Xi Chen

Osteoarthritis (OA) as one of the common causes of disability in China, prevails especially in the remote mountainous areas of China. Given the inadequacy of the local medical system, poverty and a lack of understanding/education, OA patients in these areas usually cannot get proper timely treatment and most of them cannot afford the high fees.

Having OA is especially harsh for those engaged in hard physical labour and the less well-off females. OA is not life threatening, but indeed impacts the patient’s quality of life and poses social problems. It makes more sense to prevent and delay the OA process rather than relying on local medical services when disability occurs.

Amongst all of the influencing factors of OA, harmful postures in working are my project’s entry points. This project is a mobile early-education workshop programme. By joining it, children, accompanied by their mothers, learn basic health knowledge from family playing and together cultivate better behaviours. This programme will be supported by the government and could be run as a charity. Paying for membership, local residents could enjoy games and try teaching tools and also obtain several helpful pieces of furniture in the form of kits for children and parents.

Taking into account the inadequacy of local educational resources, transportation and medical services, this programme could also propagate other activities, products and information.