Sustaining Population Health

Abstract

Consider a woman I’ll call Maria, who lives in the Andean highlands of Peru. Maria is in her 30s, has two daughters (ages 8 and 12), a high school education, and works hard with her husband Benito to build a better life for her family. The family lives in a two-room home and farms nearby land, growing potatoes, quinoa, and other staples. In addition they own a cow and a few pigs and chickens; Maria weaves traditional Andean fabric and sells these to tourists; Benito occasionally works on construction crews in nearby towns; and recently they have earned some additional money hosting students and volunteers eager to learn more about Andean traditional culture and help in the small village school. Through hard work and ingenuity, Maria and Benito have been able to send their daughters to a better school in a nearby town, begin building another room to their home, and recently added a modern toilet to their home. The seeds of a significant success story are being sewn.