Urban community health education in Africa

African urban populations are growing at a fast rate. The resulting health problems pose a challenge to health education. A community development, self-help approach is recommended. Experiences of health educators-in-training in Ibadan, Nigeria, show this approach to be relevant if practitioners are able to creatively deal with certain community variables-community identity, internal integration, group orientation, external linkage and resource characteristics. At times students express concern about the relevance of this approach to the African setting. Their failures in applying the approach can be traced back to the western bias in teaching materials and the general educational system. The challenge to health educators is to provide training experiences with a cultural sensitivity which encourages students to work with the community as they find it and not how it should be according to a foreign textbook.