Teaching Health and
Wholeness in the
University Context
Doug Fountain
Dept of Health Sciences,
Uganda Christian University
Uganda Christian University
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Church of Uganda
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Founded in 1997 on grounds
of 83 year old theological
college
Chartered by Gov’t
Branches around country
Students:
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Main: 5000, Branches: 2000
Will get to 14,000 total
>50% female
>5% international
Faculties
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Theology
Education and Arts,
Business
Law
Social Science
Science & Technology
Serious about Christian identity
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Instruments of Identity
 Define
“authentic”
Christianity in doctrine
and in practice
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Member, CCCU
Integration of worship,
fellowship,
discipleship
Core courses
Core Courses
American model, not British/specialized
 Christian subjects: Old Testament, New
Testament, Understanding World View,
Christian Ethics
 Other subjects: Research and Writing
Skills, Basic Computing, Mathematics
 Newest: Health and Wholeness
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Why Health and Wholeness
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Goals:
 Improve
health of students on campus
 Prepare ‘health leaders’ in work and life
 Equip students to influence families in villages
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Implication: Must be practical, meaningful,
and both self- and other-focused
“Opportunities”
Construct a meaningful University-level
course for 1,500 students per year!
 Assignments and assessing progress
 Reading materials that are appropriate,
neither too complicated nor too simple
 Literature around ‘wholeness’
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Course Content
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Introduction / Defining
Holistic Health
Nutrition
Hygiene
Sanitation, Water,
Land Use
Sexuality and HIV risk
Maternal/Child Health
Fitness
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First Aid/ Early
Intervention
Infectious Disease
Sexually Transmitted
Infection
Addiction
Building Healthy
Society
How H&W is taught
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Lecture (400+ per lecture!! Yikes)
Tutorial - Discussion
 Divided by programme, groups
 Then small groups of 8-10
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of 40
Workbooks – personal reflection (it should be)
Readings (mostly AMREF books)
“Whole Truth” – study a scripture passage
Scrap books – application to current subjects
Intention is to be practical and applied
How UCU defines wholeness
A state of personal physical,
emotional/mental, spiritual, and social
health in which a person knows their value
in the eyes of God, their families and
communities, and are empowered to make
good health decisions.
Two perspectives on wholeness
1.
2.
Social, emotional, spiritual factors
influence physical health
Health is more than physical
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Emotional hygiene
 Spiritual fitness
 Social addiction
Physical is affected by emotional,
social, and spiritual
Role of peer influences (social)
 Lack healthy leisure skills/activities (social)
 Poor self-esteem, powerlessness
(emotional)
 Broken relationship with God causes us to
act out of selfish intent (spiritual)
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Example: Hygiene
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Physical problem: Keep small germs (bacteria,
viruses, parasites) from becoming big health
problems
Identify physical strategies
Identify other influences on physical hygiene:
 Other
people follow cleanliness rules (social)
 Feel like taking care of yourself (emotional)
 God reminds you to keep His temple clean (spiritual)
Example: Hygiene (2)
There are social, emotional, and spiritual
“germs” to control as well
 Social: Jealousy, lust, rage
 Emotional: self doubt, negative view of self
 Spiritual: doubt scripture, worship money
 These have health consequences, as
much as a parasite!
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Example: Hygiene (3)
These men are springs without water and mists driven by
a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they
mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the
lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people
who are just escaping from those who live in error. They
promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves
of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has
mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the
world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and
are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off
at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have
been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their
backs on the sacred command that was passed on to
them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to
its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her
wallowing in the mud.“ 2Peter 2:17-22
Example: Fitness
Endurance
Strength
Flexibility
Physical
Don’t loose
breath
Carry weight
Social
Long term
friendships
People to count on Make friends in
during difficulty
new situations
Emotional Manage
sustained stress
Spiritual
Stand pressure of
hardships
Discipleship with Stand up to
God
temptations
Bend or reach
without pain
Adapt to change
Follow God’s
will
Sexuality and HIV Risk
Sex is God’s gift to a married man/woman
 Connect social temptations with self
esteem
 Provide fact sheet on Green’s ABC data:
we want our students to be apologists
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Feedback
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Formal: 625 students in Sept 05
 Highest
interest: hygiene, nutrition, Sex/HIV, first aid
 94% of students found the tutorials to be very helpful
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Informal: What students do with this information
– Student phoned family each week, they
passed on to others.
 Jinja – 15 students spending 10 weeks in an
underserved fishing village, helping a local
organization carry out health promotion
 Nebbi
“Building a healthy society”
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Student concerned about “social diseases”
 Tribalism,
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nepotism, corruption
Lead to inefficiency, misappropriation of
resources, and under service
 “If
you go to the hospital and find a nurse from
a different tribe, you may as well go home”
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Approach: Debate on topics by
outsiders… other ideas?