Healthlink Worldwide

Key partner meeting - Dec 2004

The four key partners of the Communicating for Advocacy (CFA) project - the Cambodia Health Education Media Services of Cambodia, Health Action Information Network of the Philippines, Social Assistance and Rehabilitation for the Physically Vulnerable of Bangladesh, and Healthlink Worldwide - met in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 6 to 10 December 2004.

The meeting was designed to give the partners an opportunity to share their experiences of the project, reflect on activities that had been completed, and to evaluate the effects the project on both an organisational level and a personal level.

The meeting also enabled partners to plan for the final year of the project. This includes a final Plenary Meeting in May 2005 for key and core partners, the publication of the Communication for Advocacy guide, and a learning publication, which will include a number of case-studies from the project.

The Cambodia Health Education Media Service (CHEMS) hosted the meeting. This gave participants the chance to visit the CHEMS office, learn more about its work and meet the staff. The office visit enabled everyone to see CHEMS’ radio studio, where the radio soap opera, "Lotus on a Muddy lake", is produced. The partners also took the opportunity to meet the some of the soap opera writers and actors. The radio studios are also used to produce pre-recorded health information programmes, one of which was being recorded during the visit.

Participants also met some of CHEMS’ youth and outreach workers, who work with youth peer groups (15-25 years old) on sexual and reproductive health issues in eight districts of Cambodia. These groups have previously participated in Communicating for Advocacy workshops and as result have developed community theatre productions based on a number different community health projects.

The CHEMS video unit has produced a video of its CFA activities, which was shown to the participants. The other key partners, impressed by the high quality of the video, are planning to send video footage of their own CFA work in order for CHEMS to produce a promotional video for the Plenary Meeting in May 2005.

The final two days of the meeting were used to train the CFA partners in group facilitation methods. The workshop was carried out by an experienced trainer from the Institute of Cultural Affairs. The intensive training offered plenty of opportunity for practicing participatory facilitation methods as well as looking at how the techniques could be applied by the partners in the future.