MID-BCC in Cambodia: Training the Frontlines on Risk Communication

By Cecile Lantican

July 2, 2012

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Before discussion of the technical sections, I gave them scenarios which were lifted from real human cases in Cambodia. We analyzed the scenarios by answering sets of questions and leading to the technical discussion in my PowerPoint. With the four scenarios we used, they understood better the concepts being presented. 

One of the participants who joined the surveillance team in Kampong Speu before the pronouncement of the 21st human case of H5N1 shared his video – documenting the rapid response team’s experience of communicating with the people and asking for the village cooperation to contain the disease.

 As my baseline – to observe their usual practice in the field in gathering information from people, we had a field visit to the Central Market in Phnom Penh. I divided the group into two groups with each composed of one health officer, one agriculture officer, one communication officer, one administrator/logistics officer as prescribed in the training guide. Participants were asked to compose their own script, talk with people in the market and do some interviews and practice the messages found in their training handouts. The outcome was to help them determine what they learned and if there were gaps in how they talked to different people during their investigation.

The teams were reminded of the basic premise in risk communication: They were encouraged to identify themselves with the people and tell the people why they were there.

The teams interviewed slaughtered chicken vendors, clothes/shoes sellers, jewelry and gold seller, traveler and sugar cane juice seller. They learned that most people are aware of avian influenza; they heard about avian influenza in television. Most of the people they talked with knew the basic prevention measures but did not know the symptoms of the disease.

The sugar cane juice vendor shared that her family in the province raised backyard poultry. The family experienced dying birds every day.  The family buried the dead chicken. But their neighbors who also had the dead chicken cooked them. Her family was afraid of cooking the dead chicken because they heard about avian influenza in television.

One team asked the lady vendor, “Where do you get your chicken? If you do not raise them yourselves, how do you ensure that you slaughtered the healthy ones?  Have you heard of diseases in chicken like prak sai baksai (bird flu)? “

At the end of the interview, the team learned that the chicken seller is not aware of the risk when she slaughters the poultry. She never cares to protect herself from possible infection.

This team asked the sales ladies if they heard about people getting sick of influenza –like illness.  Two members of the team came from CDC and shared information about symptoms of H5N1 infection in humans.

This team provided the poultry vendor information on how to prepare poultry and to cook poultry meat well.

We spent two hours in the market. Back in the training room the participants discussed their experience, identified their gaps and limitations, and analyzed the situations they encountered.  Their experience in the field will be utilized in group sessions and practice during the provincial training in July.  

The team found the market interview difficult because they did not have much time to practice the questions in the training room. It was my purpose not to give them much time because I would like to observe their “usual practice” before my presentation on interpersonal communication skills.  But they admitted that the field work was interesting despite the hot weather.

Mr. Hang Chansana from the Cambodian Red Cross expressed that the market exercise which exposed them to a similar situation to a possible disease outbreak was an important part of the training. In the field work, they were engaged. They learned by “doing,” as he called it. And the sharing among the participants of their experience, their thoughts and opinion was very educational and informative. They learned from the discussion. Talking with people of different backgrounds was a good exercise for him to learn, he added.  

Dr. Sotheara Nop of USAID mission in Cambodia came in the afternoon on the second day and provided input on how the trainers could fill the knowledge gap of health care workers on the clinical symptoms of H5N1 infection in human. He stressed the need to utilize the technical input of both ministries to add a session on clinical symptoms (recognizing the signs) of the disease.

Provincial Risk Communication Training Schedule
View Cambodia Risk Communication Provincial Trainings in a larger map

The training participants helped in finalizing the training plan for the provinces – Kampong Speu, Battambang, Kampot and Bantay Mencheay.

The participants from the Cambodian Red Cross assisted Mr. Kaing on logistics for the provincial training.

On the last day, the participants were excited to receive their training certificates. 

In closing, they expressed their all out support for the forthcoming provincial trainings.  For me, this is not yet the closing – this is the opening of an opportunity for them to commendably perform the skills they gained from this training.

I found the three-day training very tough because I did not have much time to further coach the trainers. But I have high hopes that the trainers will be able to implement the training plan in July.

This blog is the first part on Risk Commumunication Training of Trainers in Cambodia. Part two is Meet the Trainers in Kampong Speu Province.

MID-BCC project is funded by USAID/RDMA.

Photos by Tongny Kaing 2012 | FHI 360

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