This article reports on the experience of returning knowledge produced through an educational research action in health carried out in a local community and shows that the dialogue afforded by problematization allows for opportunities for collective reflection on problems experienced by everyone, offering conditions for the development of citizens who are more participatory, more critical and, particularly, more active in confronting their realities. The goal was to discuss with the population the relationship there is between houseflies and environmental health, bringing up issues relating to health and environment in the Morada do Sol Garden and Park Residencial Francisco Belo Galindo neighborhoods, in the city of Presidente Prudente, state of São Paulo, Brazil. To achieve this goal, the research action approach was used based on Paulo Freire's popular education theoretical framework, debating health conditions in impoverished periurban areas and analyzing the experience of coordinating social players to solve their health issues. At the end, the authors bring up a few aspects that were seized in the investigation of the community health educational processes, by which, starting from the reflections on the environment, health and environmental problems affecting the wider community were unveiled.
geography of health; problematization; health education
