Games & Health

An educational partnership to develop art, stories, games, songs, and engaging activities to promote health

[gamesandhealth]

Activity: 'Health Habits' Skits

This is an activity that swaps the role of the teacher and the student – a chance for the students to reflect upon and explain what they have learnt, and an opportunity for the teacher to assess what has seeped in and revel in the success of their lesson.

In groups of five to eight, students are asked to perform a ‘Healthy Habits’ Skit that showcases one of the lessons from previous sessions. Themes that were provided in the session we did were ‘The Need to Wash Hands’ and ‘The Importance of Boiling Water’. The preparation time was around fifteen minutes and while waiting for the two groups to get them together, the rest of the class played charades with Healthy Habit Clues (washing hands after playing, always covering food, using soap, etc)

While the students enjoyed a competitive game of charades, the excitement on their faces simply did not compare with what could be seen on the actors for the skits. Students were incredibly enthusiastic about their chance to teach the class what they had learnt. Skits typically had a common thread where an individual or group would skip an important healthy habit, face the consequences and learn a lesson through a moral – all the members of the group would chant the moral aloud in unison at the end of their performance. Common characters across the skit were that of a mother, a doctor and a teacher.

The students found innovative means of incorporating the lessons into skits – they replayed our own 16 Step Handwashing Demonstration to us, referred back to a couple of the stories narrated and recited lists of all things that needed to be done to stay healthy. The idea of germs was prevalent in all the threads amusing fake-scared exclamations would follow the mention of this theme.

What I loved most about this activity was that the students made it their own. It drew out the more shy people and viscerally displayed confidence in those that actually came forward. A fulfilling and entertaining activity that gives both the teacher and the students the pleasure of a lesson well learnt.

Padmapriya Govindarajan is pursuing the third year of her Integrated Masters in Developmental Economics with the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. She hopes to be a children’s writer someday, but is content for now to settle down on evenings with a copy of Seuss.

  Activity: ‘Health Habits’ Skits was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

Outdoor Game: Poop and Flies

One of the activities from the curriculum that was tried was the game of ‘Poop and Flies’, designed to demonstrate how flies spread poop to food and how closed latrines can help prevent that. All that the game required was balls made of paper to represent poop, a box or a bucket to represent food and plastic boxes to represent latrines. Although this activity was one of the hardest to supervise and control, the rules could be modified to suit each class and the materials required were easily accessible and did not involve a lot of preparation.

In one version of the game, the paper balls were scattered all over the floor and a few students were given small round boxes to cover them. The boxes represented latrines. The rest of the class was divided into two groups- ‘flies’ and ‘swatters’. The swatters had to catch as many flies as they could while the flies tried to pick up the uncovered poop and drop them off in a bucket, representing food, placed in the corner.  One of the problems that was faced with this game was in making the flies admit to getting caught especially since it was impossible to distinguish between the two groups.  The flies picked up more than one poop ball each and though this stressed on how it is in reality, it happened all too quickly for the team with the boxes to cover them up. The few that were covered were kicked around in the excitement of running around.  The game worked better when the flies were instructed to pick only one ball each at a time. Although reducing the number of swatters helped in keeping a tab on them better, having different colored ribbons to distinguish between the groups would have made it much easier.

In another version, the balls were placed in two piles in the centre of the room. The entire class would be ‘flies’. They had to pick up the balls and drop them off in boxes representing ‘food’ placed in the corner of the room. One student would act as the defender, stand next to poop and try to stop the ‘flies’ from getting to the poop and dropping them off on the food. A few balls were placed under a bucket and this represented ‘poop in a latrine’ that the flies could not get to.  With constant monitoring, it was easy to ensure that the flies that were caught, left the game and could no longer spread poop to the food. The balls covered by the bucket remained untouched which helped in emphasizing the significance of latrines.

At the end of the game, the concept of flies spreading poop to food due to open defecation could be enforced and the kids understood clearly how latrines can help prevent. The kids not only had fun but also realized the importance of latrines.

Ashwini Rajagopalan is currently a second year graduate student of Syracuse University, New York. Her master’s program integrates Bioengineering and Management modules and she hopes to lay her fingerprint on a management plan and an engineering idea to realize her long term goal of being a part of a community that addresses the needs of better health care.

