Meaningful community engagement and involvement in global health and research: 'Changing mindsets with a million conversations' in Sierra Leone

Communities are complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous social groupings which may have different or even competing ideas about what they need; all engagement requires a deep understanding of that community’s social determinants of health and intersecting experiences [6]. [...]contextually grounded approaches are more likely to involve communities meaningfully if they build and maintain trusting relationships with openness towards new ways of respectful and positive power-shifting and sharing, valuing and including different knowledge bases and perspectives, and using more participatory methods [6,11]. Some of LNP’s recent successes included CEI activities to relieve tensions between or within villages across the country, to conduct sensitisation campaigns during the Ebola outbreak, to support rebuilding after the 2018 floods, and to raise awareness of blood donation by leading a community-hospital partnership to recruit volunteers and make blood readily available in hospitals to save lives. [...]if the result is shifting attitudes and mindsets to benefit young, marginalised groups, including girls and women, they are a hugely valuable investment. 1 Department of Women and Children’s Health, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK 2 University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone 3 Lifeline Nehemiah Projects, Freetown, Sierra Leone 4 Welbodi Partnership, Freetown, Sierra Leone