The moderated picture book format was intended to facilitate a community-led conversation about reducing risk from contact with animals. Careful consideration was given in the text to ensure that bats were never characterized as carriers of disease, with attributions being made instead to infectious fluids of infected bats. These considerations are aimed at balancing the bat conservation message alongside harm reduction messaging, and avoiding fear-based rhetoric in conveying risk communication.
The communication strategy was supported by the One Health approach of the project. By prioritizing bat conservation along with the health and well-being of the human communities, the risk communication was focused on building knowledge and preventing spillover.
Risk communication was better received when approached with a community-led perspective. Local context was essential to ensuring the risks being discussed were accurate to the region and communities and the solutions proposed were both feasible and desired by the community. Ensuring the community had ownership over the discussions and overall process enabled for the best solutions to be generated and implemented across the project.