 Health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or infirmity. Are we together? That means we have come to the health segment of the show. It's that day. It's still Monday. It's still at Y-5 on Facebook, at Y-2-5-4, channel onto to hashtag is Y in the morning. Now we have a couple of very, very, very, very enlightening guests that will speak to us in a way that you are looking at at two dimensions. Now today, if you are 3D, we are going to 4D, alright? Please do stay on this. If you have any questions, again, just go to our social media platforms. I will not tire to remind you and also they will be there somewhere below on your screen. If your name is still Valentine or at ColourMeValum, please help me give them a very, very warm welcome. Good morning, guys. Good morning. Yes. We like to smile, smile. We don't have to be so serious all the time. Yes. When we communicate, they can understand, yeah? What is your good name, sir? ColourBongeles, my name. I'm a researcher, a public health researcher, passionate about public health. Much of my bias has fallen between maternal health, neonatal, and monitoring and evaluation of some of the projects over and a firm critic of everything that happens around public health. Yeah. Not a critic, you know, but a critic. Criticism can be constructed and that's the good kind. Constructive criticism. Yeah. And the queen. Hi, queen. How are you? Good morning. I'm into lecturing, specifically nutrition, epidemiology, and also into research concentrating on pre-man-health care, because when it comes to nutrition, we say it is more or less like management of the disease using food. So if you're able to manage yourself, you're able to manage your health, using food, there will be no need for you to go looking for a doctor, caribou. Now, previously, we had a short conversation between us, but I didn't tell you that you have amazing skin. How are you glowing like this? And you don't even have makeup on. What do you do? Anyway, you know your nutrition and you really do. Are you going to tell me it's water? Could I start drinking water every day, from which look like you? I'm serious. Is it water? Water. Good diet, physical exercise. Oh my goodness. Thank you. Wow. So, start off the bat. What would you like to open with? Public health is a wine field. And as I usually say it, everything about human being is health. So, meat religion is health. Witchcraft is health. Working health, thinking health, talking health. Why do I say so? Because as you define it well, public health is an interesting field that we are thinking. Before we get to the doctor, before we start developing systems for the curative purposes, for the purposes of medicine or care, our first question is, is there a possibility that we might not even get there first? You understand? So, as our passion now drives us towards making sure that we reduce the interval or rather the interaction between the clients, you and me, and the doctor. So that we maintain higher relationship between us than us with the doctor. That's the basic. Loki, when I was on campus there was a point in my life where I was just barely trying to make it. So my people would cover the school fees but sometimes I would feel a bit bad. She would not give me, give me, give me. So I would have to go out of my way to support myself. In that supporting myself, I tell myself I cannot afford to be sick. Like I just can't. So I have to take extra care. I don't know why I don't do it all the time, all the time. But I told myself then I just can't afford to be sick. I don't have all these funds to randomly just go to the clinic or the hospital. Oh my God, cold. No. So I have to really, really watch what I eat. I have to make sure I'm warm and I'm supposed to be warm. I have to make sure I don't, you know, eat maybe with dirty hands if it affects my stomach or things like this. Is this kind of the things we're looking at today? That one and even more. Even your friendship, your interactions, your relationships. How we look at them at, if I'm having a relationship, let's say with pharise, what kind of a relationship is it? At what point does it force me to even step out of that relationship? Why? Because once my psychologist interfered with, my productivity goes down. And automatically that means I'm not able to deliver. Any moment that any issue comes in your way to your wholesome being. That's a health concern. Wow. Alex has just come from talking about the government spending millions and billions for the census or things like this. But I assume we use quite a large sum of money for health, you know, for the health sector. And this is not just once in every other blue moon. This is very constant. It's part of the budget. How can we as a people, how can you guys, you as a researcher and you as a nutritionist, how can we put these great minds together and cut the cost of health? Okay. One, we say what is health? What do you understand by the term health? As defined by the World Health Organization. Yeah, you must be physically well, you must be mentally well, and socially, of which the apocas social maybe you should define Kedogo. And it's not just being sick or the absence of homa or you just, yeah, it's not just that. That's what I understand. Good. Now, when it comes to health, we as health experts, we insist on prevention. We insist on taking measures early enough before that disease develops. And that's why we say, in a fit mind, resides are, in a fit body, resides are good. Now, when it comes to health, you need to get to understand what is health? How does it affect me as an individual? What repercussions does it have to the society? What repercussions does it have to me as an individual when my health is tampered with? We say when you are sick, that does not only affect you, but it affects the whole community. If you are sick, that will mean you're not good to work. It will also