PIP: The author was the Senior Communication Advisor at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad on a project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) during 1990-93. The project was designed to provide communication support to Pakistan's Expanded Program of Immunization and Control of Diarrheal Diseases Program. The author explains how his small health promotion unit at NIH set an example demonstrating the effectiveness of participatory training in the health field. Many of the NIH training graduates urged their health ministries to remodel other training programs along participatory lines. The unit helped to raise the profile of interpersonal communication to the point at which health authorities throughout the country now acknowledge its importance. All health communication plans were based upon solid research, with the advisors standing by what they knew was right, even when it meant challenging conventional wisdom.