EQUI-Injury Community Engagement and Involvement: Views from Ngqamakhwe Community, Eastern Cape

The rural community site of the Equi-INJURY Project in South Africa is the Ngqamakhwe Community. Ngqamakwe is located in the Amatole District Municipality of the Eastern Cape province in South Africa. The community has 33 villages in its locality. Centrally located is the Ngqamakhwe Community Health Centre that services 6 local clinics. The local language is isiXhosa. Lead post-doctoral researcher, Dr Ntombekhaya Tshabalala held a Community Advisory Board (CAB) meeting with local residents to ensure community perspectives are included in the design and delivery of the research. In this episode, we hear some of their views. Ms. Nowelile Mlibali, a CAB member and secretary of the Ngqamakhwe Community Health Center Board, highlighted the need to raise awareness about injury and injury care in the local communities. Furthermore, Mrs. Sindiswa Mpepho, a Ngqamakhwe resident, discussed involving the Community Health Centre Committee in disseminating information about the project and its objectives - to improve quality care for injured individuals in the community. We are committed to partnerships research and will continue to work with the CAB and local community throughout the programme.

NIHR Global Health Group on Equitable Access to Quality Health Care for Injured People in Four Low or Middle Income Countries: Equi-injury

UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) supported Study title: Knowledge exchange for evidence-informed injury care

What is Global Health from the Global South: Learning and Exchange for Research on Injury Care?

Every year, around 5 million individuals die due to various types of injuries like road accidents, burns, falls, or violence. Shockingly, 90% of these deaths occur in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs). Moreover, even for those who survive these injuries, disability rates are quite high, with around 40-50% of people being unable to work or disabled post-injury. To address this issue, the World Health Organization has called for the establishment of strong health systems that provide quality care to people who are injured to prevent death and disability. However, there is a lack of evidence on how to achieve this.

Our research partnership is based in Ghana, Pakistan, Rwanda, and South Africa, and we are working towards promoting equitable access to quality care after injury. To ensure that our research is grounded in the real-life experiences of injury and injury care, we collaborate closely with various stakeholder groups, including patients, community members, healthcare providers, and policy makers. Additionally, we aim to create equitable research partnerships and scientific hubs to support future researchers beyond the scope of our project.

Through this podcast series, we want to provide a platform for our collaborative to showcase the voices of our community of stakeholders. The series will feature discussions among members of the public, patients, healthcare workers, policy makers, planners, and scientists. Our goal is to facilitate a dialogue on how to improve access to quality injury care and to demonstrate how equitable research partnerships can support and inform these efforts.