Meaningful community engagement and involvement in global health and research: 'Changing mindsets with a million conversations' in Sierra Leone

Communities are complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous social groupings which may have different or even competing ideas about what they need; all engagement requires a deep understanding of that community’s social determinants of health and intersecting experiences [6]. [...]contextually grounded appr...

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Published inJournal of global health Vol. 14; p. 03019
Main Authors November, Lucy, Kamara, Mangenda, Kamara, Philemon, Thomas, Suzanne, Kingsford, Appiah M, Shennan, Andrew H, Sandall, Jane, Turienzo, Cristina Fernandez, Williams, Prince T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Scotland Edinburgh University Global Health Society 12.04.2024
International Society of Global Health
Subjects
Blood
Blood & organ donations
Children & youth
Community involvement
Empowerment
Families & family life
Girls
Global Health
Humans
Low income groups
Maternal child nursing
Mentors
Public health
Sierra Leone
Teenage pregnancy
Verbal communication
Viewpoints
Womens health
Sierra Leone
Freetown Sierra Leone
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Summary:Communities are complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous social groupings which may have different or even competing ideas about what they need; all engagement requires a deep understanding of that community’s social determinants of health and intersecting experiences [6]. [...]contextually grounded approaches are more likely to involve communities meaningfully if they build and maintain trusting relationships with openness towards new ways of respectful and positive power-shifting and sharing, valuing and including different knowledge bases and perspectives, and using more participatory methods [6,11]. Some of LNP’s recent successes included CEI activities to relieve tensions between or within villages across the country, to conduct sensitisation campaigns during the Ebola outbreak, to support rebuilding after the 2018 floods, and to raise awareness of blood donation by leading a community-hospital partnership to recruit volunteers and make blood readily available in hospitals to save lives. [...]if the result is shifting attitudes and mindsets to benefit young, marginalised groups, including girls and women, they are a hugely valuable investment. 1 Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK 2 University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone 3 Lifeline Nehemiah Projects, Freetown, Sierra Leone 4 Welbodi Partnership, Freetown, Sierra Leone
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ISSN:2047-2978
2047-2986
DOI:10.7189/JOGH.14.03019