Training of Roma Health Mediators in Reproductive Health

Introduce the session by suggesting to the group that the role of mediators in communicating
with women in the community about reproductive health is primarily to share information
with women for the purpose of helping them to adopt certain behaviors and/or to use certain
reproductive health services.
• In this session on interpersonal communication, we will begin by focusing on what
happens when we communicate with people, including some of the obstacles to
communication and how to avoid or overcome them.
• Following this, we will focus on how to initiate discussions of reproductive health
with women in a variety of situations.
• Finally, we will practice initiating discussions of reproductive health with women
and responding to reproductive health concerns raised by women, using
communication skills that will make our work more effective.
Invite the group to participate in an exercise that will help them examine some of the ways
in which they communicate.
• Present, one at a time, several reproductive health-related situations, ending each
situation with a statement or question by the woman the mediator is talking with (see
Trainer document: Statements: Obstacles to Communication).
• Ask participants to listen to each situation and to note on a piece of paper what they
would say (their immediate verbal response) to the woman. Emphasize that
participants should respond spontaneously (as they would if they were in a
discussion with the woman). (Give participants 1-2 minutes to respond to each
woman’s statement.)
• After you have presented all of the statements, and participants have noted their
responses on paper, ask participants to put their papers aside.
• Using the flip chart Obstacles to Communication, present, one by one, certain
obstacles to communication that we as mediators may use (unconsciously),
including examples of each obstacle.
• As you present each obstacle, ask participants:
‣ What would be your reaction if a mediator were to respond to you like this?
[Note to trainer: When you come to the obstacle “sympathy” on the flip chart, it is
important to help participants distinguish between “sympathy” (sometimes defined as
pity or sorrow for the woman because of her problems) and “empathy” (putting
yourself in the woman’s situation and helping her to solve her problem)]
• Ask participants to:
o Take their papers (on which they wrote their responses to women earlier in the
exercise)
o Review individually the responses they gave to women in the exercise
206
RFHI/JSI Romania Training of RHMs in Reproductive Health Session 14: Interpersonal Communication