Global Bridges - Uganda

The IPCRG and our team in Uganda won one of 19 grants awarded through a partnership between Pfizer Independent Grants for Learning and Change (IGLC) and Global Bridges to increase tobacco cessation rates through healthcare professional training and advocacy in low- and middle-income countries.

Our project in Uganda 2014–16 aimed to:

  1. Develop a cascading and sustainable ‘train the trainers’ module that was used to train Masindi district community health workers (CHWs) and health care workers in improving lung health including facilitating stopping tobacco use and reducing exposure to indoor biomass smoke (note, we have subsequently developed our Teach the Teacher model that includes more on teaching how to teach adult learners)
  2. Create with CHWs educational materials that they could use with their local communities to support people to stop using tobacco and reduce their other risks to lung health.
  3. Train CHWs and health care workers in supporting people to stop using tobacco through interventions that were adapted to the local cultural and economic conditions and are feasible to implement in the context of Masindi District.
  4. Provide on-going support to CHWs using mobile telephone technology.
  5. Integrate these activities into a larger IPCRG supported programme to improve lung health including physical activity and rehabilitation.
  6. Identify and share the learning from the project using the Global Bridges network and the IPCRG knowledge platform in order to build capacity for interventions that facilitate stopping tobacco use in other low and middle income countries (LMICs).
  7. Contribute to developing the evidence base on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions to facilitate stopping tobacco use in LMICs.
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Materials

Following Ministry of Health Uganda approval, these educational materials have been widely used in the project. In April delegates to the Pan African Thoracic Society were also informed of progress.

We invite colleagues to download and use these materials. Please attribute the work as follows:

"We thank the IPCRG and the Uganda Global Bridges team of Dr Bruce Kirenga, Dr Frederik van Gemert and Dr Rupert Jones for permission to reproduce these educational resources, the production of which was funded through a Global Bridges grant from Pfizer Independent Grants for Learning & Change (IGLC)."