Hearts, Minds, and Sentiments: The Volunteers Program in the Immunization Program in Bangladesh and the Chagas Disease Control Project of Honduras

This paper arguesHeart that the work of the JOCVs has brought about sustained development of the social capital in the communitiesCommunity that host them and has contributed to motivating people to change their individual behavior patterns. A mixed-methods approach using semi-structured interviews and surveys was adopted to examine how volunteers worked to instill “normsNorm,” “trustTrust,” and affect changes of “sentimentSentiment” among people and organizations in two developing countries. The paper investigates the JOCVs’ activities within the PolioPolio Control and EPIExpanded Program of Immunization in BangladeshBangladesh, and the Chagas DiseaseChagas disease Control program in HondurasHonduras. In the former, the findings show that JOCVs played a crucial role in improving the motivationMotivation/Motive and trustTrust of field workers, leading to increased acceptance of vaccination and the establishment of new normsNorm within the communityCommunity. In HondurasHonduras, they promoted the creation of an “exchange of responsesResponse/Responsiveness” between health administrations and communities by stimulating their intrinsic motivationMotivation/Motive and generating positive sentimentSentiment among them. As a result, among local CommunityCommunity Health volunteers three common “sentimentsSentiment” were identified: happiness, a sense of achievementSense of achievement, and pridePride. This indicates that the JOCVs created and altered the social capital that supported self-sustained disease vector control in that country.