
October 2017: First meeting of the technical group at the World Health Organization headquarters. Geneva (Switzerland).
TG61EC
The Technical Group of Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) for the control of Chagas Disease (TG6-IEC Chagas) was organized by the Chagas Control Program, Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO), to make technical contributions in the area of IEC for the Chagas problem.
TG6-IEC Chagas is made up of a group of professionals from various disciplines and geographical origins, with wide and varied experience with Chagas disease. This technical group is not representative of the WHO or of its member states. However, with its independence and without conflicts of interest, the technical group is tasked with: analyzing the diversity of the realities where Chagas exists in the world in a periodic and collective way; developing, evaluating, and disseminating IEC tools; and consulting with the WHO about strategies and methodologies for working in a contextually appropriate way in each of the three IEC areas (information, education, and communication).
MISSION
TG6-IEC Chagas is a multidisciplinary group charged with making scientific-technical contributions to the Chagas Control Program at the WHO. From an interdisciplinary and intersectoral public health perspective, TG6-IEC Chagas contributes to the attainment of the goals of the program, taking into account the geographical, historical, cultural, political, social, and individual features of the contexts where Chagas exists.
Considering all of the social collaborators involved in the three IEC areas, TG6-IEC empowers people, families, and communities to exercise their right to health by seeking to reduce or eliminate the social, structural, subjective, and objective barriers that impede or exclude in the development of a healthy life.
MEMBERS
The strategies involved in IEC require a team made up of people from different disciplines, with the common objective of fulfilling their tasks in an interdisciplinary and intersectoral way. Because of this, it was important for TG6-IEC Chagas to be made up of professionals with varied backgrounds. The aim of the structure of this group was to include not only specialists in the necessary disciplines for the IEC work, but also those with experience in community work, social mobilization, healthcare service, and management of diseases in both endemic and non-endemic geographical contexts.
For this reason, the technical group was formed by people who share and intertwine their paths and experiences in different fields, which is essential for them to move forward with their duties in a rigorous, creative, and committed way. The members of TG6-IEC Chagas are also: members of associations of people affected by Chagas disease; specialists in education, anthropology, and social and community mobilization; specialists in public and community health; and specialists in art and health.













HOW CAN I SHARE MY IEC TOOLS
WITH BEATCHAGAS PLATFORM?
If you have one or more IEC tools, didactic resources or you have developed IEC strategies, you can share them with the TG6 IEC Chagas disease. The members of the Group assess and select the tools, resources and strategies based on pre-established criteria in order to include them in the BeatChagas platform and share them with the public health, health system and scientific communities and people interested worldwide, recognizing and acknowledging the authors and their institutions with their copy rights.