WEEK 10: PARTICIPATION EXERCISE 1 – BEERSELLERS IN CAMBODIA

This participation exercise is based on the article by Lubek et al. (2014) HIV/AIDS,
beersellers and critical community health psychology in Cambodia: A case study. I have
posted the article in the folder labelled “Readings” under the content for Week 10.

STEP 1: Start by watching the youtube clip: Beer Promotion Women in Cambodia at the
following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPzhm5wE1Y to gain an
overview of the case of the beersellers in Cambodia.

STEP 1: Lubek and colleagues used an empowerment through participation approach to

promote behaviour change and create social environments that support and enable
health promoting behaviours amongst the women who worked as beersellers. Read the
article by Lubek et al. (2014) to familiarise yourself with the intervention that they
implemented to address the issue of HIV/AIDS amongst beersellers in Cambodia.

STEP 3: Answer the following questions and post your answers in submission portal
created on SUNLearn.

• What was the health threat/problem that impacted the community of women
working as beersellers?

HIV/AIDS prevalence in this community was high and threatened the health and well- being of the
women working as beersellers.

 Write down a list of the risk factors that increased the beersellers’ risk of
becoming infected with HIV?

o Toxic working environment- sexual harassment, rape, exploitation

o Unfaithful husbands
o Low opportunities of employment
- Low wages and poverty
o Lack of educational opportunities for women
o Alcoholism
o Gender inequality
o Gender-based violence
 • Describe the intervention that Lubek and his colleagues designed to promote
empowerment through participation in this setting? Discuss specifically:

• How did they facilitate individual and system empowerment in this setting?
• How did they promote the development of critical awareness and participatory
competence in this setting?
Empowerment refers to a mechanism whereby individuals, groups, organisations and
communities gain mastery over their own affairs.

Intervention illustrates how through participation of women in all specicts of the intervention,
they became empowered to move out of toix workspaces and into new oppportunites and
participate in the creation of these new opportunities.

The participants and stakeholders in this intervention consisted of participants who were
willing, able, held the community accountable and fostered conditions for empowerment.

In this intervention the SiCHESI, created conditions and facilitated the process of
empowerment by building on the local knowledge, strengths, competencies and experiences,
in this way they recognixed and fostered to strengths and competencies of the beersellers.
They further used action research by actively engaging the community in participating in
interventions, such as gathering the beersellers for meetings. This model emphasised the
multilevel construct of empowerment as occurring in individuals, organisations and
communities. It applied a bottom- up approach that originates among the citizens of the
community rather than among it s leaders, it also used culturally sensitive and context specific
methods in the process of agency

Gross (1985) distinguishes between individual and systems empowerment.

To him, individual empowerment requires the application of humanistic psychotherapy as a

means of helping individuals change their behaviour and consume more agency over their
own lives. This form of empowerment was facilitated by; providing the women with training
that enables them to work in a different environment, teaching them about HIV/AIDS,
improving their literacy competencies and offering them the opportunity to acquire a different
skill set.

Systems empowerment, on the other hand, requires various systems, i.e. human right groups
and self-help groups, mobilize into action and bring individuals with similar needs together.
In this way, individuals are made aware of not only their position within the group, but also
the power they have to access resources. Such empowerment was facilitated by advocating
against toxic beer companies, creating a network resources and support that women could
draw on, creating healthier environments for women to pursue, and allowing women to
become aware of other groups facing challenges.

These processes of empowerment are dependent upon critical awareness and participatory
competence.

Critical awareness refers to the ability to question assumptions about social relations and
recognize disabling discourses in the community. This includes an awareness of injustices,
social irregularities, the processes within the community as well as one’s own position within
a community. This was promoted by making the women aware of alternative options that
exist, regarding their career path and laid the foundation for the development of self- efficacy.

Participatory competence refers to the behavioural skills required to effectively participate in

community decisions. Examples of such skills include building the women’s interpersonal
skills through training and educating them on the principle of accountability. These skills
assisted them in becoming more active in the community as they were able to assertively
express their own views. Partic

Both critical awareness and participatory competence were cultivated through the intervention
programmes as it allowed these woman the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences,
build collaborative relationships and build on their individual and systems empowerment.

When women became aware of the ways in which various factors that are beyond their
immediate microsystem factors e.g. economic factors, impact their lived experiences and
through this understanding, they were able to mobilise, challenge and lobby against beer
companies

When women b

STEP 1: Sigfusdottir and colleagues designed a multiple level intervention to address the
problem of substance misuse in Iceland. Their intervention incorporates research, theory and
action and has been instrumental in reducing adolescent substance misuse in Iceland.

STEP 2: Read the articles by Sigfusdottir et al. to familiarise yourself with the intervention
that they implemented to address the issue of substance use amongst adolescents in
Iceland.

STEP 3: Answer the following questions and post your answers in the submission portal
created on SUNLearn.
  What are the risk factors for adolescent substance use identified by the
researchers?

The researchers found that a lack of parental support, parental monitoring, and lack of time
spent with adolescents, and lack of recreational and extramural activities to be the main risk
factors for adolescent substance use in Iceland.