mean you'll need someone to take care of you. It will as well mean you'll need money to go to the hospital. And if you are to do your calculation, how much money you'll spend at the hospital for that treatment and compare the money that you would have needed to prevent that disease from occurring, there's no comparison. Now, when it comes to prevention, we talk of physical exercise. We also talk of good diet. What is a good diet? A good diet is a diet that is well-balanced. At least it has some carbohydrates, it has some proteins, it has vitamins, it also has some vegetables. When it comes to physical exercise, what kind of physical exercise are we referring to? This does not necessarily mean going to the gym, doing a lot of aerobics. Physical exercise starts with that simple move, that walking, that small running, and that way you're putting your body into good health and therefore you're able to prevent so many diseases which can result in so much money, consumption of money. I don't know if I can just address that. I want to translate it to the people at home. And this age group that we're targeting, telling me that immediately, I just imagine, I won't eat diet dinner, oh, you have to eat this much, you have to eat at only 5 p.m. What happens if I'm hungry and what happens if all I can afford, I don't know, so what am I going to do? How can I cater for all these things that are needed for my diet with the things that I can afford? When it comes to diet, we don't necessarily refer to someone buying foods that he or she cannot afford. In fact, when you visit a nutrition expert, you'll start by asking what is available, what can you easily access. Different foods have different sources of nutrients. The only thing that you need to know is that at least you need a carbohydrate. You need vegetables, you need protein, what are these sources? If you understand what is a carbohydrate, what are the sources of carbohydrate? What are the carbohydrates that are available within your locality? Like in Kenya, for a normal 19, normal youth, we have the ugali, we have the rice, we have the chapuz, we have the root tubers, the enguache, the domas, all those ones are good sources of carbohydrate. Again, we have the proteins. There are two types of proteins. We have the animal proteins and we have the plant proteins. You need to understand the kind of job that you are engaged into. Someone who is doing a lot of physical exercise or his work requires a lot of energy. His diet or her diet will not be the same as that person who just sits at the office. So you need to understand the nature of your work. Then you also need to understand if it is protein, what protein do I need most? From protein, we move on to vitamins. Where can you get the vitamins from? We have the vegetables, we have the fruits. There are so many fruits which are not available. We are very lucky, we are not very lucky country. Throughout the year, there is no time to go to the market and lack of fruits, lack of vegetables. But do you have that knowledge? Do you know the importance of these vegetables? You get shocked when you go to ordinary hotels, not even ordinary hotels, even in these big hotels in Kenya. You realize that you request for a dish, how much does it cost to buy vegetables? How much does it cost to buy vegetables? If you want to buy vegetables, you have to eat them. If you want to buy spinach, you have to eat both of them. But you go to that hotel, you have to buy vegetables for decoration purposes. Now the concern here is, do they know the importance of these vegetables in your diet? You know that these vegetables contain so much fiber that it can prevent lifestyle diseases. Again, this fiber is very important when it comes to weight management. Because what happens when you take food that is rich in fiber? One, it brings about satiety. What is satiety? It is that fullness of being full. You don't want to keep on snacking. It is the habit that most youth are engaged in. Every now and then you are just snacking. And what kind of snacks are you snacking? We call them, we don't want to use the term empty cannolis, but they have high concentration of calories. And what happens to these cannolis when you consume them? When they go into your body, what happens? Remember, if you don't use those cannolis, they are usually converted into fat. And then stored somewhere? Yes. Okay. So I see you have extensive knowledge. You've researched in various regions in Kenya. And Monapo, Northeastern, around there. And a stint maybe around the coastal region. Just based on that alone, what's the difference between these regions and Nairobi as it is? I like the diversity about Kenya. Kenya is one very rich country in terms of diversity. The funny thing about the diversity, is that quantify and say, these are characterized by these, and these are characterized by these. Why? Because there's a national element. There's a way you will know a Kenyan by just meeting a Kenyan, whether in the streets of London or within Kenya itself. The only thing that I come to realize that creates a distinction between Kenyans is whether in Nairobi, whether in Western, whether in Northeastern, Kenyans have got their own solutions to anything and everything. The only thing where I find fault is, how do we approach handling the challenges? And I'll put challenges in parenthesis. Why? Because most of the time, seated in a boardroom like this, we are thinking Mandera, they must be suffering from 1-2-3. Wajia, they must be suffering from 1-2-3. And that's why seated in a boardroom, we can decide to meet a group of a church and tell these guys, blessed people of God, we are going to reach out for the people in Mandera to take them food. One thing you need to know is that these guys have been in Mandera for the rest of their lives. They have their own solutions to their own issues. So somehow, the only thing that I've realized