Health Advice and Guidance on Thalassemia and Pneumonia in a Kenyan village setting
Juszkiewicz, Justyna; Bohomaz, Sofiia (2025)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121034540
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121034540
Tiivistelmä
In remote areas, access to primary healthcare might be limited and underfunded. This may cause disproportionate death due to preventable and treatable disorders, like pneumonia. There may also be little awareness about conditions, like thalassemia, that may be common amongst certain populations. Thus, through a low-cost and versatile tool of health-promoting posters, the most important information can be conveyed to affected communities. Education is a means to prevent illness, keeping morbidity at bay – lowering future treatment expenditure. Equipping communities with potentially life-saving awareness can also be an empowering act.
The purpose of the thesis is to produce informative health posters about thalassemia and pneumonia for Home Street Home families with children. The objective is to enhance awareness and understanding of pneumonia and thalassemia, encouraging early detection and treatment seeking, thus reducing morbidity and mortality, as well as reducing the risk of complications.
The thesis' client - Home Street Home (HSH) - is a Finnish Kenyan organization. HSH places great focus on helping children and young people by making education and nutrition accessible. The target group for this project was children and their guardians in the village of Makongeni.
The method used in this project was the Waterfall. In this method, the stage needs to be completed before the next one can be approached. The project contained three major stages that had to be accomplished, with each stage having its own list of tasks, for example planning, researching, correcting, communicating with stakeholders, and designing.
As a result of the project, four posters were created, two for each disorder, which were revised and adapted according to feedback from stakeholders, improving their visuals, accessibility, and the information provided. The latest feedback we received indicated that we had succeeded in making the posters visually appealing, informative, and understandable to the audience.
Despite the prevalence of thalassaemia, the authors noted a disproportionately low level of awareness about this disease. Equally important is the fact that the usual symptoms of the disease that may manifest in patients do not always correspond to books due to the patient's gender. Therefore, more research is needed to take this into account.
The purpose of the thesis is to produce informative health posters about thalassemia and pneumonia for Home Street Home families with children. The objective is to enhance awareness and understanding of pneumonia and thalassemia, encouraging early detection and treatment seeking, thus reducing morbidity and mortality, as well as reducing the risk of complications.
The thesis' client - Home Street Home (HSH) - is a Finnish Kenyan organization. HSH places great focus on helping children and young people by making education and nutrition accessible. The target group for this project was children and their guardians in the village of Makongeni.
The method used in this project was the Waterfall. In this method, the stage needs to be completed before the next one can be approached. The project contained three major stages that had to be accomplished, with each stage having its own list of tasks, for example planning, researching, correcting, communicating with stakeholders, and designing.
As a result of the project, four posters were created, two for each disorder, which were revised and adapted according to feedback from stakeholders, improving their visuals, accessibility, and the information provided. The latest feedback we received indicated that we had succeeded in making the posters visually appealing, informative, and understandable to the audience.
Despite the prevalence of thalassaemia, the authors noted a disproportionately low level of awareness about this disease. Equally important is the fact that the usual symptoms of the disease that may manifest in patients do not always correspond to books due to the patient's gender. Therefore, more research is needed to take this into account.