[Micky Hingorani]

Hi every one,

Module 2 was interesting and empowering to me and  to our Organization. I took long to finish the module assignment since, I kept on reviewing  the information time and again. I  work in the same organization with Charles and for sure we have been involving the stakeholders only when we want to recruit the study participants or when we are in a crisis. Among the GPP Principals , Trust and Mutual understanding were very interesting to me.

[Micky Hingorani]

In my community, sexual Gender based violence is common especially rape to the young girls/girl child. The cases are usually reported to the police station through  a special spot-bench, unfortunately they take long before the matters are taken to court while trying to prove the evidence. Cases  concerning rape take long and even end up un attended if the matter was not reported immediately, if the victim took a bath immediately or if there was no corroborative witness. The Law requires semen analysis to justify the offender among other physical injuries.

[Micky Hingorani]

Thanks for the information

[Micky Hingorani]

Your points also remind me that trials do not occur in isolation–  whether a trial succeeds or not can depend on political, social, cultural and other contextual factors. Keep these important issues in mind and incorporate them into your GPP planning— as you start reflecting more about how stakeholders can help you with processes like problem-solving, communication, messaging and contingency plans!

[Micky Hingorani]

Hi Friends Stakeholders should be involved where active or not so that a bigger group is aware of the research trials in the community.  On-going engagement with them in education about research,  reason of involving them and what role they play in being involved of what is happening can easy the tension as research trials are identified.  Less resistance and good understanding will develop.  Even future studies would be acceptable.  Recruitment of participants would be easier.  Network purposes as well, as different people with skills and expertise would be identified.

But with other responsibilities that naturally adults are involved in, we need continuous training through workshops to remind them of what is expected of the.

Hilda Ntjana

 

[Micky Hingorani]

In our communities we have not yet encountered  this kind of protests that affect study participants in relation to recruitment and retention.  But i agree with my colleagues  that we need a management plan  to mitigate such unforeseen  cases.  Back in our communities we were affected with floods and the roads were cut off. Participants were resettled in different areas by the government,  but as a site we redesigned our strategies to ensure participant safety  by closing working government officials.

[Micky Hingorani]

I think I agree with Charles. We only engage with stakeholders when we busy with a trial and we actually need to keep the communication going. It is hard to set a SMART objective. I am learning some interesting things here. I would agree with Edna as well in the question asked by Heidi. I believe according to GCP guideline if you are going to involve participants in a research trial, you must have a plan that will be beneficial to the participants after the trial and one of them is o give HIV treatment and care and it can also be done through referrals to other facilities if your research centre can not provide.

[Micky Hingorani]

Terfa,

I like your points and as we have Issues management plan as one of GPP Guidelines topic areas we really need to come up with strategies that are useful and will prevent unforeseen circumstances.

[Micky Hingorani]

We all know that research is actually the process of taking a path that is unknown and unforeseen so we must prepare our mind for rejection and accept rejection as part of the process. When we work with this mind set everything became easy to handle because we make everything “foreseeable” and anticipate worst scenarios. We need to design a conflict  mitigation plan. For instance, in an event of strike what immediate actions should the participant take? Who should participants call, how should they protect themselves etc, What actions should the staff take, security doors must be lock at all times, who should they call, who should be reported to, what changes need to be instituted in recruitment/follow up, who should draft press briefing materials, who should address the media etc. It is the confusion associated with crisis management that have huge negative impact on trials.

 

[Micky Hingorani]

I totally agree with you colleagues. These are some of the unforeseen issues that can arise in any project. It is always important top be prepared to face such unplanned events that may affect your research. If in the initial design of the research you had taken into account negative unforeseen events, then you will have a back up plan to address such issues. Life is not always straight forward and such obstacles are expected in any normal life of a persons project or research.

[Micky Hingorani]

They do give the information upfront but in most cases you find that, we get informed few days before the protest and by then we already have participants booked according to their windows but it does help a lot to be informed on time. Well some communities do continue with protest even after the municipality has come up with the solutions as long as they are not satisfied and that is against the law but they do it.

[Micky Hingorani]

I agree with you Nokulunga, protests can affect study visits and recruitment’s but if the stakeholders are well engaged many times they would give information upfront before the riots so that the study team is able to plan ahead.

[Micky Hingorani]

In my community gender based violence is not the main issue but that might also be caused by those communities who are scared to come out and there are community organisations that also fight against gender based violence that includes “Brothers for life”

[Micky Hingorani]

When FACTS 001 was preparing for dissemination of results, we held  dialogues with stakeholders to discuss the following:

1. Possible scenarios of FACTS 001 results

2. Messaging of study outcome

3. Stakeholders input on developing results dissemination strategy

Even though FACTS results were disappointing , what  I am grateful for is that our stakeholders were informed and prepared for any outcome. I believe this process helped us manage expectation well.

[Micky Hingorani]

Respect for the research team. Somehow stakeholders in their wisdom tends to respect researchers who carry them along in study design because it is a learning opportunity for them and as custodians of social, political and leadership mandate, they fill a sense of responsibility and fulfillment.

In one instance the CAB requested for a toll-free line and we immediate got that set up. They were excited that we are transparent in our operations and willing to answer questions from the public.

For CAB, the main indicator is meeting attendance.