For 20 years Tatiana began her day the same way: she hopped on a bicycle and went to the neighboring villages to bring fuel, water, clean the house, make prescriptions, and go for medicines.

“I loved my work for communication with people,” recalls former social worker Tatiana. – Older persons stay at home, you may consider them locked down. I brought them news, talked about what was going on in the village and the world.

– For 6 years now I have been retired, but am still the head of the village Suknevichi and an active citizen. My former inspector at work Svetlana Viktorovna invited me to participate in an initiative – to learn how to measure blood pressure and blood sugar. I really liked this idea!

Movement is critical!

It takes a long time for the village residents to go to the policlinics or hospital, for the older persons it’s also complicated. Such important measurements as blood pressure or blood sugar should be taken almost every day, one can’t commute to the doctors so often.

This is how we came to this idea to train active citizens and social workers to take these measurements, so that people could receive first hand support in the village not to lose the precious time.

– I used to visit Leokadia Antonovna as a social worker, now I visit her as a neighbor. I train her in taking blood pressure and blood sugar measurements as we live in different villages. It was important for me to share the knowledge I gained.

– I witnessed different cases: if the pressure is high or low, the patient needs medication; and if the patient is in sugar coma, they need a piece of sugar on the tongue. But this aid is impossible without a preliminary assessment of the condition, therefore, blood pressure and blood sugar measurement is very important.

People come to Tatiana for help and for knowledge. There are a few women in the village who have their own devices. The former social worker told them how to use the devices correctly, how to take measurements for themselves and for other people as well.

– During the training we received information on healthy diet and healthy lifestyle, recalls Tatiana. I shared this information with my fellow villagers. I know for sure that fish, vegetables and nuts are healthy to eat; people with hypertension shouldn’t eat fatty meat. And the right diet and sport are vital for people with diabetes.

I ate this and that, and it’s fine

– I do morning exercises as well. My headache goes away after the morning exercises, can you imagine that? Physical activity has good effect on sleep and general condition. Movement is critical!

It seems that I am saying trivial things, but older persons may not know about this. They say: “I ate this and that and it’s fine.” The most common mistake is poor diet, which further on leads to disorders. Also sedentary lifestyle, smoking and alcohol. Here you go.

By the old habit, Tatiana keeps visiting her supervisees and teaches them to eat healthy diet, do exercises and measure blood pressure.

The initiative is funded by the European Union within UN "Belmed" project, implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Belarus.