Art Meets Health as DRASA Ambassadors Create Supergerm Comic Illustrations
Arts Meets Health, As DRASA Ambassadors Create Supergerms in Comic Illustrations “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle As part of our learning methods for the Health and Hygiene Clubs we established in 30 secondary schools in Osun and Lagos States, 900 DRASA Ambassadors— i.e, student members of the club—were recently put into groups to come up with creative ways to represent the concept of supergerms. These supergerms are microorganisms which have become resistant to the antimicrobial drugs (antimalarials, antibiotics, etc) that would normally kill them. The phenomenon of these microorganisms adapting to become immune to the drugs we have to kill them is called antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and it’s been called the “silent pandemic” spreading around the world. DRASA Ambassadors creating their supergerm characters – resistant bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites Prior to this activity, our Ambassadors were taught lessons on germ theory, how germs spread, personal hygiene principles, handwashing, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in humans and animals, sexual and reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections, to mention a few. Understanding these topics was vital for the much-anticipated comic illustration activity. The creative process for the supergerm comic illustrations The comic illustration is one of the many hands-on activities designed by our project team to provide these young Ambassadors with opportunities to be creative, express their visual intelligence, share important health messages, and grasp the concept of AMR, personal health & hygiene and environmental health, with little or no words. In the past, some of these group activities helped inspire previous Ambassadors like Glorious Erhuanga in her journey to becoming an English and Literary student major at University of Lagos. DRASA Ambassadors in action To properly demonstrate their understanding of AMR, students were put together in groups during their Health and Hygiene Club […]
