Community narratives about the importance of the health education league (HEL)

Resumo

Introduction: The Health Education League (HEL), founded in 2010 by medical students from the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), is based on principles of Popular Education and carry out practice activities and theoretic meetings. Since 2013 the HEL develops activities with artisans women in the Vila da Barra community, a fishing village, located in Rio Grande/RS, in southern Brazil.

Objective: To report from the view of two artisans of the community of Vila da Barra who participated on the HEL`s activities what importance and what consequences the project has.

Methodology or experience description: The method use in this study was the experience report. The individual narrative of two artisans, participating of the HEL activities since its beginning, was interpreted. The reports were collected in November of 2014, seven months after the project started. Triggering issues tackling changes in the autonomy of the League participants and related to activities undertaken during the year were proposed. The interviews were videotaped, transcribed and analyzed.

Results: The narratives revealed changes in the autonomy of the participants of the League in regard to the ability of expression, amplification and knowledge sharing. “I was ashamed of saying things, talking, and now no, I don’t feel awkward” and “with what we are learning with you, we are also passing that knowledge to others”. It is possible to perceive the satisfaction with the activities: "I love the activities of the League." and “she (the League) is not there just to talk that 'medication is missing', or that ‘this disease is like this’. (...) She embraces all, she embraces the SUS (Unified Health System), it embraces all the little parts that sometimes fail to be heard, and this is cool”.

Conclusions or Hypothesis: From the narratives of the artisans is possible to perceive the existence of an important space to exchange knowledge and experiences, as well as promoting health through Popular Education through the project activities. Achievements can also be observed in relation to community empowerment and autonomy, which is crucial for the self-care and health promotion of the artisans and the community.