The community allocated for Group A’s Community Attachment Program was Nawa Halanduruwa, comprising 112 households under the Wattala MOH area. During household visits, malnutrition caused by unhealthy food habits, was a major concern. Growing children were the most affected group, requiring adequate nutrition in proper quantity and quality.

The general objective of our intervention was to improve the nutritional status of children under 12 years and promote home gardening. 

The Medical Officer Nutrition Unit, Colombo North Teaching Hospital Ragama and the Department of Public Health facilitated the project. A two-month follow-up showed improvements: among 7 SAM and MAM children, 6 showed progress, and normal BMI increased from 60% to 76%. Calorie intake adequacy improved from 56.60% to 83.03%.

Knowledge on healthy eating was enhanced through games and interactive sessions. Home gardening efforts were initiated which included compost production training led by the area’s Agriculture Officer. As a result, 19% of households started new gardens, 26.19% improved existing ones, and 4.76% began composting.

The intervention successfully met its objectives and enhanced our understanding of the doctor’s role in community health, contributing significantly to our personal and professional development.

   

Group A 3 of Batch 32 organized a program to improve the understanding of waste disposal and environmental sustainability of 131 residents in the Welisara area. 

To ensure sustainability, we established an environmental club as a part of a larger social club and appointed community members to spearhead future actions. The club soon became a focal point for environmental action initiating clean-up drives, facilitating compost production and securing active participation and approval from nearly 80% of the residents.

Through the club we also forged partnerships with two local recyclers to establish a waste collection schedule for items not collected by the urban council. Further, the club coordinated with the urban council to reinstate a reliable garbage collection schedule, achieving something that had been absent in the region for nearly 7 years. 

A remarkable milestone that we achieved through this intervention, was bringing about demonstrable and measurable behavioural changes among the residents. Households practicing waste segregation rose by nearly half, while a significant number of residents adopted the 3R principles of waste management. This was coupled by a sharp decline in harmful waste disposal methods such as open dumping and burning. 

In less than six months we were able to transform the community’s approach to waste management, empowering the residents and sparking a lasting change for a brighter and more sustainable future.

Group C 2 of Batch 32 initiated a community intervention to improve nutrition among the population of Welisara area by education on nutrition, reading food labels and initiating home gardening projects. 

This  intervention engaged 33 families via a WhatsApp group with strong participation. Key outcomes included a 188% achievement of initial targets with 83% of participants improving BMI and 96% enhancing food label literacy. A community-led nutritional workforce, the _Poshana Balakaya_ formed and sustained with 85% engagement, encouraging sustainable changes such as healthier eating and home gardening with plans of community wide healthy food competition in near future.

The WhatsApp group which served as a platform to gather their suggestions and prioritize the topics. Then we organized a community discussion at the community hall of the village with 47 active participants. There we measured anthropometric measurements of the participants, assessed their knowledge through the questionnaire, played a  healthy food plate game as teams, and discussed BMI, healthy food plate, healthy food habits and food labels. Their knowledge and healthy food practices are evaluated through revisits. In fact they are encouraged to send healthy food recipes via the WhatsApp group.

Some community members began home gardening, despite difficulties in accessing free seeds. They overcame this by seeking help from local gardeners. We learned to work with diverse opinions and identified areas for better planning and coordination.

Students of Group D 3 Batch 33 conducted a community intervention at Thotupola road, Welisara. The community had 29 households which consisted of a population of 103 people. The intervention named ‘haritha gamak - sapiri hetak’ was conducted aiming to address improper waste management and lack of space for gardening as our community intervention programme.

With this intervention we aimed to increase the number of households in the target community that engaged in home gardening using recycled materials by 20%, to Improve awareness and knowledge about waste segregation in the community by 40% and to decrease the amount of improperly disposed waste at household and community level at least decreased by 20%

We launched an awareness programmed on 19^th August 2024 at the Thotupola Road Prajashalawa, conducted by the divisional agricultural development officer as a combination of enhancing waste management practices and promoting home gardening by utilizing recycled materials, followed by an interactive session where the community and ourselves engaged in preparation of pots for gardening, using plastic waste. Then we distributed plants and seeds to mark the event.

Two months after the intervention an increased of usage of plastic waste for gardening by 37.9% and an increase of plastic waste segregation by 27.6% and a reduction of burning of polythene and plastic waste by 48.3% was also observed.

The main focus of the community intervention by Group D 4 was to improve the physical activity of the residents of Thotupola Road, Welisara. The population in this intervention consisted of 105 participants from 27 households who had a significant prevalence of CVD risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia.

To counteract these risk factors, our intervention emphasized health education & community mobilization. Activities included a Shramadhana drive to clean and renovate the public playground and children's play area, a medical check-up and physical activity awareness session, and an art competition for kids to encourage health education through creative art.

The community was mobilised to conduct a shramadana to clean the play ground and children’s’ play ground in the neighborhood. We encouraged the community to participate in this event and got the support from local politicians and community leaders. The use of the public playground rose steadily over four weeks of observation, showing a change in lifestyle behavior of the community.

Despite financial restrictions and resistance to change, the initiative was successful in raising awareness, promoting active lifestyles, and creating the public space as an effective community facility.