that makes us have a gap in understanding of who people are and what they are is because we don't interact with them. So we are seated here. We say we are going to provide food for them. But if we took another turn and decided instead of us delivering a package, what can we work with them to know what they need most? That's very smart. Because now we want to send relief food. We want to just bring, bring, bring. And we don't really know what they need. Most of the time we are taking them what we think they need. What we think they need. Although our regions are completely different. There's a time, let me put this one on a light note because there's a time I was working with another project and we reviewed it and we realized, okay, we are doing the wrong thing. Because we are taking toilets. We are developing toilets for the people in a certain region thinking they need toilets. We deliver the package two, three months down the line. We go back to the package and it's never utilized. Wow. So they did have toilets. We've given them toilets. Now we are thinking communicable diseases like diarrhea now are being managed. We go back and the toilets are not utilized. Wow. Then we are asking ourselves, why have these not been utilized? And these are very good costs. The toilets are good. They are furnished. They are looking good. They were expensive. It's called VIP. All right. So we go check on it and we start now asking the community, where did we go wrong? That's when we are coming back to our senses and asking ourselves, where did we go wrong? Now the biggest challenge these guys tell us, did you ask us what we needed? Oh wow. One thing it's in our culture that we cannot defecate where your father has already defecated. That's breach of authority. Wow. Exactly. Everybody was like, okay, but the thing is that's their culture. So did we consult? Yes, we brought an intervention. We wrote in the newspapers that we've done one, two, three, as a government, as an NGO, as a well-wisher. But the question is, do we have a success story? So the whole idea of human life and human health is taking a wrong skew, not because we don't have the right to have solutions, but because we super repose the solutions on people who've got their own needs and they know how to solve them. That's why public health now takes another tangent away from the normal tangent of care and says, we are going to start with the needs. So we do a needs assessment with you. I come to your place and you tell me, are these where I stay? So maybe I'm not comfortable with the way your toilet looks, but your biggest problem is where to cook. So you tell me, these where to cook. These where my problem is. It's for me now using that knowledge to work with you and tell you when you cook is not your problem. What if we fix this one, then we bring this one? Then help you understand why this one needs to be fixed before we fix this one in what we call a prioritization matrix. We've done the priorities. Then from there, that's when we deliver the solution. Now, the biggest challenge we are seeing with most of our government, most of our institutions, on how we approach health is that we are doing things with a desire of seeing change, but we are not realizing change. Why? Because we are delivering a package containers of healthcare to people who need water first. That's devastating. That must be quite a shock and it's expensive, guys, because you've already put out a couple of resources and then only need to come back and realize, oh my gosh, they didn't really need these ones so now you have to outsource another set of resources and oh my goodness. Okay, in the same breath, maybe, since he's traveled in different regions, if someone, and we have different cultures, if someone has a vision, if someone has a vision, if someone has a vision, if someone has a vision, so if a culture is primarily their diet, once in a while, how would you tell them to adjust their diet? One, you need to understand that culture resists change. Sana? Yes. So if you're introducing something new to the community, not even a community to you as an individual, I must involve you. I must make you understand the importance of changing whatever you're doing and start doing whatever I want to tell you. Once you get to understand the advantages, the importance, chances are very high, you'll adopt or you will embrace the change. Let me give you an example. We discuss and I advise you that when you work out, you are likely to lose weight. Maybe you came to a health facility and after cutting out a diagnosis, you unionize that you're overweight, you're obese, you need to lose weight. That is the solution. Then I advise you and tell you, you know what, Valentine? One of the ways that you can decide to lose weight is through working out. There are different ways of working out. You can walk, you can run, you can visit the gym, you can do aerobics. Then I ask you, Valentine, do you have lifts? Then you're like, yes. You walk or you use the lift. Then you're like, I use the lift. Do you think by working, you can lose weight? You are like, yes, according to what you have discussed. Next time Valentine, you go back to your workplace and you are nearly determined to lose weight so that you can attain the normal weight. Will you use the lift or will you use the stairs? Stairs. Good. Why? Because you sat down, discussed and you saw the importance of losing weight and one of the measures that can be put in place to lose weight is through working. Now, when you visit a community, for example, you visit the Kikuhu community, most of them, they feel like they are making a mistake. Actually, some of them, they feel like they are making a mistake. But you share with them, make them understand the importance of their fish. Make them understand the nutrients that you get from the fish. We have the essential omega-6 and omega-3 which are obtained