Outdoor Game: Poop and Flies was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

Demonstration: Safe Storage

In order to demonstrate the importance of safely storing water to prevent it from getting contaminated, we decided to do the ‘Safe Storage’ activity with the children at Sarada Vidyalaya and PS Senior Secondary School. Some colored dye is applied on a person’s hands, and then the same hands are used to scoop clean looking water out of a container. The rationale behind this activity was that children would see the few drops of dye spread quickly through the clean water from a few seconds of contact – which would hopefully disgust them while also driving home the importance of safely storing water.

We quickly realised that the main aim of the activity – which was to suggest better ways of accessing water which does not require directly touching it – was not entirely applicable to our target audience. The children we were teaching at Sarada Vidyalaya and PS Senior Secondary School were from low to upper middle class families, but all of them had basic access to taps for water. So, it seemed redundant to teach these kids the activity the way it was intended. Finally, we decided to proceed with the same activity, but shifted the focus of the learning from safely storing water to keeping hands clean and covering food and water safely to prevent contamination.

We proceeded to show them the demonstration by putting a few drops of pink dye on our fingers, and touched the clean-looking water for one or two seconds at most. This water was stored in a transparent container so that the children could clearly see the effect of the dye on the water. In a matter of seconds, the water turned a light shade of pink, and the children were awestruck. We went on to explain to them that while the dye we used was visible, all the germs in our hands are not visible, yet can spread through the food and water we consume at the same pace. This prompted many kids to suggest the obvious solution of washing hands with soap before eating/drinking. We finally reiterated the importance of keeping hands clean, and also reminded them of other ways to prevent contamination such as keeping food and water covered at all times.

This activity worked moderately well as it served as a reinforcement of the concepts of hand washing and safe storage. Although less exciting than other activities (such as outdoor games), it elucidated the concepts well through a visually engaging technique. In particular, I liked this activity because the children observed with rapt attention, and appeared to put two and two together, associating the dye with germs immediately.

Aparajita Pande is a third year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology, and hopes to pursue a career in academia in the future.

Demonstration: Safe Storage was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

Outdoor game: Cold and Flu Germ tag

Outdoor games are always a hit with kids and “Cold and Flu Germ tag” is no different. The moment we announced that we were playing a game, a lot of excitement was generated in the classes. Learning from our previous experiences with outdoor games, we brought a whistle along to help control the class.

The main objective of this game is to reinforce the concept of germs spreading easily and more specifically, how cold and flu can spread easily from one person to another and how practising hygienic habits taught so far can prevent infection. What gives the game more depth is the fact that Cold & Flu spreading through air, and not just physical contact, is included in it as well.

The game is divided into three rounds:

Round 1 – The class is divided into two teams – The “sick” team (smaller team with 6 kids) and the “healthy” team (rest of the class). The healthy kids are asked to run around while the sick kids try catching/tagging them. The six kids on the sick team are divided into pairs and made to hold hands while running. Whenever a healthy kid is tagged, he/she joins the chain. In this manner, three chains keep growing as the healthy kids are tagged in succession. This idea of introducing “chains” was incorporated from the “Worm Tag” game as it worked well with the kids and also serves the purpose of differentiating between the sick and the remaining healthy kids.

Round 2 – In this round, the sick team is handed paper balls, one for each student, and are allowed to throw it on the healthy kids apart from running around and catching them. These paper balls represent germs that cause cold and flu. Whenever a healthy kid gets hit by a paper ball, he/she has to sit at the same spot till the round is complete. The round is complete when almost the entire class has been struck by a ball or been tagged. The rule of making them sit on the same spot was incorporated, again, to differentiate easily between the “sick” and “healthy” kids.

Round 3 – In this round, the concept of healthy habits is introduced. It is similar to the previous rounds, except that whenever a student is about to be tagged or hit by a ball, if he/she does the action of washing hands or boiling water or sneezing into the elbow, the student can’t get tagged. This means that fewer/no students get tagged and the round has to be ended by us in some time.

These three rounds are a combination of the rounds mentioned originally in the curriculum. They have been combined and simplified to suit our constraints, namely – time, complexity and space. At the end of each round, the message we are trying to reinforce is discussed with the class, which is, Cold and Flu can spread easily from a few people to the entire class, Cold and Flu can spread through air (by coughing and sneezing) and not just through physical contact and finally, infections can be prevented easily by practising Hygienic habits.

The game ended within 15-20 minutes as planned. As the kids filed back to their classrooms, they seemed very happy with game and a few of them even ventured to tell us that we should play more such games with them in the coming weeks. In my opinion, what makes the game appealing to the kids is that it is both simple and interesting. The lesson that it is trying to convey is clear and we didn’t have to put in a lot of lengthy explanation to make the children understand.

