CARE-Bangladesh Women's Development Project: notes on a participatory mapping exercise

This is a longer version of the paper by Lily in Koning (ed.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Participatory Research in Health Promotion (1994). The paper outlines the background to the evolving Women's Development Project (WDP) in Bangladesh. It focuses on a health education component of the project, and gives an example of community mapping in a Bangladeshi village, conducted with village-based volunteer health educators (VHEs). The process of the exercise is reported, as are the reactions of the VHEs. The mapping exercise led to a discussion of the achievements and challenges faced, illustrating the potential role of mapping in enabling women to look at their own work in a new way. Other potential uses of PRA in the WDP are listed.