Institute of Public Health

Community-Based Interventions in Northwestern Tanzania

This project, led by Institute faculty member Karen Gieseker, is assessing the sustainability of community-based public health initiatives in northwestern Tanzania.  Of particular interest are the acceptance, relevance and sustainability of:  volunteer village health workers efforts; community-based maternal and peri-natal surveillance system; and emergency medical transport systems in resource poor settings.  Some initiatives were implemented in the first phase of the Community Based Reproductive Health Program managed by CARE during 1997-2002. Qualitative and quantitative methods are being used to conduct this assessment. The goals of the project are to incorporate effective community-level efforts in CARE Tanzania programs, use lessons learned in other GSU-CARE-CDC maternal and newborn health/child survival programs and develop a research partnership between the three institutions.