10 tips for working with communities on Ebola response

Following the news of an Ebola outbreak in the DRC, here’s a summary of lessons learned from Oxfam’s community engagement during the 2014–15 Ebola response in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The Ebola response in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea demonstrated that community engagement is critical in responding to epidemics. This was not always a guiding principle in an outbreak, which initially prioritized biomedical and militarized responses.

After the 2014-15 epidemic Oxfam organized an inter-agency workshop to share experiences and learning. The following guidelines for public health practitioners and programme teams were informed by this workshop, with input from various agencies involved in the Ebola response, as well as a literature review. For more information download the full Guide to Community Engagement in WASH.

1. Understand diversity and varied vulnerabilities within communities

Resources must be devoted to understanding community perspectives and advocating for community-focused interventions. Specialists, such as anthropologists and epidemiologists, may be required for information to be collected, documented and used effectively.

2. Avoid one-size-fits-all models of community engagement

It is better to recognize the potential capabilities of communities in each situation and provide context-specific support. This allows communities to take action to protect themselves using a ‘menu’ of different strategies, developed using a community-led approach. To do this effectively, key groups (e.g. male and female leaders, traditional healers, religious leaders, older people, youth and children) need to be identified.

3. Ensure advocacy is inclusive and represents communities

Advocacy efforts should be directed at promoting inclusive and representative ideas, including the concerns, questions and solutions of communities, and ensuring that only useful and practical information is given to communities by humanitarian actors.

4. Prioritise providing information about protective action and monitor uptake

The information given to communities must be prioritized to ensure that the crisis affected population understands and uses the most effective protective actions (e.g., in the case of Ebola, early isolation and referral, and not touching the dead). The uptake and use of these specific actions must be monitored, and rumours about diseases and treatment processes should be documented in order to track progress.

5. Ensure medical and burial processes are transparent and understood by communities

It is important to work with others (from all sectors) to increase the transparency of medical and burial processes, especially where there is a lack of understanding and/or trust in the healthcare system. This can include step-by-step guides for referral or burial management, and showing videos to illustrate what to expect.

6. Support staff to deliver community-centred approach

Support, training and supervision for newly recruited staff are vital to ensure responses are community-centred, effective and accountable.

7. Co-ordinate with other actors to put community engagement first

Community engagement supports every other aspect of a response (e.g. testing and treatment, safe burials, etc). Therefore, active coordination and planning with other sectors is crucial at the local and district levels, as well as with national collaborators.

8. Organize inter-agency daily debriefs

Programme managers should actively support and foster regular information exchanges between programme teams within and between organizations (e.g. daily debriefs).

9. Encourage self-help, not fear

Using fear to encourage changes in behaviour can be counterproductive. It is better to promote self-reliance and self-help among affected populations.

10. Apply these lessons to all WASH programmes

Many of the lessons from the Ebola response can be applied to Oxfam’s WASH programmes, especially cholera responses. Equally, Oxfam’s experience with public health promotion (PHP) and WASH interventions means that it is well placed to support and develop capacity in community engagement and social mobilization.

Download Oxfam’s Guide to Community Engagement in WASH, based on lessons from Ebola

Oxfam’s response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Oxfam has launched a public awareness drive to help keep the Ebola outbreak in Mbandaka, DRC, under control. Oxfam is providing door-to-door information to the most vulnerable people, working with communities and carrying out mass awareness activities including film screenings and working with local community radio stations. It also plans to work with religious and traditional leaders.

Oxfam is installing chlorinated water points in hospitals, health centres, schools and ports, and helping to disinfect houses in which Ebola cases have been detected. It also provides disinfection kits and hygiene kits to communities.