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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2003
Successful Hopkins HIV/AIDS Workshop Draws 21 Participants from
Around the World to Learn the Latest Health Communication Strategies
First French Workshop Held by CCP in October 2003 BALTIMORE — Plans are underway for another French language workshop in HIV/AIDS health communication strategies after the success of the first French training workshop held by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP).
Twenty-one participants from 10 different countries came to Towson, Maryland, on October 13 to attend the workshop supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catholic Relief Services, and Population Services International (PSI).
"We were delighted to host so many high-level health professionals from French-speaking nations that are impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic," said Mabiala Ma Umba, a Senior Program Officer in CCP's Africa division that led the workshop. "With the training received, these individuals have the ability to go home and design strategic health communication programs that can make a difference."
Most of the participants work in their country's health ministry or national HIV/AIDS committee. Some are with UNICEF or with non-governmental organizations including PSI and Catholic Relief Services. They came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Denmark, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Guinea, and Madagascar to attend the three-week workshop.
CCP's Training and Performance Improvement Division offers training workshops that focus on health communication and advocacy, communication and advocacy for youth programs, leadership and management, and interpersonal communication and counseling. In 1992, the division launched its SCOPE interactive software program to help communication specialists design health communication strategies. In recent years, the training division has offered HIV/AIDS-specific workshops to respond to the growing need in the field for effective communication programs to combat the epidemic.
During the October workshop, participants explored the elements of effective behavior change communication and advocacy programs for HIV/AIDS. At the end of the workshop, they were able to design innovative and effective communication and advocacy strategies for HIV/AIDS, using SCOPE as a tool.
With representatives in more than 30 countries, Johns Hopkins' CCP is a pioneer in the field of strategic, research-based communication programs for behavior change and health promotion that have helped transform the theory and practice of public health communication.
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