The topic I chose from her curriculum was Interconnectedness. I was really excited to see how the women would react when they would be thinking about this.
Like always we started off with breathing exercises. I got really excited when one of the students informed me that she has been doing it daily and she feels much more alert and energetic because of it. I then asked them about what I talked about last time, diarrhea and Chikungunya and they told me how they are washing their hands for at least 20 seconds now and are taking all preventative measures against mosquitoes. I then inquired about gratitude and self love about which I had talked about in the previous sessions and one of them coincidentally told me that she called her tailor of a few years and thanked her for her service.
Based on Sara's curriculum I gave a brief introduction on Interconectedness and told them that today we will be talking about a very interesting topic which will make us realize how we are connected to each other without even realizing it. I told them to close their eyes and take deep breaths and then continue to breath normally while keeping their eyes shut. I then asked them to think about the clothes they were wearing today. According to cultural standards, all the women at Sikanderabad wear Abaya over their regular clothes when they go out of the house. Most of them wear a black Abaya which is basically a loose outer garment like a gown and then they cover their heads with a black headscarf. I asked them to think more about the clothes they were wearing under the Abaya. They were asked to think about where did they get them from, who gave it to them, who stitched it up, who chose the buttons, lace, zipper, thread, the colour. Most women of Sikanderabad still wear the bright colourful embroidered clothes that are common in their villages so a lot goes in planning and making of these clothes so I asked them to think about all of that. Then I asked them to think about how it reached the store and if they purchased it from Karachi, think about all the transport that was involved in getting it here. I then asked them to open their eyes. They were all smiling and were intrigued by this train of thought. I asked them if they had thought on these lines before and they denied. I then asked them to think about all the people who made it possible for them to have these clothes today, the farmers who grew the cotton, the people in the factories who made thread and then weaved it into cloth and then the shopkeepers and the tailors and the people who gave it to them. One of them said her aunt from the village sent her the shirt. One of them said she went with her dad to purchase the cloth and stitched it herself. Two sisters were wearing identical shirts and they told me their aunt did the embroidery and their mother stitched it up for them. I then told them this is how we are connected to the world. The cloth that was made in Korea was sold in Peshawar and their aunt bought it from there and embroidered it and sent it to Karachi and their mom stitched it up for them. I asked them how this made them feel and one of them just smiled and the other said "small" followed by "but good, like we are part of something". I was delighted to hear her response. I told them to thank their mom when they get home and then call their aunt and thank her too, imagine how good she would feel knowing that you called just to thank her.
I am so excited that all of them would be benefiting from the amazing compassion curriculum from Sara. I can't wait to see how their lives would be enriched in the following sessions.
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| Beautiful embroidery done on a shirt for me by one of the students. |
Our health topic on this day was diabetes. A lot of older women had requested me to talk about it. I am just so thrilled when they suggest new topics now as they are growing more and more interested in their own and their family's health. They all listened patiently and did stop me a couple of times to ask very smart questions.
Our last topic as always was the thing about self love that I make them do each time. I read aloud the same self love sentences from before and they repeated after me. This post has more about the first self love session https://sikanderabadhlp.blogspot.com/2018/02/chikunguya-diarrhea-and-self-love.html.
Pointers on diabetes:
-Diabetes is a long lasting disease that affects how your body turns food into energy.
-Most of the food you eat is broken down into sugar (glucose) and released into bloodstream.
-Pancreas make a hormone called insulin which acts like a key to let the sugar into cells to use it for energy.
-In diabetes you either do not have the key or cannot use it anymore which causes a buildup of sugar in the blood which ultimately leads to heart disease, loss of vision and kidney disease.
-Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition, where the body attacks itself and cannot make insulin.
-5% of diabetics have type 1 diabetes and it mainly affects children, teens and young adults and they need insulin everyday.
-Type 2 diabetes is the more common one where the body is unable to use insulin properly hence unable to keep the blood sugar down.
-Gestational diabetes is when pregnant women develop diabetes which increases their risks of complications for the baby. It goes away after delivery but these women have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes can be obese and themselves develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
-Pre-diabetes is when the blood sugar is higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes.
-Risk factors for type 1 diabetes:
*Family history
*Age
-Risk factors for type 2 diabetes:
*Pre-diabetes
*Being overweight
*> 45 years of age
*Parents or siblings with type 2 diabetes
*Physically active less than 3 times a week
*Gestational diabetes or baby born >9 lb
-Risk factors for gestational diabetes:
*Gestational diabetes during previous pregnancy
*Given birth to baby >9 lb
*Overweight woman
*>25 years of age
*Family history of type 2 diabetes
*History of polycystic ovarian syndrome
-How to prevent complications:
*Eat well: Consume a diet with low salt and sugar
*Get physically active.
*Check lipid levels every year, if they are deranged, start medicine to lower them.
*Do not smoke
*Maintain appropriate blood pressure levels
*If you are overweight or obese loose wight with the help of a dietecian
*Get HbA1c checked
*Get your eyes tested every year
*Get your blood and urine checked for kidney problems each year
*Take care of your feet: Look for cuts, sores, red spots. Wear comfortable shoes at all times.
*Take care of your gums and teeth
*Manage stress properly
By Zainab Faiza
