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Reproductive Health Materials Working Group Meeting Notes: November 1996

Agenda

• Translation Glossary
• RHMWG Home Page
• Reproductive Health Training Materials Collection
• Evaluation of the RHMWG
• Reproductive Health Materials Working Group: Evaluation Summary
• AIDSCAP Presentation
• Administrative Items

Translation Glossary

Lucy Harber presented the draft of the translation glossary in Multiterm. All terms previously submitted have been entered. The draft was distributed for review by the contributing organizations. While the draft uses English as the source language, as discussed at past meetings, the glossary can be printed using any of the languages as the source language.

FHI has asked that the contributing agencies return their comments to Brenda Rudder by January 31st, 1997. Please comment on the format as well as the content. If you did not attend the meeting and would like a copy to review, please contact Brenda Rudder at 919-544-7040 x349.

The group discussed possibilities for advertising the availability of the glossary. Suggestions included:

• Websites (RHMWG, USAID and others) and listservs
• Notices in publications
  (Cherie Coe will develop a list of relevant publications).
  A preliminary list includes Studies in Family Planning, Interaction, Open File, APLIC Communicator. If you have suggestions, please contact Cherie Coe at 617-924-7200 (tel) or 617-924-3833 (fax).
• Translators Association (Karyn Rothstein)

The goal of such advertisement would be to provide access to the glossary to those translating RH materials. At this time the distribution plans for the glossary are not finalized. FHI will determine how copies will be made available.

Group Home Page

• The lists should include the name of a contact person as well as the address, phone, fax and e-mail address of the organization. If you have a complete list of publications on your own web site, make sure you let us know the URL and we will include a link directly from your list of new materials back to your own publications list.

• The list should follow the format used on the web site: materials should be divided into two groups: completed materials and forthcoming materials.

• Within each group they should be alphabetized by title. Include any other information about the publication you think is relevant (author, date, languages, price). It is not necessary for all lists to look identical assuming these guidelines are followed. Summaries of the materials are very helpful to users and were specifically requested by a number of USAID country representatives who have looked at the site.

• A message will be sent to all RHMWG members when the web page is updated to let them know that changes have been made. A notice will also be sent to REPRO-HTLH-L informing them that new materials are listed.

• We discussed the possibility of providing links to the search engines on each organization's homepage. Peggy will try to begin to implement this for organizations that do have a search feature already.

• We will also put a link to URL-Minder on the RHMWG home page. This is a service provided free-of-charge to anyone who registers. Every time the RHMWG home page is changed, you will automatically received an e-mail from URL-Minder letting you know that it has changed.

• We also discussed including an additional paragraph on the homepage that describe the group but no final decision was made. We agreed to look for some additional graphics that could be used for some of the pages. If you have suggestions, please contact Peggy at 410-659-6256.

• We agreed to try to collect statistics for the next meeting on usage of the home page in order to evaluate its effectiveness and to discuss promoting the site to selected organizations.

Reproductive Health Training Materials Collection

• Only one organization submitted items before the week of the October 1 deadline.

• Several organizations sent their materials via overnight delivery to comply with the deadline.

• A couple of organizations sent faxes saying they could not meet the deadline but would send items soon after.

• Over 200 new items were submitted to POPLINE for input. In this case, "new" means new to POPLINE regardless of whether the item already existed in the Training Materials Database.

• Over 150 items are being edited in POPLINE to reflect that they are included in the Reproductive Health Training Materials collection. The changes submitted will be incorporated into the online version of POPLINE by the end of this year. They will also be included on the CD produced in December.

• The following organizations submitted new items: Population Council, Population Communication Services (PCS), Population Information Program (PIP), Population Reference Bureau, Management Sciences for Health, JHPIEGO, INTRAH, Georgetown University Institute for International Studies in Natural Family Planning, Family Care International, Family Health International, Development Associates, Inc., Center for Development (CEDPA).

• The input form is now available online on the RHMWG homepage (currently as Acrobat and Word files). In the future, the input form will explicitly state that only English copies of materials are required. Please include fax and e-mail information under order information when available.

• Victoria Kimm requested that members submit new materials to POPLINE as they are produced so that there is not a crush of materials at the last minute.

• If you would like to have entries for your materials edited in the future, please try to include the PIP number along with your request.

• The next revisions to POPLINE will be due September 1, 1997. If you have questions, please direct them to Lisa Croucher at INTRAH (919-966-5636) or Victoria Kimm at POPLINE (410-659-6300).

Evaluation

In general, members feel that the meetings are useful, especially in terms of contact with each other. The consensus was that the group should be continued but that the meetings should be more focused.The group would like to make another attempt to encourage the participation of additional groups including Development Associates, the CDC, CEDPA, MotherCare, Family Care International, OMNI and the Association of Nurse Midwives.

If you have a contact at one of these groups and would be willing to give them a call to encourage them to become involved in the RHMWG, contact Peggy D'Adamo or Elizabeth Oliveras to let them know. Or if you know of another group that should be represented, please let us know.

As a result of the survey, it was decided that future meetings should focus on various issues of interest to all members. A list of suggested topics is included in the summary.

The first topic to be discussed will be evaluation of training materials. Peggy D'Adamo, Cherie Coe, Shirley Coly and Anne Sherpick agreed to work on organizing presentations/discussion on evaluation for the next meeting.

In addition, it was agreed that we will try to include one in-depth presentation of new materials at each meeting (similar to IRH's presentation at the last meeting and AIDSCAP's presentation at this meeting).

AIDSCAP Presentation

Emma has also been adapted for use in numerous countries and languages in print materials, videos, skits and role plays. Despite her African origin, she has been used with great success in Latin America, Haiti and Asia. PSI/Rwanda has adapted Emma to market condoms.

In a study presented at the International AIDS Conference in Vancouver, AIDSCAP reported that 46,000 copies of the comics had been distributed to 18 countries. The comics have been adapted for use in Brazil, Tanzania, Rwanda and Haiti.

AIDSCAP is now developing three new comics featuring Emma which will focus on care and support for HIV-Positive people.

Administrative Items

• The next meeting will be held at 9:30 am on Wednesday May 14 1996. The location is yet to be decided. A survey will be conducted to find out if enough people could attend a meeting if it were held at FHI in North Carolina.

• Elizabeth Oliveras resigned as co-chair. Although Cherie Coe volunteered herself or Penelope Roseborough intitally, that is not possible. So the group is in search of a new co-chair. If you are interested/willing, please contact Peggy D'Adamo.

• Please send any corrections to these minutes to Peggy D'Adamo.

Attending:

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