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Life orientation

Grade 7

Healthy lifestyle

Module 3

Ways to live with diseases

Ways to live with diseases (including HIV/AIDS)

It is very important to realise, even at a very young age, that each day that you are alive, is a gift. Nobody ever knows for sure that he will still be alive the next day. That is why it is important to live each day as if it might be your last.

People who are aware that they suffer from a fatal disease, e.g. cancer or HIV/AIDS, need special attention and encouragement to remind them daily of their mortality. They have to endure pain and discomfort that nobody will understand who have not

experienced it.

Activity 1:

To make deductions from a poem

[lo 1.3]

Individual

Read the poem on your own, close your eyes and think about the meaning of the words:

If this were my last day I’m almost sure

I’d spend it working in my garden.

I would dig about my little plants, and try

To make them happy, so they would endure

Long after me. Then I would hide secure

Where my green arbour shades me from the sky,

And watch how bird and bee and butterfly

Come hovering to every flowery lure.

Then, as I rested, perhaps a friend or two,

Lovers of flowers would come, and we would walk

About my little garden paths and talk

Of peaceful times when all the world seemed true.

This may be my last day, for all I know;

What a temptation just to spend it so!

Anne Higgins Spicer ( Light from Many Lamps , 1951: 15)

Arbour means ‘tree’.

Lure means ‘to tempt someone to come closer’.

Answer these questions for yourself

  • What, in life, is important to this person?
  • One could answer: nature, friends and peace.
  • What would you like to do on the last day of your life?

Activity 2:

To react to a disease

[lo 1.3]

Group Activity 1

The following list indicates ways to handle a serious disease so that the sick person as well as the people who are affected by the illness may carry on with their lives in a positive way.

Each group must choose at least two of the strategies for discussion, and also make new suggestions with regard to handling the diseases.

Acquire information on the disease

Always keep hoping

  • Ask relatives to help
  • Pray for the person
  • Approach a clinic or hospital for help
  • Keep cutlery and plates clean
  • Prepare special food for the person
  • Contact the local hospice
  • Be alert to symptoms that might indicate that you also have the disease

Assessment

Learning outcomes(LOs)
LO 1
HEALTH PROMOTIONThe learner will be able to make informed decisions regarding personal, community and environmental health.
Assessment standards(ASs)
We know this when the learner:
1.1 proposes ways to improve the nutritional value of own personal diet;
1.2 evaluates actions to address an environmental health problem;
1.3 describes strategies for living with diseases, including HIV/AIDS;
1.4 discusses the personal feelings, community norms, values and social pressures associated with sexuality.

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Source:  OpenStax, Life orientation grade 7. OpenStax CNX. Sep 10, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11029/1.1
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