In January 2021, Chevron partnered with Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN) and other public agencies to increase health literacy and an understanding of the One Health approach, with the launch of a program called, “Strengthening One Health Education in Southeast Asia”.
The two-year program covers One Health education for school children and their teachers, university students and their professors, as well as healthcare professionals who are solving complex issues in their communities. The increased knowledge and practice of One Health will better prepare Southeast Asia to combat infectious disease outbreaks, originating from animals.
“One Health” is an integrative effort of multiple disciplines —working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—to attain optimal health for people, animals, and their shared environment.
The objective of this program is to promote the ‘One Health’ concept among students, school officials and teachers in Thai border schools, support expansion of SEAOHUN programs to new member countries, create a regional student program, and promote the One Health success story of the ‘Lawa model’, to make it widely accessible.
The program, which runs through December 2022, aims to improve public health literacy in children to lay the foundation for effective public responses to infectious disease threats in the future, foster One Health University Networks and develop One Health leaders in Southeast Asia and train health professionals from all member countries to apply the integrative One Health approach with active community engagement. Member countries include Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The program plans to train 50 primary school teachers to incorporate One Health into their teaching curricula, provide One Health education to 1000 primary school children, engage 200 university students in regional student activities and provide One Health training to 230 in-service professionals.
