Active Ground Building

Active Ground Building is a strategy to create awareness about Tuberculosis at different levels and with different sections of society. This is being adopted using SBCC (Social and Behavior Change Communication) approach.

School based Campaigns using Interactive Games and Edutainment : We use lot of interactive tools like edutainment CDs, mobile games and other social games to create awareness on Tuberculosis. This is primarily done through schools and workshops at places which have a larger footfall. We also use strategies to promote digital tools on social media to reach out to youth groups and students. We have reached to 120 schools in India and now expanding in Uganda as well.

Community based approach using Digital Stories : Using ZMQ’s YourStoryTeller App, we have created over 25 stories based on real incidents of various TB patients and their families. The stories are disseminated in the community through community radio stations and mobile and re-charge shops in the rural areas. We already have over 270,000 subscribers for these stories.

Community Mobilization and Meetings : ZMQ regularly does lot of community mobilization meetings using both IEC-materials as well as ICT-based tools. On the patient toolkit as well as on the community health provider’s toolkit, there is a detailed edutainment based courseware for TB awareness. It is available in Hindi, English and also in Lusoga and Luganda for Uganda.

Building Awareness in Women’s Groups and SHGs : ZMQ has been working with over 3,200 Self Help Groups in Haryana and Delhi. Using the IEC-material and ICT- based tools, we reach out in these groups and do lot of awareness building workshops on Tuberculosis.

Training Workshops with CHWs  :  We do lot of trainings with CHWs such as DOTS providers, ASHA workers, ANMS, Anganwadi workers etc. and build their capacities to understand Tuberculosis and further work with communities at various levels. We provide them trainings both using IEC and ICT material.

Involving Religious Leaders and Village Heads : In any developing society, we know that religious leaders play key role in influencing the community. Similarly, the village heads (Pradhans) play a key decision-maker’s role. Tuberculosis is a deadly disease but the good part of TB is that it can be cured. Hence, it is very important to ‘De-stigmatise TB’ and to make it a ‘Talk of the Town’. Let people participate and talk about TB. They should no more be ashamed of telling people that they have TB. We should also take learning from the very recent example of Polio and how it has been successfully eradicated.