The Knowledge is Power (KIP) Program

Our founder, Cristina Woodhouse, started the KIP Program as a global health project while attending medical school at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in 2014.  With the help of her adviser, Dr. David Bedell, she started a public health initiative beginning by forming a community advisory board in El Porvenir, Honduras and conducting surveys and needs assessments of the community.  

Out of the this and much research, she developed a four week curriculum to teach adolescents about health.  The community and her research had identified some important topics that make up the general themes of the KIP Program: the human body, reproductive health, child health, prevention of infectious diseases, nutrition, violence and sexual abuse, drug use, environmental health, and community advocacy.  

Every year over the wintertime, Shake the World Health holds a four-week health class for adolescents in El Porvenir, Honduras.  The local teachers lead the program and have gone through training to do so.  Kids are invited from all over town and recruited by our teachers as well.  The kids join the program and receive a curriculum workbook.  They also take an exam and attitudes/behaviors survey at the beginning and end of the course to assess knowledge gained  and attitude changes. There are typically two separate groups in different areas of the community, each having 2.5 hours of class per day, four days a week.  Fridays they do a fun activity together. They students also prepare a health presentation that they give at the end of the course at a community wide health fair to educate their community about relevant health problems.  The students receive a t-shirt, diploma, and small gift at the completion of the course.  

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic we do not have dates planned for our KIP 2021 program.  Most likely, we will not be hosting a program in January or February due to social distancing concerns.  We will update you when we have our next program planned.