(introductory text...)

Once you have established your study team, you will need to assign a suitably experienced applied anthropologist or related social scientist, a trainer who can guide and supervise the study team during planning, designing, and conducting the study. Some projects already have highly trained staff. Training may be given periodically by external or in-house trainer(s). Other projects may have less trained and/or skilled personnel. This chapter provides some guidelines for the trainer who must take into account existing skills when planning and conducting initial as well as on-the-job training.

The purpose of training is threefold:

· to prepare and sensitize the study team for the disciplined task of qualitative investigation of the sociocultural determinants of hygiene practices;

· to equip the team with the technical knowledge and skills required to carry out such an investigation;

· to involve the study team in designing the study with a view to conducting it themselves.

These three are equally important purposes of training because the attitude and behaviour of the study team can influence the quality of information obtained, as much as the team's skills of investigation and analysis can. In addition, it is easier for the study team to conduct a study designed with the help of team participation than it is to carry out a study that has been designed by one or more individuals prior to the team's engagement.