HEPI-THET PROJECT

UHABARISHAJI WA MATOKEO YA UTAFITI KWA LUGHA YA KISWAHILI

PROJECT PROFILE

WHO: Academic Institutions (Community Health Department-CUHAS and Mwanza College of Health and Allied Sciences) and local community organization (Tanzania Rural Health Movement) work on common goal of promoting dissemination of health research findings to urban-rural communities in the simplified language through friendly communication methods.

WHAT: Working to eliminate huge barrier in dissemination of medical researches among lay communities residing in urban-rural areas through proper research communication methods.

HOW: To develop audio/article-based platform where health researchers from different health disciplines can share their research findings to the community in simplified language (Swahili) during an informational discussion panel/interview with ultimate goal of fostering behavior changes in the community through correct and researched information.

WHY: In developing countries, community access to evidence-based health information is difficult since most research findings are written in scientific jargon and published in scientific journals. Thus, insufficient health knowledge in communities can result in limited understanding of disease knowledge and risk as well as accelerating infodemics among the urban-rural communities.

WHERE: The project focus to promote research communication to lay communities through dissemination of research findings to the urban-rural communities in key health messages in simplified language (Swahili) through facilitating the interdisciplinary link between health researchers and community members in an informative and community-oriented media forum as well as to empower communities to learn appropriate health information as provided in the discussion/interview panels as part of research communication initiatives.

Strenghtening One Health and Planetary Health in Eastern Africa (SOPHEA)

PROJECT PROFILE

The project Strengthening One Health and Planetary Health in Eastern Africa (SOPHEA) aims to explore, investigate, teach and act on the increasing climate and environmental changes and their interactions with health within the framework of the related concepts of Planetary Health and One Health. For linguistic simplification, the term "Planetary Health" is used as a proxy for both closely related concepts. Approaching climate, environmental, and health aspects in a holistic manner has received increasing attention in recent years. The integration of these aspects into teaching is subsumed under the term Planetary Health Education (PHE). International research and teaching activities have been gradually implemented in different places. Until now, the translation to regional and local contexts as well as the establishment of academic activities have been insufficient for the Eastern African context. In the Great Lakes region, many health aspects are concentrated that interact directly with climate and environmental factors. Regional initiatives such as the Planetary Health Eastern Africa Hub (PHEAH) have produced initial efforts to set an increasing focus on Planetary Health in research and education. The aim of the SOPHEA project is to further expand these initial activities and to build up a network of scientists, health professionals and health advocates synergistically.    Read More