from the sea fish. And if you share with them the importance of those omegas and you advise them that the good source of food that you can obtain this omega-3 and omega-6 from, it's from the fish, do you think that community can embrace fish eating? I think a little bit more, yes. And then also, I think preparation is key because now, if you throw a fish somewhere, people are not used to it. They'll just put waru, karot, nikabe, mashakura. Suddenly, it's just a disaster. So we also have to learn how to actually prepare it in order for it to give us the best. Good. Valentine. Let's take, for example, waru. You go to a community where by waru can be prepared in different ways. You can smash it to form a mukimo. You can as well boil it and then you defray it in the oil. You can make chips. You can decide to make just mashed potatoes. Then you rub it with some butter. You just do a bit of mixing. And there's that person who just decides to boil waru and serve the family. Which method do you think most people can embrace to prepare so that they can consume that waru? I think the simpler version would be more common. The simpler and the most attractive, right? So when you're introducing this change to the community you have to make sure it is attractive in such a way that even that child, even that youth will be looking forward to embracing that change. Previously, sorry, you wanted to say something. I was just speaking that breath because there's something that is coming up consistently that the biggest problem with our health system let me call it a setup, not a system. Yeah, the setup and the system. All of them. The biggest challenge that we are coming up right now as we are discussing and if you can really look at it is just so simple. The biggest challenge that we are facing right now is communication. And I quote the good book that says my people perish because of lack of knowledge. The only thing that we need right now is an enhancement of communication methodologies. And because communication goes in a way that is ascending and receiving message. What we've been doing is that we've been sending but we are not willing to receive the feedback. Why? Because one, we have fears of negative feedback and two, because we have vested interests. I'm a supplier of health equipment, for instance. So if I was to send a message of proper living and a message of a contract for supply of medical equipment what would be favorable for me? A supply of medical equipment, why? Because it has a translation into my bank account. But my biggest problem is I'm not seeing beyond the bank account because that bank account is going to grow but my family is going to get sick. So the money will channel in and channel out through health. As you receive, it's just the hand that receives gives back. Now that's the biggest challenge. So the thing is, can we enhance, like right now if I was to be at a policy place to make a decision, right now my policy perspective towards the government, towards institution would be one. When I get to a certain site, I'll merge all the NGOs so that I bring them on a common table and call them partners. Get to know what you're doing, what you're doing, what you're doing. Get to see how can I integrate the three of you so that we can achieve one thing. Because we have three NGOs within a simple county. Each NGO is delivering a simple mandate. All these mandates are running concurrently and some of them are the same. So why can't I stop the resources for this guy and pick these resources and merge them with this one to deliver just one thing, communication. Get out to the people. Sounds very smart. These guys have got solutions for their... Let me tell you something. If today the country stopped taking refugee and solutions to Turkana, this is my own opinion, they will still survive. Why? Because they have their own metal. Human beings are solution givers. Once I get myself into trouble, I know how to get out of it. So the only thing is, can I support you out of your trouble, your way? And if your way is not the right way, can I enhance your knowledge by giving you knowledge that now have acquired? Then once you start buying into my knowledge, you might not buy it using the methodology that I'm giving you. You might buy it the way you want to buy it. Then now can we start working out? And that's purely knowledge dissemination and information and communication. Why? Because any relationship is strengthened by communication. The biggest reason why we have strikes, the biggest reason why the health system is failing in terms of strikes, constant strikes, it's built just because of one thing. Communication. And even relationships in the house are failing because of communication. So when I help you today, it's not something that would have been... If somebody sat down and see, so this is a trend that is coming up in Kenya, couples are humming themselves, especially the youth. A boyfriend goes to a girlfriend's dormitory. Assumes the worst and just... So the thing is, can we enhance that level of communication? Because that's still health. That's still within our dockets. Can we enhance communication? Can we get to a place where even the church systems stop first of all delivering, going to heaven and start teaching people how to get to know themselves? Oh, I like that. I really like that because again, I feel like this is a concept that is linked to people abroad. Even if you tell someone to go see a shrink or go get some help, some counseling, if they're going through something that really needs you to talk to a professional, they'll say, I am black, I don't know if we can do these things. And on the same note, as Africa, maybe even Kenya, you would realize every very high-class area has a slum next to it. And it has a higher population than the actual high-class area. So that means the poverty line, a lot of us are living below the poverty