Learning and teaching Emotional Logic in Zimbabwe: A lifelong learning emotional literacy training package that promotes healthy adjustment in resource-poor settings

Abstract

This article describes an innovative, rapidly effective, low cost, health promoting educational input that can strengthen social systems to support the social and emotional development of orphan children. The training project took place in a resource-poor area of rural southern Zimbabwe. The teaching was found to be culturally relevant and transferable, to the extent that several of the learners progressed to become tutors, training others to use the method in local languages. The method promotes healthy adjustment, emotional resilience and intelligent decision-making for health. By reducing chronic stress in orphans and their carers, lifelong learning may improve immune function.