Community Media/Isabel/Planning Workshop Oct09

= Health Learning with Community Media - Programme Planning Workshop Oct 20-22, 2009 =

This was the first workshop of the Community Media programme under COL's "Health Communities" programme to be held in Solomon Islands.

For background information click here

This initial workshop was held at the Provincial Assembly Conference Room, Buala, Isabel Province, Tuesday Oct 20 – Thursday Oct 22, 2009. The workshop involved 16 members of Isabel Health and Education Services, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services / Health Promotion Division, The Pacific Open Health Learning Network, Solomon Islands Development Trust, People First Network, Guguha Distance Learning Centre and representatives from four communities hosting FM stations.

The workshop was successful in planning a 3-month collaborative programme for the development of 4 health learning programmes for targeted sections of the community, concerning 3 selected health priorities. A series of workshops will follow to provide training in content skills, technical skills, monitoring, sustainability and governance.

The programme has brought together several stakeholders, and the collaboration will help Isabel Province to make use of this powerful medium in all of its programme sectors. In doing so, it is hoped that the role that each partner can play will become clearer, and the networks will become more relevant and useful to the communities and thus more sustainable.

= Objectives =

The workshop was held to


 * To open dialogues at different levels between health, community media and Isabel stakeholders
 * Build sustainable partnership
 * Design new health learning programmes using a range of different multichannel components
 * Achieve consensus on operational matters

= Summary of workshop outcomes and follow on plans =

The workshop was held in Buala between October 20-22, 2009, involving 16 members of Isabel Health and Education Services, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services / Health Promotion Division, The Pacific Open Health Learning Network, Solomon Islands Development Trust, People First Network and representatives from four communities hosting FM stations.

The workshop was successful in planning a 3-month collaborative programme for the development of 4 health learning programmes for targeted sections of the community, concerning 3 selected health priorities. A series of workshops will follow to provide training in content skills, technical skills, monitoring, sustainability and governance.

The programme has brought together several stakeholders, and the collaboration will help Isabel Province to make use of this powerful medium in all of its programme sectors. In doing so, it is hoped that the role that each partner can play will become clearer, and the networks will become more relevant and useful to the communities and thus more sustainable.

= Workshop Schedule =
 * 1) Opening by Isabel Province Minister for Health, Hon. Thaddues Siota
 * 2) Introduction, Background and Objectives
 * 3) The basic principles of learning programmes (group activity)
 * 4) About the Commonwealth of Learning Community Learning with Media Programme
 * 5) Identifying the Priority health issues (group work)
 * 6) Designing the programmes (in groups)
 * 7) Identifying the targets and problem solvers
 * 8) Developing the message and programme matrices for each health issue
 * 9) Deciding on learning media formats and sources
 * 10) Deciding on the programme teams
 * 11) Designing learner support mechanisms and clarifying role of partners
 * 12) Identifying the interviewees and resource people
 * 13) Making operational plans, including budgets, and sustainability
 * 14) Training needs assessment and planning
 * 15) Monitoring and evaluation
 * 16) Identifying some Open and Distance Learning (ODL) courses for healthcare workers that will support the learning programmes

= Participants =

= Groups = Particants for most of the workshop were in three groups, associated three rural communities that host radio stations; Sarina joined on Day 2 and represented a fourth station. Each group worked on the learning programme for the particular community shown below.

= Priority Health Issues identified by groups =

Following the group feedback, a discussion led to the three main general issues being selected for the learning programmes:


 * 1) Reproductive health
 * 2) Health environment
 * 3) Health Lifestyle

=Formats= The groups identified the following formats and their various merits, shown on right.

= Developing the Learning Programmes = The three groups then went on the develop their programmes. Click to see the completed programmes.


 * 1) Group 1 (Kia)
 * 2) * Teenage Pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections (programme name "Doli Ta Namana" - Bright Future)
 * 3) Group 2 (Susubona and Buala)
 * 4) * Sanitation (programme name “Green Susubona”, later renamed "Nha Au Fa Keli")
 * 5) * Waste Management (programme name "Noda Thogna" - Our Seas)
 * 6) Group 3 (Tataba)
 * 7) * Diabetes (programme name “Khabru Mamahe” - Sweet Illness)

= Gallery =