Affiliations with peer groups, family and the types of recreational activities available to young
people, delinquency. Lack of intergenerational closure- social capital ( parents maintain/
develop relationships with parents of childs friends. Relationship with family and parents.
Friends and peeer influences, emotional well-being, physical health status, participation in
sports and organised group work, school attainment

Participation in supervised youth work and sports deters adolescent substance abuse, spending
time with parents during workdays, not being outside after 10om four times in a week,
monitorying who child spends time with in the evenings, not going to parties regularly,
participating in sport 4 times a week

 What level of prevention does the Icelandic Model target? You may use either
Gordon or Caplan’s classification system in your response.

Reduce substance use through reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors

Used data from survey to design interventions- intervention based on the lived
experiences of target group

The Icelandic model was developed out of a need to better understand the societal factors
influencing adolescent substance use and potential approaches to intervention.

The model resembles aspects of Caplan’s primary prevention strategy, as it aims to reduce
risk factors and strengthen protective factors to prevent adolescent substance use. The aim is
on reducing the prevalence rate of adolescents using substances as this rate was very high in
preceding decades. The intervention is aimed at a specific group/ population- adolescents- and
stresses the importance of building around the individual by improving their social
circumstances to positively influence their behaviour.

The goal of this prevention intervention is prevention, therefore the intervention targets all
grade 9 and 10 students in the country, regardless of their level of risk of engaging in
substance use. Although, the goal of the intervention was early intervention and treatment at
first, the level of prevalence dropped so much, that the intervention continued as preventative
measure.

This model is both ecological and systemic as the intervention occurs on an individual level
by emphasising parent support, monitoring, time spent with child and participation in
organized events as well as on a collective level by emphasizing the importance of improving
the local community by linking parents with school. These levels occur within a complex
context of interactive levels of influence.

The model is also culturally sensitive and valid as it is described as distinct from other
planning models because of its incorporation of Icelandic culture. It is further dependent upon
the collaboration between social scientists, policy makers and key community stakeholders to
deliver intervention activities at the local level.

 What levels of Bronfenbrenner’s Model do the researchers intervene in with

their intervention? Explain.

Micro: in contexts that are closest to the individual e.g. school and home- emphasise
parent support, monitory time spent with child and participation in organised events

Collective level: emphasised importance of improving the local community by linking

parents with school

Exo: parents prowl

The intervention could be described as micro- level intervention as it as focused on the

adolescent and their immediate environment. The intervention aimed to assist microsystems,
i.e. school, family, and community, in strengthening and enhancing protective factors which
may decrease the likelihood of adolescents engaging in substance use. The researchers
believed that if adolescents were provided with sufficient support, monitoring and time, they
would be less likely to make poor friend choices as well as engage in substance use with
friends.

The meso-level intervention can be described by the schools’ desire to create ways in which
to engage parents in the school environment to create mutual goals and foster a more
supportive network for adolescents.

The intervention was also aimed at the macrolevel as it focused on changing the context of
adolescents to create a more supportive network. This intervention was aimed at changing
social norms, habits, policies, and community structures to enhance well-being in the
community. This is described by the parenting prowling initiative as well as the curfew policy
for adolescents.

 How do these researchers facilitate the development of individual and systems

empowerment through the implementation of the Icelandic Model?

By using a context and problem specific intervention strategy

The parents prowl is when the parents walk around the neighbourhood on Fri and Sat
evenings and facilitates parents in strengthening their local ties and getting to know one
another and monitor youth

Positively contributes to adolescent network and improves neighborhood social capital

Enables adolescent to become aware of supportive structures in their community and

the adults to share in their mutual commitment to their families and community.

Contributes to positive parent engagement an dincreases likelihood of parents attending

school meetings

Results of survey is presented to local community inlocal schools and community

centers, fosters alliance between researchers, local schools, parental groups, local
authorities, recreational workers with mutal foal of reducting substance use

Approach was consistent and comprehensive, ongoing partnership by getting

guardianship, community attachment and informal social control

Individual empowerment was facilitated by encouraging youth to participate in organized

recreational and extramural activities and sport in this way they are offered an alternative,
positive environment in which they are able to build new skills and competencies that may
assist them in coping with pressures or curiosity to participate in substance use. These
adolescents complete an annual survey in which their needs are described and the results are
used to modify the intervention. In this way, individuals feel empowered as their voices are
heard and they feel in control of changing their environment.

Systems empowerment comes from all stakeholders connecting to improve the social
circumstances of adolescents. Parent prowl and curfew policies were introduced that fosters
alliance between stakeholders and improves neighbourhood social capital as it facilitates
parents in strengthening their local ties.
  How is research incorporated into the design, implementation and evaluation of
the Icelandic model?

The intervention is based on theoretical concepts that describe the importance of social
integration, social control and social support. The design incorporated global research
findings and the researchers own local observations about individual and societal factors to
produce a community needs assessment.

The implementation of the intervention was based on the survey approach to elicit responses
to predetermined questions. This approach to data collection allows interventionists to decide
how the data will be collected, determine financial and human resources required and collect,
organize and interpret data.

The evaluation was were the interventionists sough validity. They compared their data to an
international study and found their findings to be congruent, therefore valid.

Word limit for your response: 400 words