The capability we work toward: healthier lives and easier access to care.
Approved activities: within the fields of health activities and family planning: establishing medical clinics and taking part in medical caravans, collecting surplus medicines from households and redistributing them to people in need, and organizing scientific and health seminars and conferences.
Program development directions: improving access to affordable health services.
Why Health and Wellbeing Are Part of Our Work
Good health underpins almost everything else a person hopes to do. A child who is unwell finds it harder to learn. An adult whose health is neglected may lose the ability to work or to care for their family. When illness goes unrecognized or untreated, it can become a barrier that affects every other part of a person’s life.
The barriers to good health are not only medical. Many people face difficulty reaching health services and medicines, and many lack the information they need to understand a health problem or to know when to seek help. Both kinds of barrier, limited access and limited awareness, are part of this area of the Foundation’s work.
Health & Wellbeing is one of the Foundation’s five areas of work because health is inseparable from opportunity. The capability we work toward is simple to state: healthier lives and easier access to care.
Previous Experience: Health Awareness on Eye Diseases
The Foundation has previously conducted health awareness programs about eye diseases.
This experience sits naturally within the Foundation’s identity. Our name, Ebsar, is an Arabic word for sight and perception. Raising awareness of eye diseases connects that name to its most literal meaning, while serving the broader aim behind it: helping people understand what may be standing in their way, so that they are better able to act on it.
The work was focused on awareness: helping people learn about eye diseases and understand eye health. It reflects a principle that runs through this whole area: that knowledge is itself a form of health support, and that a person who understands a health issue is in a stronger position to look after themselves and their family.
This previous work gives the Foundation practical experience in health awareness to build on, alongside the awareness-related activities the Foundation is approved to carry out, including organizing scientific and health seminars.
Health Information That People Can Understand and Use
Health information is only useful if people can reach it, understand it and act on it. Information that is too technical, too hard to find, or not shared at all leaves individuals and families to make important decisions without the knowledge they need.
Accessible health awareness helps people recognize when something may be wrong, understand what a health issue involves, and judge when it is time to seek care. It also helps families support one another, since decisions about health are often made together at home rather than by one person alone.
For these reasons, we see health awareness as a way of strengthening people’s own ability to make informed decisions about their health, rather than as a substitute for medical care.
Awareness and Prevention as Part of Community Wellbeing
Wellbeing is not only a matter of treating illness once it appears. Awareness and prevention play an important part in keeping individuals, families and communities healthy. When people understand how to protect their health and recognize early signs that something may need attention, they are better placed to act before a problem grows.
Awareness also travels within communities. Knowledge shared with one person often reaches their family, neighbours and wider community. In this way, health awareness can strengthen the wellbeing of a whole community, not only of the individuals who take part directly.
This is consistent with one of the commitments that runs across all of the Foundation’s work: our belief that awareness and knowledge are part of removing barriers.
Reducing Barriers to Understanding and Care
Limited health awareness is listed above as one of the barriers this area addresses, and it is closely tied to the other: difficulty accessing health services. A person who does not know that a symptom deserves attention may never look for care. A person who does not understand a condition may delay seeking help, or may not know what kind of help to look for.
Health awareness can reduce these barriers by helping people understand their health, recognize when care is needed, and approach health services with greater confidence. It does not replace health services, but it can help people make better use of the care available to them. This complements the program development direction set out above: improving access to affordable health services.
From Barriers to Capabilities
The Foundation’s philosophy, From Barriers to Capabilities, asks what is stopping a person from moving forward and how we can help remove it. In health, the barrier may be difficulty reaching services or medicines, or it may be a lack of the knowledge needed to understand a health issue and act on it.
The capability on the other side of that barrier is a person who understands their health better, knows when to seek care, and is better able to look after themselves and their family. As in all our work, we measure success by what a person has become able to do, not only by what they have received.
Health Awareness and Sustainable Community Development
Ebsar Masr is a community development organization, and we see health awareness as part of sustainable development rather than as a one-off service. Knowledge that a person gains about their health stays with them after an activity ends, and can continue to benefit them and those around them. This reflects a question that guides all of the Foundation’s work: what will remain once our work is done?
We are committed to health awareness as a lasting part of this area, built on the Foundation’s previous experience and guided by the same values that shape all of our work: starting from real need, respecting the dignity and choices of every person, and working in partnership with the communities we serve.