The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #48170

Lucy A. Harber, MA¹, James McCaffery, PhD², and Laura R. Murray¹. (1) Intrah/PRIME II, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 8100, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8100, 919-962-6789, dnelson@intrah.org, (2) Training Resources Group, 909 N. Washington St., Suite 305, Alexandria, VA 22314

Tapping into a vibrant local culture with positive messages, the PRIME II Project is taking a grassroots approach to improving reproductive and maternal health knowledge and care-seeking behavior in the Dominican Republic's bateyes. Home to former sugarcane workers displaced when the industry was privatized, bateyes are characterized by substandard living conditions and a close-knit sense of community. PRIME's intervention, conducted in collaboration with the Dominican Institute for Community Action, focuses on training community health promoters in family planning education, method provision and HIV/STI prevention. The project also takes advantage of the popularity of radio to broadcast shows on reproductive health topics and the widespread use of cellular phones to support self-directed learning groups. Pushing forward PRIME's mandate to explore the effectiveness and costs of implementing various learning approaches, this intervention is training 35 promoters from seven bateyes. A five-day, classroom-based approach with on-the-job follow-up is underway to train 18 of the promoters; the other 17 are following a less conventional, community-based model that employs a two-day orientation session followed by self-directed learning activities, peer groups, and regular cell phone support from facilitators. All 35 promoters will then hold guided community discussions following radio programs on RH topics, designed to reinforce educational and motivational messages about family planning, HIV/STIs, and prevention of cervical cancer. The highly social nature of the bateyes will be key to this program's success--early findings from monitoring of the implementation will be discussed during this presentation.

Learning Objectives:

• • Articulate the rationale for the design of two learning approaches created for comparing the effectiveness and cost of different training approaches
  • Discuss the RH issues of interest to the members of the batey communities identified in the community-based survey
  • Describe initial lessons learned about the ability of self-directed learning groups to accomplish learning tasks with minimal face-to-face support from facilitators

Keywords: Community-Based Health Promotion, Distance Learning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.