Tribal affiliations, health conceptions and preventive health care strategies: Participatory action research with Francophone African immigrant and refugee women

United African Sisters of North Carolina (UASNC) is a community-based organization that was created in 2009. Its mission is to create a framework within which immigrant and refugee women from English-speaking and Francophone Africa are free to meet each other, provide mutual support and encourage empowerment. Additionally the organization helps women to “understand their new home and to help them learn how to access services and opportunities that are available to them.” Facilitated by funding from the University of North Carolina, we developed a collaborative project with UASNC to examine how tribal affiliations and traditions influence current health conceptualizations and preventive health care practice among African immigrant and refugee women living in housing communities in Greensboro, North Carolina. The project was guided by the participatory action research (PAR) model. With guidance from UASNC executive members we developed and implemented language appropriate interview protocols to engage women in a process of describing their tribal backgrounds, concept of health and sickness, traditional strategies for preventive health care, familiarity and experience with U.S. health care system and likelihood of accessing preventive health care for self and family. Analysis of the interviews involved an iterative process in which UASNC collaborators and women interviewees reviewed and verified key themes that emerged. This presentation will highlight thematic findings and their theoretical and practical significance to UASNC's “next steps” in addressing immigrant and refugee women's empowerment for successful health promotion and disease prevention. We will also discuss lessons learned from utilizing the PAR model.