[afro-nets] C-Channel 8 - April 2009 - Social and Behavior Change Communication

Dear Colleagues,

C-Channel 8, the monthly e-newsletter from AED's C-Change program, provides peer-reviewed literature with a focus on behavior and social change communication across health areas, in particular HIV and AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, malaria, and antenatal and maternal health care. Eleven articles are summarized in C-Channel 8: five on HIV and AIDS, with two of the articles focused on male circumcision, one of which looked at 13 studies done across nine African countries, considered factors that may influence uptake of circumcision in traditionally non-circumcising populations, and found high levels of men willing to be circumcised and high levels of women and men willing to circumcise sons; two on family planning, one of which looks at family planning knowledge of women and men in refugee camps in Guinea; and three on malaria, two that consider malaria in pregnancy and one that examines seasonal malaria and treatment-seeking behaviors for fever in Ethiopia. The eleven articles cover research carried out in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Canada, and Haiti.

C-Change has recently launched a program in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia focused on increasing community knowledge of malaria diagnosis, timely seeking of medical treatment, and correct use of treated nets; and on promoting active support of indoor spraying. There is also a focus on increasing antenatal care attendance and increased use of prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services by pregnant women. Additional information is available at the program's website: www.c-changeprogram.org.

Thank you,
The Knowledge Management Team at C-Change