O'Donovan James, Thompson Andrew, Stiles Christina, Opintan Japheth A, Kabali Ken, Willis Ian, Mutimba Mwebe Edward, Nalweyiso Elizabeth, Mugabi Henry, Kateete David P, Ameniko Matthew, Govina George, Weberman Rachel, O'Neil Edward, Winters Niall, Mutreja Ankur
Department of Education, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Division of Research & Global Health Equity, Omni Med, Mukono, Mukono District, Uganda.
Health Promot Int. 2020 Dec 1;35(6):1353-1368. doi: 10.1093/heapro/daz127.
Sanitation is a major global challenge that is often addressed at national and international levels, while community opinions and beliefs are neglected. To promote water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) we organized a cross-cultural knowledge exchange workshop to assess participatory methods for engaging local stakeholders. The workshop included 22 participants from all sectors of society. Practical solutions to sanitation challenges were identified and later shared with a local community. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to assess impact and showed participatory methods were highly valued to encourage information sharing among widely varied stakeholders, and that video was a particularly successful approach when engaging with local communities. An 8-month follow-up survey of village members revealed excellent information recall, positive behaviour changes and a desire for future visits. Our evidence suggests that community-based participation helped identify solutions to WASH issues affecting rural communities in resource-poor settings. Engaging in a multicultural knowledge-share was particularly valuable as it enabled participants to recognize they have common challenges and allowed them to share low-cost solutions from their different communities. Our use of video was widely viewed as an ideal means of circulating findings, as it communicated information to people with a wide variety of community roles and to all age groups. Its relevance was increased by adopting a culturally appropriate context by involving local communities in workshop activities. We recommend that research in low- and middle-income countries should be mindful of the environmental context in which WASH is implemented, and encourage acceptance by engaging with communities through the use of varied participatory methods.
环境卫生是一项重大的全球挑战，通常在国家和国际层面得到解决，而社区的意见和信念却被忽视。为了促进水、环境卫生和个人卫生（WASH），我们组织了一次跨文化知识交流研讨会，以评估让当地利益相关者参与的参与式方法。该研讨会有来自社会各界的22名参与者。确定了应对环境卫生挑战的实际解决方案，并随后与当地社区分享。采用定性和定量分析来评估影响，结果表明参与式方法在鼓励不同利益相关者之间分享信息方面受到高度重视，并且视频在与当地社区互动时是一种特别成功的方法。对村民进行的为期8个月的后续调查显示，他们对信息的回忆良好，行为有积极变化，并且希望未来再次开展此类活动。我们的证据表明，基于社区的参与有助于找到解决资源匮乏地区农村社区所面临的水、环境卫生和个人卫生问题的方案。开展多元文化知识共享特别有价值，因为它使参与者认识到他们面临共同的挑战，并使他们能够分享各自社区的低成本解决方案。我们使用视频被广泛视为传播研究结果的理想方式，因为它向具有各种社区角色的人和所有年龄组的人传达了信息。通过让当地社区参与研讨会活动，采用适合文化背景的方式，视频的相关性得到了增强。我们建议，在低收入和中等收入国家开展研究时，应考虑到实施水、环境卫生和个人卫生的环境背景，并通过使用各种参与式方法与社区互动，以促进社区的接受。
