Steps will be taken to develop the good working relationship already formed with the Honde Valley community, to mobilize community support for the research and provide reassurance that information given will be treated as strictly confidential. Thus, we hope to achieve high participation and follow-up rates and more reliable information. Preliminary meetings will be held with community leaders to explain the purpose of the study and the research procedures. Similar information will be given to each prospective participant prior to their decision on enrolment. Data collection methods such as self-completion questionnaires - 96% and 45% of women aged under 50 years, living in the Honde Valley, have received primary and secondary education, respectively, and literacy levels among men are higher than those for women [7] - and secret balloting, which avoid the need for participants to reveal personal information to enumerators directly and thus reduce under-reporting of sensitive information [34], have been field-tested and will be pre-tested further in the pilot study and used where feasible. Similarly, the possibility of using less invasive media such as saliva, urine or blood spot samples for HIV and STD testing is being investigated with the Public Health Laboratory in Harare [35]. The reliability and acceptability of these methods as applied in rural settings will also be field-tested in the pilot study.