Driving through south Armagh, it is hard not to think about the horrors The inspiring fields and hills is comforting, belying not nearly as welcoming as those involved with the Women's Health Initiative.
Based in the village of Mullaghbawn, the rural-based organisation has a name that does not adequately describe what started in 1996 as a very small community response to the health needs of women in What about the men, I ask, and am quietly reminded that women are the gatekeepers of the family, and that by informing women about good health practices, you automatically reach all of a family. No more stupid questions.
"South Armagh is an area of particular deprivation, with very few services, and we are working from the ground up to see what women want - everything from support groups to developing policy relevant to their needs," says Deirdre Blakely, who works full-time with the initiative.
One of the project's founders is Claire Quigley. She says it was needed to address the feelings of the community in south Armagh.
"They felt disenfranchised and disempowered, because they were in a peripheral area with little representation and no voice in what was happening.
"Policies were being made in Westminster, and by the time they travelled here they were irrelevant. There was a need to create something more appropriate for the area, and particularly to address the need for women and their families to have more control over their lives and have a say in their future and how they would access services they needed."
As a result, the Women's Health Initiative is a health empowerment project. "The ethos of the project and style of the information conveyed is user-friendly; it is not couched in bureaucratic language," says Quigley. To assess the needs of the community, they held meetings and information days and went out to ask women what they wanted.
"We made people aware that this was an interactive process. It wasn't just going to be bundled up and packaged off on their behalf, they were going to be involved. Also, people know what they want," says Blakely.
They looked for funding and ended up getting money from the British National Lottery, which proved vital in turning their ideas into reality. The upshot was a community house in Mullaghbawn, support groups and health information sessions.
The main support groups, again relevant to the needs of the area, are for bereavement, mental health and parents of children with disabilities.
Quigley says they chose a project addressing the health needs of women because the World Health Organisation's definition of health is "a feeling of ".
"We felt it was the underpinning factor: women are involved in health through their own lives and their own life cycles, through caring for other family members, whether they are children or elderly. So it is health in its broadest sense: we don't look at a medical model of health, we look at a social model.
"We are very much open to offering alternatives and information on everything from crystal therapy to Bach flower remedies and reiki: anything you can mention. We believe in bringing information into this area and letting people decide for themselves."
Quigley says her experience as a social worker in the mental-health services for more than 20 years revealed to her that there were services for people with severe and chronic illnesses but none dealing with prevention or supporting people after acute illness.
"I felt strongly we needed support groups for people throughout their life cycle. We didn't set out with a blueprint to impose on the area. The needs have evolved and gone in different directions to those that we, as founders, foresaw.
"It is all to the good that women and the community have dictated the progress and trends. Community workers have guided and matched needs with information brought into Ask the women about their plans for the future and their answers skip off their tongues; once more, they reflect the isolation of local communities. There is little childcare and very little transport in the area.
Again, they see a need for more mental-health support services. "We are looking at people stopping people jumping in the river rather than pulling them out," says Blakely.
In September, in conjunction with the Southern Health and Social Services Board, they are introducing a lay-health-worker programme. As ever, they are going directly into the community to break down the barriers to health information.
They will employ six women to work part-time in their communities with people they know, in situations they feel comfortable with.
It seems a painfully simple approach, yet it is one that has proved so successful in addressing the needs of the community that it is has become a role model for similar projects in the North.
This is flattering but, as Quigley puts it, "it isn't rocket science, it's a very simple process. But people have to stop believing that policymakers know the answers instead of the receivers of a service knowing the answers".