DPMI Rwanda
DPMI Rwanda focused on Social Marketing and Public Health. I was lucky enough to work with a wonderful group of MIIS colleagues and a Partners in Heath employee on the maternal health team. We focused on a social marketing campaign to get romantic partners in rural areas around the Partners in Health clinics to make decisions on family planning together. Through primary and secondary research, problem and objective trees, log frames and more, we were able to get a holistic view of the current state of maternal health and contraceptive access in rural Rwandan villages. We learned that there was a lack of accurate information about family planning and a lot of myths about side effects of different contraceptive methods so we chose to focus on this issue. We were able to develop a campaign focused on using the community health workers as a way to disseminate factually correct information about contraceptive options for couples who are sexually active. We had the opportunity to present our campaign and our findings to a panel of senior executives at Partners in Health. Overall, DPMI Rwanda was a great learning experience that will contribute to my further learning at MIIS and beyond as an international development professional.
Click here to see Rachel’s photo essay, “DPMI Rwanda: A Journey in Photos.”
