Sustainable community partnership and empowerment: Promoting health and inclusive change in rural Botswana
March 3, 2023
The presenters provide a brief history and overview of the CPHHS’ Botswana Global Health Initiative. They discuss ongoing efforts to engage communities and government stakeholders to promote lifelong learning, health, and well-being in a collaborative, locally meaningful, and sustainable manner. The focus is on four ongoing community-based projects in a rural community in Botswana. These projects include promoting sexual and reproductive health, preventing gender-based violence, mainstreaming disability, and fostering positive youth development. The presentation concludes with a discussion of key lessons learned using the Sustainable Community Partnership and Empowerment (SCOPE) strategy that promotes active community participate in all aspects of research – from conceptualization to evaluation – to promote community engagement and sustainability.
Sunil Khanna, Ph.D.
Professor
Robert and Sara Rothschild Endowed Chair
College of Public Health and Human Sciences
Oregon State University
Khanna is internationally known for his research in the field of global health. He has worked on examining how inclusive, participatory, empowering, and sustainable strategies to engage communities in Botswana and India can lead to decolonization of global health and improve health and well-being of people in a manner that is locally relevant, engaging, and sustainable. Additionally, he is actively engaged in collaboratively working with a diverse group of stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness of efforts by governmental and non-governmental organizations to improve the health and well-being of the most vulnerable social groups and to promote social equity in the U.S. and globally.
Sara Rothschild
Robert (Bob) Rothschild (OSU class of 1965) and Sara Rothschild are passionate about spreading literacy and promoting community development across Botswana. In 2005, they established the Robert and Sara Rothschild Family Foundation for the purpose of supporting worthy philanthropic projects with a major focus on community development and individual empowerment among underserved populations in Botswana. Since 2007, The Robert and Sara Rothschild Family Foundation has funded construction of libraries as part of the Botswana National Library service. In 2017, Bob and Sara established the Robert and Sara Rothschild Endowment Chair in Global Health in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU to promote unique learning opportunities for students while improving public health and access to community services in Botswana