Outputs and Impacts: Community dialogues

We trained 55 volunteers from the catchment areas of five Community Clinics (which provide primary healthcare to around 30,000 people in total) on the appropriate use of antibiotics and on basic communication and facilitation skills. These volunteers then convened over 400 meetings, each of which was attended by 40 community members on average. The volunteers were supervised by members of the network of Support Groups that manage the Community Clinics.

Decisions documented by communities included not buying antibiotics without a prescription, visiting the Community Clinic if unwell, and encouraging handwashing among community members. A major challenge observed was volunteers’ ability to facilitate rather than dominate the meetings and to encourage the active participation of attendees. This highlighted the need for the programme to reinforce key training messages via regular feedback meetings with volunteers. Observations also revealed a need to strengthen communities’ capacity to plan for putting decisions into action and to monitor progress.

Project outputs include:

A project brief

A briefing note

3 or more peer-reviewed publications (in progress)

A film which can be accessed here https://youtu.be/dCWr_mE3Dv4

An infographic The Talking Cure-FINAL(Screen)