line. So if I get sick, either I go to the clinic and I buy a paedetone, then I sleep, then I tell myself, it's just for sleep, then I wake up and be fine. Or I go to Ganga, or I go do something unconventional. Or if I go to the clinic that's free, I find, oh my gosh, all the medical practitioners are on strike. Now what do I do? What do I do there? I want to share with you. Do you know that us, and let me first of all alienate myself and say the youth? Because according to the demographics of Kenya, I'm now getting out of the youth market. We are about to push the edge. Don't worry. No, my status will be around. Now, what I'm saying is, do you know we are living a hoax, a lie? There's one thing I'm realizing that's coming up as a trend. By social media, if somebody went to eat under my youth, I only show the good side of my life. One thing is that we stopped communicating between me and you and now I start communicating with the world. So it's a virtual communication that I don't get feedback. And if I get feedback, it's based on a perception. So if you, your Facebook looks hype, Instagram hype, Haas looks hype, and my world is crumbling, it's me and myself. Now you're depressed. So because I can't go and tell you that this is what I'm going through, because the other day you were in a Rolls Royce, you were rolling. I can't understand it. The other day I saw you at the beach, whether it's Photoshop or real, and I like the cameras, but they come with another purifier of the skin. Hey, filters. You take the filters and you're looking like you are on top of the world today. So my own problems, I close them in my cocoon. Then I'm wondering, now, how do I go about this? Now, do you know if we just made one thing that we had a method of reducing on social media and increasing interaction. If you had just five genuine friends that like we do, we do through a small group, we do journeys, we do hiking, mountains. That time when I'm having issues and we are on the road and she's my partner while we are taking a mountain, I'll vent out, you know, like you don't care because these are stranger, you are a stranger. So as you're communicating and as you're talking, there is this element of just oozing out that bad energies. And a problem shared is a problem half solved. Exactly. So the biggest reason why the other health system, especially now within the youth sector, is now coming up and bringing up about something we call man-communicable diseases like the deaths, like the suicides, like the depression. The depression rates are growing high, especially among the youth. Then withdrawal symptoms. That's basically it. All right. Now just to finish up, I think we had way too much fun. The time has flown. Oh my gosh. Right from Facebook, at White 514 on Twitter. I would like to touch on something. And I know it might seem far-fetched because the youth are out here being told that they should be creative. Stop asking for job from Serical. Serical does not have job. We took a shower to Mawaskia. But there is a very close relation to being creative and taking care of yourself. Taking care of yourself in mind and body and all other things. Basically, you must be healthy. The foods you're eating are directly related to how you're thinking. How fast you can think. How far you can think. How creative you can think. Am I lying? Am I telling the truth? So, Tuambe vijana. It's po kuatu kuachamia darari. Tuwache, yes. But we should also take care of ourselves. Before you wake up and start thinking of what to do and how to get your income. Just walk like she said. Do simple exercise like she said. Just take care of your mental health like he said. Eat well. Eat right. So that you won't go fighting with your friend at all. I want this job. I'll kill you now for it or something of a sort. Am I correct? Am I just making a noise? That's very right. They've agreed with me. So, vijana. Take care of yourself. Alright, so your last comments as we wrap this up. Just mention something. You said about vijana, you're completing your job. And then you keep on saying ah, what to do? End of argument. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Now, you need to understand before that MP, before that governor, apart from your seat, he had to work hard. He works smart. What we need to do is to ask him who is the governor and who did it. But he said he convinced you to vote him in and vote here. So, he worked hard for that job. We're not like vijana. We're just doing what we're doing. We're just doing what we're doing. We're just doing what we're doing. We're just doing what we're doing. We're just doing what we're doing. And always maintain good diet because if we're happy we can't just leave it like that. We're just going to help you That's deep. Your last remarks? For the youth and for everyone who might be watching. My last short, solutions are within ourselves. Solutions will never be out. If I can't get a job, let me support your idea. Let me work with you. In helping you grow, you help me grow. That's the basic concept behind employment. So can you identify one of your friends, see their dreams and build their dreams? That's one. Two, and the last one, is that network that you are supporting one is also another social healthcare solution for your own depression issues. Because that close-knit friendship is where you vent. And through venting, almost 70% of your diseases are already taken care of. That's hypertension, diabetes and the common diseases. That was the area. My past statistics, I don't know what else I can tell you to make you believe. I started the segment by telling you that the definition of health by the World Health Organization is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease or infirmity. So please take care of yourself. Please, at White 5 on Facebook, at White 2-5 on Twitter. Hashtag is, Don't go away. We have Man Crush Monday coming up next.