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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Muadi Mukenge, MA, Program Officer, Women Connect!, Pacific Institute for Women's Health, 3450 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1000, Los Angeles, CA 90010, (213) 386-2600, mmukenge@piwh.org
The Pacific Institute for Women’s Health has spent three years working to strengthen the communication and technology skills of women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Africa with the goal of promoting women’s health and women's empowerment. Through the project Women Connect!, we provided technical assistance in media campaign strategy and the use of email and the Internet to further advocacy and organizational goals. We worked in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda with 30 women’s groups. The paper will present findings from our final external evaluation and feature case studies on the utilization of communications tools by NGOs to promote issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention, domestic violence prevention and women’s reproductive and sexual health and rights. This is a case study that will demonstrate that communication strategies can effectively enhance the empowerment of women to promote health issues in Africa. The presentation will consist primarily of qualitative data compiled from a semi-structured survey that was administered to a sample of 26 partner NGOs.
Women Connect! NGOs received a small grant to implement a communications capacity building project carried out over one year. The Pacific Institute is applying lessons from Women Connect! within its current programs, primarily through the launch of a grants program for all training activities globally. The presentation will present the lessons learned for effective collaboration to improve reproductive and sexual health. The Pacific Institute model is useful for international organizations that seek to identify effective strategies for capacity building with developing country NGOs.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Media, Women's Health
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.