Guide for Community Assessments on Women's Health Care - ICRW

Additional Activities
● ● COMMUNITY HEALTH WALK – to explore health issues in a small community
● ● SITE VISIT – to look at services in health or other facilities serving women
Joint Workshop (Day 5)
Bring all the groups together to share their findings and do joint problem solving.
Pulling It All Together – The Round Table
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Review and compare findings from different sites.
Agree on priority health issues, gaps in services and barriers to women’s access to services.
Make recommendations on how to solve some of the problems raised.
The Full Package or Selected Activities
Using this full package of activities <strong>for</strong> a series of five workshops will provide participants a
comprehensive understanding of women’s health needs. However, using just one or two of the
activities during a visit also can yield valuable insight into women’s and other community members’
health issues.
Key Questions
Each workshop is aimed at finding answers to the following key questions:
1. What do different stakeholder groups understand by the term “women’s health”? What are their
attitudes toward women’s health and HIV-positive women’s health?
2. What health issues are perceived to have the biggest impact on women in general, and on women
living with HIV in particular? What cultural practices (e.g., female genital cutting, polygamy, wife
inheritance) and social and environmental factors (such as HIV-related stigma and discrimination,
gender-based violence, etc.) have a negative impact on women’s health?
3. What health services exist, including care and support <strong>for</strong> women with HIV and AIDS or other
long-term, chronic or life-threatening conditions?
4. What are the gaps in services, including gaps in reproductive health and choices?
5. What are women’s experiences of using these health services? Are HIV-positive women’s
experiences significantly different from the experiences of other women?
6. What barriers prevent women from using these services? Are these barriers different <strong>for</strong> HIVpositive
women?
7. Which women’s health issues need priority responses and what kinds of responses might be most
appropriate? How can these be taken <strong>for</strong>ward by MPs, civil society organizations and others in
parliament, or through other kinds of advocacy or lobbying?
28 Chapter C: Facilitating <strong>Community</strong> Assessment Workshops