Presentations

Community Health Facilitator

Mike Soderling, MD, MBA (International Development)

The Importance of Community Health

Many common health problems around the world come from unhealthy behavior. Motivating people to make behavioral changes is difficult because the roots of behavior are in culturally determined beliefs and values. The arena for promoting behavioral changes is in dialogue about the cultural values and beliefs that underlie behavior. An understanding of cultural anthropology and the practice of cross-cultural communication is essential for successful motivation of changes in community development, and behavior related to health, nutrition, and agriculture.The biblical world view provides fundamental principles of health and healthy behavior and gives core cultural values important for community development. This workshop will bring together biblical principles of health and agriculture, cross-cultural methods of communication, and skills in establishing relationships that facilitate behavioral changes for the improvement of health and nutrition. It is excellent preparation for an inter-cultural ministry of transformational development.

Goal of the Workshop – Empowering People to Improve their Own Health

The workshop will enable Christian health and community development personnel to help people improve their own health, agriculture, and nutrition through understanding and applying scientific, biblical and culturally appropriate principles, and making behavior changes necessary for transformational development.