Story: Shena Moore and Amal Ahmed | Photo: Shena Moore
This autumn, Pye Bank School hosted a 10 week health course for women.
The idea for this course arose from questions asked by students in an ESOL class, mothers of children at the school. They wanted to feel confident talking to doctors about private and personal problems but didn’t have the words to speak.
We developed the course to explain some of the common health problems experienced by many, and asked a doctor and several health professionals to come to speak and answer questions raised by the women.
We had sessions about how the body works, the NHS system and services, visiting a doctor, diet and healthy life-styles, thalassaemia and sickle cell disease, diabetes, cancers, mental health, women’s health issues and basic first aid. One student wrote:
“I had many courses in my area but I have never been to a course like this. This course is very important for me and the other women who are attending because sometimes we find it very difficult to explain to the doctors our health problems and that costs a lot for us and our children. Now after this course we feel more confident to sort out our problems and to help out other friends and family. It’s a wonderful course and we gain more experience and better knowledge.”
The professionals too were enthusiastic. The information and understanding given to the women will make their jobs easier also.
One health professional said;
“I think this is excellent that you have come up with this, as it is important and there is a great need.”
Another writes;
“We find that there are real problems with people having very little basic awareness of how their bodies work which is extremely dis-empowering. This is exactly the sort of work that is needed.”
We are hoping to find more funding that will enable us to run this course again in a different area of Burngreave.