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Well we had a website but even the study staff didn’t use it much. I guess we were not even sure how to manage digital space ! However there was an article in the newspaper that said the Mass Drug Administration of Praziquantel in school children had killed 4 kids. Our study was testing for Bilharzia in school children and when we arrived at one school the villagers had gathered to ask us about the drug. We explained to them that it was the Ministry of Health that was running that programme and we were testing only and not treating. It was an eventful day for us because we had never handled such and issues before. We did not go and develop an issues management plan thought, I guess we were also a bit blank about handling issues.
Hie Jorge
I think it can start from the ethics committees to demand for community engagement plans when people sub,it protocols , so that when the researchers go to the communities it becomes like a regulatory requirement to do so. Justification for this can be that the communities can misunderstand research and consent to things they dont understand hence the need for CE. I guess also for you the Government should be viewed as one of your important stakeholders with the most influence and a specific plan on how to get their buy in needs to be in place.
It is sad though that the government is the one that blocks CE !
How does your team ensure community stakeholder understanding, buy-in and support for the overall goal of your engagement program? What are you doing well? What can be improved?
The team held PRA workshops with the community members and stakeholders before and during the study. We also had bi-annual community feedback workshops. This helped us to have buy-in for our CSE plan. We also acknowledge the assistance we got from the traditional and administrative leaders in the community, they assisted with mobilization and disseminating information to the community members and helped us to form linkages with NGOs, Gvt Dpts that were already working in the area although not doing research.I think we did well in this aspect but we could have had more community feedback meetings like quarterly so that the study remained in touch with the participating villages.
My experience was slightly different from most of you guys because we had 2 PIs, 2 Post Docs, 7 PhD students, 2 MPhil students meant that I had to ensure that they worked as a trans-disciplinary team, which was not easy. Our sights were in SA and Zimbabwe and both were research naïve with very little experience of CSE. The challenge was get everyone in the team out of their academic silos and bring them together with very naïve community and stakeholders. The PIs had vast experience with CSE in rural communities whilst I was more used to the urban type of CSE and having a department dedicated to doing this work. The PI first organised a teambuilding exercise for the research team before we could even interact with the community. The concept of CSE was introduced to the study team. At first they wondered why they had to be part of the CSE plan because they saw it a my business because I was primarily working on CSE for my PhD. After some role plays and discussions of scenarios and showing them the work involved we then agreed on specific roles for each team member. As we started fieldwork , yes there were challenges and I had to chip in here and there because I do subscribe to the idea that not everyone has “people skills” or can easily connect with people outside their usual academic silos. In the end we had to work as a team because things like CAB meetings , community workshops & trainings needed all of us to play our part. We even saw the most “complicated” part of our project being communicated by the tea leader in a very understandable and culturally sensitive manner. We had teething problems but in the end we all now appreciate the value of actually planning for and budgeting for CSE.
Hie everyone I am Rosemary Musesengwa. I work for the MRC, Zimbabwe. I am the Head of Training and Communication and I am also the Principal Compliance Officer. For the past 3 years I was doing my PhD in Public Health at the University of KwaZulu Natal. My dissertation was on “Community Engagement Strategies and Experiences in Multicenter Studies”. I used the GPP Book for much of my work, even though the study I worked on was on Malaria & Bilharzia not on HIV/AIDS. I was very interested to go through this training so we can also offer it amongst the other courses we offer, like GCP & Ethics. I am very excited to finally learn more about GPP !!!
