The History of CORE Group Partners Project
The CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP), formerly the CORE Group Polio Project, started in 1999 to bridge the gap between large INGOs and communities working to combat the detrimental effects of polio. After making his mark on the eradication of smallpox and guinea worm, David Newberry embraced the challenge to defeat polio. David traveled to the polio-priority countries of Angola, India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Bangladesh and Nepal, assessing the need and feasibility of developing CGPP programs there. CORE Group had previously established guiding principles for the project to ensure that NGOs would work cooperatively in high-risk locations that would most benefit from CGPP’s engagement. With a wealth of more than 40 years of public health experience, having worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and CARE, including in smallpox and guinea worm eradication programs, in 1999, David became the first director of the project. He was the driving force behind engaging civil society, particularly the non-governmental organization community, by launching community-based polio eradication efforts through the development of secretariat teams in the focal countries.
“He was enthusiastic and optimistic but saw things for what they were, and he didn’t hesitate to confront problems head on,” said Ellyn Ogden, original architect of CGPP and the secretariat model. “He pulled this together and got us over the initial bumps when everybody was skeptical that the project had merit.” Even after officially leaving the project, David returned to continue steering the formation of project teams in South Sudan and Nigeria.
Since then, the project has expanded into more countries, having served 13 countries in total, while currently implementing in ten. The project continues to serve as a trusted leader in cross-border, community-based human and animal disease prevention, detection, and response.
In India, Rita Rani, a member of the communication expert group said, “During the pandemic, CGPP trained me on the symptoms of COVID and preventive measures. Apart from gaining knowledge on disease prevention, I enhanced my communication skills, particularly on how to establish faith in the community, build rapport, and listen to the problems with empathy before responding. I feel confident conducting the communication sessions with pregnant women, mothers with newborns, and refusal families.”
In Uganda, Majok Deng, a father of five said, “While in South Sudan, I never took any of my children for immunization because I didn’t think it was important. I also thought that the vaccines would instead make my children sick, so I kept them away from them. But when I arrived in Elegu, Uganda, I was told about the importance of immunizing all my children. I was convinced by a person who was speaking the same language as mine that the vaccine was good. Because of that, I decided to accept my five children to be vaccinated against measles and polio.”
In South Sudan, Natabo, mother of three said, “I have not heard of anyone who got vaccinated in this village. I am happy to be the first, not only in my family but also in my community. If the COVID vaccine was not brought to us, no one would have got it.”
In Nigeria, Malam Barinje said, “Now we are armed with knoweldge that transcends traditional boundaries for meat hygiene, bovine tuberculosis, and other zoonotic public health threats so we can reduce risks,” after CGPP’s Global Health Security team had a community dialogue session for his butcher group.