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The Pioneer Health Centre.
3.
Thirteen years ago a small group of people in Peckham, a suburb
of London, started out on a great adventure with a capital of about
£1,000. They were seeking health by new methods and in new ways.
They started a club for working class families, in which each member
It is of the family would have a periodic health overhaul.
important to note the fact that they regarded the family, and not the
individual, as the biological unit. For the individual reacts
strongly to family influences. A bad temper, caused by exhaustion,
may inflict heavy strain on a whole family; remove the cause of
exhaustion and the strain on the family disappears.
It was found,
for example, that when an anaemic woman had been cured of her anaemia
her cooking so improved that the health of all the members of her
family also improved.
The members of the Peckham Health Centre were mostly from
working-class families, who soon grasped and appreciated the prin-
ciples upon which the Centre was built. The average wage of these
families is between £3-15-0 and £4-10-0 a week. They pay their fees
willingly and work for the cause enthusiastically.
Their new club
cures families of their diseases as a necessary preliminary to estab-
lishing them as healthy units leading healthy lives.
Instruments for the development of physical helth have been
made available, in the form of swimming baths, gymnasia, and playing
grouilas for the children. Lecture rooms, reading rooms, music
rooms and a theatre contribute to their mental development.
restaurant, card rooms, a dance hall and rooms for indoor games
promote pleasant social intercourse. And the good work goes on
steadily. Opened in 1935, the centre has now a membership of more
than 670 families, or about 2,550 persons, many of whom use the
centre daily.
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