Story of SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
What does health mean to you?
And how can we achieve health for all? What is needed so that all living beings on Earth can feel well?
In three open workshops, interested students from the Vocational School for Medical Professions (BS15) were invited to discuss these and other questions, and to contribute their ideas, thoughts, wishes, and perspectives.
First, the UN Sustainable Development Goals were introduced, and students collected words and concepts they associated with them. The project team explained that it was not only the COVID-19 pandemic that motivated the creation of the next mural on SDG 3 “Health and Well-being”, but also the overarching importance of “Health for All.” It did not take long before the students’ first sketches illustrated this meaning: friendship, family and community, preservation of natural resources, accumulation of waste in clinics, equality, free choice of education, public transportation… a wide variety of important ideas were gathered.
As an artistic method to visualize their ideas and thoughts on what health means to them, body maps were used. This method allows participants to reflect on experiences, emotions, thoughts, and personal stories in a very individual and expressive way.
To also capture the perspective of young children on the topic of “Health for All”, the project visited the Open Children’s Center at House 3 in Hamburg-Altona in January 2023. Thematically, the content had to be slightly simplified, or translated into plain language: “Happy life.”
How does that feel? With bold colors and strong brushstrokes, the children got to work. Friendship. Equality. Movement. Peace. Butterflies…
From these colorful and lively body maps, the artist Bettina Wistuba created the mural motif.
“All elements on the mural come directly from the body maps created by the students and children. I didn’t add anything of my own; I only assembled them. That was important to me. It’s not my picture, but a collage of everything that moved the participants and that they wanted to express. ‘Health and Wellbeing’ goes far beyond the targets of SDG 3 for me. Not every health problem has the right medicine or suitable medical care. Healthy living for all involves much more… Wellbeing encompasses our entire existence,” explains Bettina Wistuba.
An interview about her work, her understanding, and her perspective can be read HERE (only available in German).