Incorporating culture into effective RMNCH health programming. Presentation by international volunteer Maggie Woo Kinshella who volunteered her skills in Ethiopia in Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health.

1. Culture Matters:
Incorporating culture into effective
RMNCH health programming
By: Maggie Woo Kinshella

2. Introduction

Who am I?
– Recent Cuso
International volunteer

What is this about?
– Experience sharing and
learning

What's the key message?
– Culture matters in health

3. Overview

Step 1 – Assessment
review

Step 2 – Collaborative
action planning

Step 3 – Training
workshops and discussions

Step 4 -Community
research

Step 5 – Translating
knowledge into practice – 4
examples of end-products

4. Step 1: Health Education Assessment
Review

4 case studies

Waiting room
health education

Inconsistent
programming,
esp. with larger
facilities

5. Challenges of RMNCH Health Education
in Benishangul-Gumuz

6. Step 2: Action Planning

Meeting between partner, Cuso International
program manager and volunteer
Systems
strengthening
Training
workshops
Develop
materials
Understanding
local context
via community
research
Key topics:
●
Family
planning
●
Maternal
and child
nutrition
●
4th
ANC visit
●
RMC
●
Institutional
delivery

7. Step 3: Training workshops
3 workshops conducted-
143 trained
Updating health education
communication, cultural
awareness, faciliation skills
Theory in action

8. Some activities of the workshops

Developing fun
participatory learning
ideas like this ball game
to promote Focused
Antenatal Care!

Iceberg model is
SOOOO Canadian!
We made Ethiopian
cultural models!

9. Key training messages

Giving information
is not enough

Need
environments that
support healthy
behaviours

Importance of
culture and
community
“You can lead a horse to water but you
can't make it drink” - providing health
information is not enough but rather need
to also understand the participants goals,
expectations and desires for their wellbeing

10. Culture 101

Culture is
 a shared set of norms, values and
practices that is flexible and
dynamic

We all have culture:
 Cuso International culture,
Canadian medical culture,
Westcoast culture...
 What is valued? What makes us
who we are? What are our
assumptions and expecations on
how the world works and how we
should act?
“Fish discover water last”
Because we live with our own
culture all around us, we may
not realize our own expectations
and assumptions that we bring
to a situation.

11. Step 4: Community Research

Procedure:
 Extensive literature review
and planning
 Putting together a local team
 11 days of fieldwork
 Debrief team
 Data analysis and report
writing
 Applying findings in health
promotion campaign

12. Research Results
Successes:
Exclusive breastfeeding,
uptake of institutional delivery/
at least 1 ANC visit, community
health workers connecting well
Challenges:
Complementary feeding,
malnutrition,family planning,
ANC 4th visit

13. Culture Matters in Health!

Food and identity are
closely interconnected

Family planning is NOT
seen as only a HEALTH
issue

Multiple gender identities
and norms

14. Step 5: Translating knowledge into
practice

RMNCH Health
Education
package

“I believe in family
planning”
campaign

Respectful
Maternity Care
campaign

Breastfeeding
community event

15. The Pregnancy Juggle
Educational Game

Promotion of Focused
ANC – going to at least 4
ANC visits throughout
pregancies

Active learning to
promote prevention and
demonstrate challenge of
compounding risks

16. “I believe in family planning” campaign:
Real quotes from real people
** All posters also translated into Amharic**

17. Nutrition poster with a local focus

Local views of
meals focus on
the bulky starch
filler

Local foods,
pictures from
local Assosa
market

18. Respectful Maternity Care
●
A 7 poster series
featuring local
patients and
health
professionals
●
Working with
Assosa
Hospital to
improve the
experience of
mothers and
their families

19. Summary of presentation

Experience sharing of a
process of working with a
local partner to develop
evidence-based community
health promotion
programming

Demonstrate the
importance of culture and
community to be more
effective in Cuso
International's health work

20. Thank you! Questions?
A few discussion questions to start
us off:
1) What are some of the ways
you/your volunteers have incorporated
culture into health programming?
2) How, in your opinion, can we go
beyond thinking of culture as simply
“harmful traditional practices” and how
can this be beneficial to program
success?
3) Do you have any examples/stories
on how cultural sensitivity has made
your program more effective?