The Chilcapamba–McGill Partnership: Exploring Access to Maternal and Newborn Care in Indigenous Communities of Ecuador

Abstract

There is good access to maternal and newborn health care, although the reported level of violence is high. Results were shared with the community and will be used in a local community health worker (CHW) training program. Our project highlights the importance of PR to investigate sensitive health challenges.

Community engagement in global health education supports equity and advances local priorities: an eight year Ecuador-Canada partnership

“…All trainees and many community members presented their research at academic conferences and were encouraged to develop manuscripts, resulting in publications. 13,25 The community used the knowledge and was proactive in expanding upon health projects and pursuing new health projects; this is in line with participatory research principles including selfdetermination and knowledge translation. 22,28 The participatory research produced its expected ripple effect, with the outcome of one phase becoming the context for the next.…”

Planned Parenthood as a Public Health Imperative: A Participatory Research Exploring the Use of Contraception by Indigenous Women of Chilcapamba, Ecuador

“…Additional work is required to facilitate women taking full advantage of the LMGYAI and our results help orient future efforts to improve access and limit barriers. The strong research partnership between our institution and Chilcapamba ensures that our partnership research is of importance to the community (Dube et al, 2015) such as that conducted within this study. Due to the insights and at the request of community leaders, our partnership, through a widening ripple effect, led to the exciting development of the Training and Education for Andean Community Health (TEACH) (Jagosh et al, 2015).…”

“…The project used a participatory approach where the community and the researchers are in partnership throughout the research: finalizing the research questions, undertaking data collection, interpreting the findings and joint dissemination of the results (Allen 2016;Cargo & Mercer, 2008;Macaulay et al, 1999;Salsberg 2018). Since 2008, the Department of Family Medicine at our institution has engaged in a participatory research partnership with the rural indigenous community of Chilcapamba, Province of Imbabura, Canton of Cotacachi, Ecuador where the research topic is chosen by the community and each summer a Spanish-speaking medical student travels to the community (Dube, 2015;Evans, 2010;Misra et al, 2018). The partnership is supported through the medical faculty's Medical Student's Research Bursary Program.…”

“…The partnership is supported through the medical faculty's Medical Student's Research Bursary Program. In a competitive application process, the successful applicant travels to the community to work on a topic that the community members determined in the prior year, works with both faculty members and community leadership through the winter to facilitate the community's involvement in the design, data collection, data interpretation, and dissemination of the respective research projects (Dube, 2015). The 2-months research visit is spent in Chilcapamba, living with a family in the community and is closely supervised long distance by a team from the Department of Family Medicine.…”

“…The researcher discussed the findings in Spanish with the doctors specializing in obstetrics and gynecology at Hospital Asdrubal de la Torre, and the community leader summarized the results for discussion with the community in Quichua (the local Indigenous language) after the researcher had returned home. All academic disseminations were finalized through long distance discussions with the community leader, who was also a co-author, and included a poster presented by the medical student at the University bursary competition day in fall 2011 (Dube 2015;Ramsden 2017).…”