Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off your first 2 months of Unlimited Monthly. Start your subscription for just £35.99 £24.99. New subscribers only T&Cs apply

Find out more

Background and Topics

In this lecture, Piyusha Majumdar describes why community engagement is a crucial strategy for global disease control programs.
7.7
PIYUSHA MAJUMDAR: Hello. I’m going to talk about importance of community engagement in public programs, how community participation became one of the best strategies and acted as a turning point in eliminating disease like polio from the countries. Now, we are beginning the session by showing you a short video that emphasizes that community engagement can even go beyond advertising or mass media communication. This video is showing the tale of community vaccinators in Karachi, Pakistan who tackle the trust issue related to vaccines. As you can see in this video community vaccinators are the backbone of any government program. Thus, it is important for the vaccinator to build a trust factor among the community.
60.8
There are some people who are showing apprehensions about the vaccine, which could only be addressed by having an active dialogue with a credible community influencer. So here is the video for you. [VIDEO PLAYBACK]
82.8
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
88.7
[CHILDREN CHATTERING]
95.1
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
105.8
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
189.2
[END PLAYBACK]
190.1
PIYUSHA MAJUMDAR: So, today, I’m going to talk about three essential themes related to community participation. First one, why it is important to engage community in health programs, secondly, the effective strategies and processes to engage community and health programming, and, lastly, how community-engaged health improvement is a continuous, long-term, evolving process and its implications for the health program.

Piyusha Majumdar, Ph.D, M.Sc Indian Institute of Health Management Research, India

Community participation became one of the best strategies in the effort to eradicate polio; in some areas, it resulted in a turning point for eliminating the disease.

As you saw in the video ‘Trust in Community Vaccinators’, think of three challenges community vaccinators may face in conducting engagement activities.

Post your thoughts in the discussion.

This article is from the free online

Building Alliances in Global Health: From Global Institutions to Local Communities

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now