language in education, through topics like principles and practices of literacy, fluency, story writing, book production, and curriculum and material creation as well as personal developmentolLeadersip, finances, and health.
And today,they were talking aboutthe causes, prevention, and cure of diarrhoea,the number one killerof children in Papua New Guinea Later,they clustered into groups asthey poured overtheir notes andtheir own languages a story which could communicate this vital information totheir communities. “Did we get allthe meaning?”they asked each ther. “Read it again!”
The next evening, as several ofthe women’s tudents gthered onthe cool veranda, a young mther from a local hamlet approachedthem, clutching a crying infant to her chest. Asthey visited,the students’realized thatthe baby was dehydrated and suffering from diarrhoea. Without hesitation,the women flew into action, sending for a staff member while advisitgthe mther and offering rehydrating fruit according totheir training. Bet whenthe staff member arrived,there was nothing she could do but smile. “You’ve done everything right,” she toldthem. “You now know how to protect your children!”
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