19 June 2008

Traveller Women to Promote Health and Wellbeing in their Community

Twenty Traveller women from the Armagh area have completed a ‘Health and Capacity Building’ course to promote health and wellbeing within their community.

Organised by Armagh Traveller Support Group, the course ran from September 2007– May 2008 and taught participants key community development skills and how to use health services in the right way.

It is hoped that through the course, facilitated by Arlene Millar, Community Sector Training Rural College Network and various Health Professionals, participants will use their skills to support other members of the Traveller community and have the confidence to get more involved with the wider community.

Already, six of the women have become members of Armagh Traveller Support Group Committee and some are interested in becoming volunteers for future projects.

Melanie McClements, Assistant Director for Promoting Wellbeing at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust says: “People from the Traveller community are known to have poorer health and a lower life expectancy than those living in the settled community. Projects like this try to find new ways of delivering health information to Traveller people and overcome some of the barriers they face in accessing health and social services.”