The role of Community leaders in community engagement

Recently while travelling to Mulanje on a personal trip I overhead people arguing whether traditional leaders (chiefs) in the country are still necessary. People were debating following a recent call by some quarters in the country to end chieftainships in the urban areas. Immediately my mind was drawn to community engagement which is my area of interest, I thought of the role that   community leaders play when we engage communities about health research in both urban and rural communities.

I thought about roles that traditional chiefs play in medical research and I realized how difficult it would be working with the communities without community leaders who are the gate keepers, these leaders play a vital role in as far as mobilizing  communities for social, cultural and developmental gatherings are concerned. Community leaders ensure that messages about specific meetings are communicated using different channels including call boys who go round the villages prior to the actual day of the meeting. The practice is common in rural areas where there is a close net relationship among community members;   when any organization would like to engage a community no one takes the responsibility of welcoming the organization except the chief of the village who is well respected and his authority is upheld. It relies in his/ her hand to either welcome the organization or close the doors.

In fact, people in the rural areas mostly do not easily corporate as they are mostly busy with work and business however with a call from their chief of the village they try as much as possible to at least honor the meeting ad listen to what the organizations are about to say. This does not mean that the chief dictates or compromise their autonomy to participate in research, the chief’s authority only help in mobilizing communities and the decision to either participate or not relies on individuals.  One can therefore infer that chiefs play a pertinent role not only in assisting in mobilizing people during community engagement information dissemination functions but also making sure that there is a standard that has to be followed in the communities. The same case even in other areas that matter in the villages; chiefs help to make sure that there is a cultural standard in the villages. Every village is known by its standard, norms, values and other practices, in most villages it is the responsibility of the chiefs to make sure that all this is followed. Of course the world is moving on politically, socially and technologically  and chiefs may not seem to have as much impact as it used to be but in science  and health research, there role need to be recognized. They are what they are, the pivot for mobilizing and sensitizing people.

In one of the villages that I have worked when we were conducting a study, there was a misunderstanding on the side of the husband when he heard that his wife consented to participate. The misunderstanding got worse when he heard that the wife’s transport was reimbursed after she visited our clinic after a scheduled visit. His wife called the office and part of our team visited the village, by that time the news had already been reported to the Group Village Headman of the area who previously invited us to conduct an awareness meeting in his area. He summoned the husband together with his wife in our presence; he was available as a third party but not accusing the husband for his misunderstanding. Following our procedure in handling such matters the husband eventually understood what was going on and apologized for the misunderstanding.   The scenario may seem so petty but looking at the chiefs’ intervention it was very easy to handle it. In summary chiefs play a vital role in community engagement about health research and it is very important not by pass them rather they should be considered as stakeholders in every targeted catchment area.