Anjana Krishnan is a recent graduate of Biotechnology from SRM University – Chennai. She is passionate about the environment and will be pursuing her Masters in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbra. 

Outdoor game: Cold and Flu Germ tag was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

The Soapy Bottle: Solving Fundamental Problems

Washing hands with soap is the first and most important step towards good personal hygiene. In India, where the average daily wage is under $2, a huge section of the population simply cannot afford to buy soap for daily use. Hence teaching them why, when and how they should use soap to wash hands is rather pointless, since soap is a ’luxury’.  Taking the problem head on, we taught the children how to make a ‘Soapy Bottle’ at home, which can provide all the soap that an individual would need for 2 weeks, at a cost of just 2 cents. That is one cent a week, affordable even less financially secure families.

The ingenuity of the activity struck the kids, as they were amazed at how much they could do with inexpensive, common goods.  We took a used one litre bottle, poured half a sachet of detergent powder and poked 2 small holes on the cap using a compass. We then filled the bottle with water, and shook it thoroughly. Voila, soap was ready. One little squeeze, and it would squirt out of the holes on the cap, just like the ‘fancy’ soap dispensers we have at home! The amazing smell of our soap left the kids wanting for more, and in one class a huge group of 45 mobbed my team member who was showing them the bottle.

Sensing the popularity of the activity, we rolled it out across all our partner schools, and even provided individual soapy bottles for the children to take home. Further, the kids even insisted that we leave soapy bottles for their classrooms, to keep safe and use when any of them go to the restroom. The excitement that the kids displayed cannot be put in words. We realized that we had helped them fight poverty in one small way, and given them access to what the rest of the world takes for granted.

The terrific response did not stop with the students. Principals of schools decided to put soapy bottles in the latrines, and teachers told us about how they had prepared soapy bottles at home. At this point we realized that we had successfully worked our way around a huge problem: no soap.

Gautam Srikanth is a Junior studying Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He loves the world of business, and hopes to enter it soon. Gautam is also passionate about taking hygiene education to the poorest of the poor in India, to reduce the economic costs of poor hygiene which currently amount to 6.4% of the country’s GDP. 

  The Soapy Bottle: Solving Fundamental Problems was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

Newsletter from Ikirwa School

We wanted to share with you all a recent newsletter from a school we partner with in Ikirwa, Tanzania: Ikirwa School Spring 2014 Newsletter Issue 3

  Newsletter from Ikirwa School was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

Tanzania Update

Check out this photo we received from our partners in Tanzania! The photo on the right features students at Ikirwa playing “Grandma Wants You to Eat Candy,” one of our favorite games on safe water and hygiene.

Tanzania Update was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

The Plan for 2014

During 2014 we will gather feedback from these small pilots in India, two additional schools in India, a handful of after-school girls’ groups in Nigeria, and several “safe water school” clubs in Bolivia. We will keep you updated as these projects develop!

The Plan for 2014 was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

The Story So Far

In 2013 we piloted a subset of the interventions at a two schools in Tamil Nadu, India (one rural and one urban) and with a primary school in Tanzania.  Results are extremely preliminary.

With that in mind, students have been engaged with all the activities we have tested (so far, largely on handwashing, safe water and malaria prevention).  Importantly, students play some of the games when our staff is not there.

There is not yet a formal assessment of learning, but most students are able to explain the lessons behind each activity. There is also not yet a formal assessment of behavior change, but teachers report more handwashing with soap after students use the latrine, students report they have brought the soapy bottles home to their family and explained its importance, and students are brushing their teeth more often.  The rural school in India is also an orphanage; it bought insecticide-treated nets for the first time, and students expressed enthusiasm for using them.

Importantly, teachers in the two schools in India continue to use the materials after my student returned to Berkeley in August 2013.

These shreds of evidence are sufficiently encouraging to motivate a more complete roll-out and evaluation. In addition, materials co-developed with local teachers and students should have many advantages over the existing curriculum.

The Story So Far was originally published on Games & Health

[gamesandhealth]

My Net is My Castle

Here is one of our new songs that we will be testing in India and Africa over the next year.  A lovely lullaby about bed nets that can prevent malaria called ‘My Net is My Castle’.  Check it out on SoundCloud at: https://soundcloud.com/billyriggsmusic/my-net-my-castle

My Net is My Castle was originally published on Games & Health