Module 5

Reflection and Knowledge Application

Overview
This module is designed to help MENA staff integrate the material learned in the training
through a series of exercises, discussion, self-reflection, and class presentation. MENA staff are
expected to utilize and apply the knowledge gained from all of the training modules to
complete the exercises outlined in the module’s instructions below.

Objectives
1. To determine which health promotion approach is best in the communities you work in to
address social determinants of health and issues related to HIV e.g., health education, critical
health literacy, health promotion, advocacy for health policy, intersectoral actions,
community development, ABCD
2. To identify a real-life scenario or potential problem (s) in your community and its root causes
3. To plan a health promotion/community development program with community
members and other stakeholders to mitigate the problem in the real-life scenario

Exercises:
1. Working in pairs, discuss a recent or existing health problem or situation that affects the
communities you work in and how you would address it by answering the following questions:

a. What is the health issue?

b. Who is primarily affected?
c. What are the underlying systems and patterns that contribute to this problem (structural
and SDOH)
d. What type of approach(es) would you use to address this health issue (e.g. health
education, critical health literacy, health promotion, advocacy for health policy,
intersectoral actions, community development, ABCD)?
e. Who should be involved in addressing this issue and how should they be involved?
f. Do you need to engage the community? Why?
g. Who are some of your potential community partners and stakeholders and how will you
identify these groups?
h. Are your interests/motives the same as or different from those of the community’s?
i. How will you engage the community? Are there existing community engagement
mechanisms that have worked before and can be built upon and used?
j. How will you develop strategies that are responsive to community’s needs?
k. How might the community react to your engagement?
l. Who is not likely to participate without significant effort and outreach?
m. How will you engage with community members who are at risk of experiencing worse
outcomes or do not engage through formal community engagement mechanisms?
n. Are some voices louder and better organized than others? Could this exclude or
disadvantage others?
 o. Can existing community networks help with communication and outreach?
p. What resources are needed for these partnering community organizations to assist with
community engagement and outreach?
q. Are you limited in your community engagement (timeline, resources, capacity)?
r. What would successful community engagement look like?
s. What are the success measures and how will we know if we have been successful?

Reflect on challenges that may arise during your work in the community. Working in pairs discuss
any these challenges and what actions will you take to improve your knowledge and skills to
address them? Are there multiple solutions/actions that can be applied?

2. Practice through scenario and role playing

Create a scenario where you need to interact or communicate with a community member,
leader and/or agency partner about a health issue (e.g., HIV prevention). Create a skit about this
interaction using the theories and strategies you learned in the training. Come to class prepared
to do a 30 mins presentation including a 10-minutes questions and answers period. Your
presentations should address the following questions
1. What inspired you to develop the scenario your team presented
2. Are there specific challenges your team chose to highlight? If so, what do you hope to gain from
discussing this as a group?
3. What concepts or themes are the most relevant to your scenario?

3. Self-Reflection Exercise

Congratulations! Now that you've had a chance to review the module materials and attend the
entire training, please take a moment to sit back and relax. We invite you to reflect on the
intensive work done over the last few days and allow it all to sink in. Please take whatever time
you need to prepare for the following reflection exercise.

Based on your experiences during training, reflect and share in class your feelings, examples,
aha moments (a moment of recognizing you’ve made a new realization) or any thoughts that
come up for you as you prepare to apply your knowledge in the community.

1. What are the biggest takeaways from the training?

2. Is there a piece of knowledge acquired during training that sparked inspiration or changed your
perspective in a notable way?