Community Education Strategies for the Control of Contagious Diseases in Rivers State, Nigeria (Published)
This study investigated community education strategies for the control of contagious diseases in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with a population size of 2,725 consisting of 25 experts in community education and 2,700 members of various Community-Based Organizations in four LGAs in Rivers State. A sample size of 370 respondents was drawn using proportionate stratified sampling technique. A questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The instrument which was validated by three experts recorded a reliability coefficient of 0.86. The collected data were analysed using mean statistics and standard deviation. The analysed data revealed that the REFLECT , Each-One-Teach-One and the story telling are some of the community education strategies that could be used to create the needed awareness for attitudinal change on the control and management of contagious disease in Rivers State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among other things that The Federal and State Ministries of health should work hand in glove with the National Mass Education Commission and various state agencies of mass literacy to train health workers saddled with the responsibility of providing health education on how to adopt REFLECT and other community education strategies for awareness and knowledge creation for the control and management of contagious diseases in Nigeria.
Keywords: Community Education., Contagious, Diseases, Strategies.
Assessment of Women’s Participation in Self-Help Groups in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State: Implications for Community Education (Published)
This paper assessed women’s participation in self-help groups in Nsukka Local Government Area. Five objectives and Five research questions were developed to aid the study. It adopted descriptive survey research design with a sample of 160 members of women self-help groups drawn from five communities. The key instrument used for data collection was questionnaire which covered the objectives of the study while interview and personal observation were used to complement the questionnaire. Data collected were presented in tables and analysed using percentage and mean scores. The findings show that women in Nsukka participate to a high level in self-help groups. The benefits of the self-help groups include among others, to socialize, attract loan, save money, give moral and financial support to members and solve problems through collective efforts. The study also reveals that women face challenges like illiteracy, poverty, conflicts and others which need relevant community education programmes to address. The paper therefore recommends among others that community members should support women self-help groups to enable them contribute to community development and that adult educators should strengthen women’s capacity through community education to address the challenges that hinder their participation in self-help groups.
Keywords: Community Education., Participation, Self-help