Applied Communication and Risk Communication
Field Epidemiologists –Mozambique and Angola
By Dee Bennett
May 7, 2012
USAID’s global project, PREVENT has worked with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) on public affairs. We’ve conducted several workshops on Applied Communication and Risk Communication for program countries’ field epidemiologists ... the first responders for outbreak investigations and surveys. April 17 – 20, 2012 we conducted a workshop for nine field epidemiologists and health communication officials from Angola and Mozambique. Workshop was held in Maputo.
16 April 2012 TRECHO
First day all the workshop group from PREVENT is together in the same place – Fernando Garcia, David Zucker, Efua Orleans-Lindsay and Dee Bennett. We meet early to edit, re-order, rewrite, and translate presentation. This continued throughout the day and finalizedthe presentation’s materials, slides, and videos.
Expect participants for the Lusophone-version of our Applied Communication and Risk Communication workshop at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. We’ve had excellent experiences at the past workshops we’ve conducted with impressive professionals. Look forward to meeting the participants from the Lusophone program countries.
Heavy attention to quality assurance like making sure we get the right translation for communication terms….David texts his Brazilian ad agency colleagues to find the right word for “sound bite”….we also discussed it with our production team in Maputo…decided on “trecho” which means segment. After more back and forth that’s what we agreed on. First of many discussions on translation we have this week….See “Do your doody!”
Last late night thought is: “are the speakers too big –look like Marshall amps.”
17 April 2012 Shout Out to TASW
Participants are very experienced and collectively have many on-camera experiences as they’ve investigated outbreaks – cholera, malaria, dengue fever, and Marburg. EVERYBODY has been misquoted or misrepresented in the press. Preference is for broadcast over print…seem to think the broadcast media is less likely to misrepresent what you say.
Have to give a plug to the multi-sectoral task force put together by country governments as a way to address H5N1 virus….many of the participants talked about them and how well they worked. Dormant now, the Mozambique and Angola field epidemiologists and communication officers have revived them for other public health issues and outbreaks that have happened since the H5N1 threat. Another anecdotal example of the value of a Towards a Safer World concept….it keeps working.
 During the afternoon tea break we had an informal discussion – David dubbed it “Tea with Dee” – to share the various concerns these professionals have related to communication and what is needed to be effective in the future. Limitations include just one community communication person to serve a district; materials and messages are developed for general populations but not to smaller segments of the population – language, culture, customs; and the perennial issues of not enough human and financial resources.
Mozambique and Angola are going into a boom period….There is an abundance of investment now in these countries - mining, transportation, oil/energy. Why aren’t they being identified as partners, especially for social enterprise with the government, i.e., public health? Companies  know they benefit from having healthy employees….I keep thinking of the work we’ve done with Exxon/Mobile for malaria, Anglo-America mining for HIV/AIDS and FMCG companies like P&G, Unilever, and Colgate for sanitation and hygiene. My seatmate on the flight from Johannesburg to Maputo works for an Australian transport company and her company has invested a lot of money into the HIV/AIDS programs in mining communities.
Our participants have reached out to the commercial sector but it doesn’t seem to be gaining traction. Good incubator setting to work with these companies on social enterprise opportunities for social impact.
18 April 2012 Don’t touch the cadavers!
There’s a camera now what do you say?… and by the way you have 30-seconds to get the critical message across. What are key messages for Marburgh case study….Adelaida said “don’t touch the cadavers”.
Hmmmm….that may cause a bigger problem because not all cadavers are contaminated – and not disposing of them (properly) can create another set of issues.
Good discussion on integrated communication – more channels of information with same mission the better.
Do your doody.
“Feces” is the correct, scientific term for human waste – but who in the general public really uses that term. “Doody” is how most people refer to feces – “do your doody” and if that’s what your audience says then use it. But officials were horrified….”You can’t say that?”….pre-testing showed it worked. The right word is part of getting it right.
The things health communication people discuss in workshops.
Camera time was met with mixed feelings – curiosity and fun but also nervousness and shyness when seeing themselves on the monitor. Humbling for sure.
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