Living with with lymphatic filariasis in our community: insights from community mapping in Ghana
1
Human Rights, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Canada
2
Social Work, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
3
Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Popul. Med. 2026;8(Supplement Supplement 1):A690
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is a disfiguring and stigmatised neglected tropical disease (NTD) with health, social, cultural and economic impacts. Sociocultural and economic factors of the disease are underexamined, and in the Global Health paradigm of NTDs, people with LF are rarely recognized for the embodied and local knowledge they hold.
METHODS:
In 10 small, remote LF-endemic communities in Ghana’s Western Region, we used community-mapping workshops to understand “what is it like to live in this community with LF.” In each community people with LF, grouped by gender, collaboratively mapped their communities depicting social, cultural, economic and health geographies of their environment. On large pieces of paper, participant co-researchers marked key sites identifying places of belonging, health and safety, alongside places of exclusion, ill-health and danger.
RESULTS:
Places of inclusion were often paradoxically places of exclusion, and places of safety were also often described as unsafe. Women identified locations related to income generation (farms, markets) as critical to economic well-being, independence and community participation, but also sites of injury and mocking. Men identified locations of leisure including drinking spots, ‘chop bars’ and soccer fields as places to be welcomed by friends, but also places of name-calling, pain and difficulty as they navigated physical difference and reduced mobility. Map omissions were also significant, including the absence of locally-important traditional healers on maps, which suggests norms on ‘what can be publicly mapped/discussed.’ Exclusions also demonstrated agency – one group deliberately omitted an adjacent resort where they encountered stigma.
CONCLUSIONS:
Community mapping is a useful tool to access the experiential knowledge people with LF have of their communities offering insight into the development and location of LF prevention, manageable and anti-stigma campaigns. Two-edged sites (safety/harm) suggest potential locations for anti-stigma interventions while map omissions require further exploration.
Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is a disfiguring and stigmatised neglected tropical disease (NTD) with health, social, cultural and economic impacts. Sociocultural and economic factors of the disease are underexamined, and in the Global Health paradigm of NTDs, people with LF are rarely recognized for the embodied and local knowledge they hold.
METHODS:
In 10 small, remote LF-endemic communities in Ghana’s Western Region, we used community-mapping workshops to understand “what is it like to live in this community with LF.” In each community people with LF, grouped by gender, collaboratively mapped their communities depicting social, cultural, economic and health geographies of their environment. On large pieces of paper, participant co-researchers marked key sites identifying places of belonging, health and safety, alongside places of exclusion, ill-health and danger.
RESULTS:
Places of inclusion were often paradoxically places of exclusion, and places of safety were also often described as unsafe. Women identified locations related to income generation (farms, markets) as critical to economic well-being, independence and community participation, but also sites of injury and mocking. Men identified locations of leisure including drinking spots, ‘chop bars’ and soccer fields as places to be welcomed by friends, but also places of name-calling, pain and difficulty as they navigated physical difference and reduced mobility. Map omissions were also significant, including the absence of locally-important traditional healers on maps, which suggests norms on ‘what can be publicly mapped/discussed.’ Exclusions also demonstrated agency – one group deliberately omitted an adjacent resort where they encountered stigma.
CONCLUSIONS:
Community mapping is a useful tool to access the experiential knowledge people with LF have of their communities offering insight into the development and location of LF prevention, manageable and anti-stigma campaigns. Two-edged sites (safety/harm) suggest potential locations for anti-stigma interventions while map omissions require further exploration.
| eISSN: | 2654-1459 |
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