[Erica]

The benefit I have experienced from stakeholder engagement in  my working  area is transparency and mutual understanding. There was a rumor/misconception about HIV vaccine trial in the community where we had recruited most of the participants who participated in this trial,it is not clear how the rumor started but they were told that all individuals who have been vaccinated will die with in five years to come.  It was quite hectic in such a way that some of the participants were reluctant coming for their subsequent scheduled visits.The research team organized a small meeting with Stakeholders including  community leaders , local government authorities, some influential people from the area, two CAB members, (one of them was a former trial participant). The team explained the trial in details, they had the protocol, ethical clearances from the IRBs and other necessary documents from the authorities allowing the trial to be conducted. The team give time for questions from the stakeholders and all question were answered to their satisfaction. There after the area leaders helped the research team to organize a large community meeting and all trial participants were invited the team was given an opportunity to explain and respond to all questions at the end there was common understanding and trust was regained between the research team and community,then everything went back to normal.