The success of community-based research relies heavily on the participation of all the research stakeholders, including community members. Therefore, the present work aims to discuss how a community member’s training was realized to enable them to absorb the process of a community-based research, and the project. The Gundo-So program is an intervention that aims to empower Malian WLHIV, while supporting them in the process of disclosing or not their serological status. This intervention is implemented by ARCAD-SIDA, a Malian CBO, in 6 sites across Bamako. The program consists of 9 weekly group meetings (with 8 WLHIV) led by local coordinators. An evaluation of the impact of the Gundo-So program is scheduled to take place from 2019 to 2021. To assess the program’s effects, different surveys will be administered before and after the intervention. In January 2019, we organized a training session that aimed to teach local coordinators how the evaluation phase would be led and how the group meetings would organized. The training session took place in Bamako for five days, with sixteen female local coordinators, some of whom were WLHIV, and six researchers from Mali and France. During the training session, the local coordinators reshaped the research project and the animation of the program to make it their own, in agreement with their experience and cultural background. The training session began, at the local coordinator’s request, with the election of the “village leader”. Trainees decided to express themselves either in Bambara or French, depending on the speaker’s preference, translation was offered for French researcher. In this way, it was easier for them to understand the training and allowed them to speak their minds. The most appreciated contributions were cheered on by dancing and singing. The program’s goals and content were discussed and adapted to the Malian context and to the situations that local coordinators were confronted with during the adjustment phase of the project. Important issues were raised and discussed: questions in the surveys, problematic issues in the research protocol. Some of the local coordinators had previous experience with Gundo-So and presented the program’s activity to the others. Some of the program’s tools were deemed too complicated to use by local coordinators and were modified. Finally, some elements of the intervention were highlighted by the trainees: a research built by and for women, the importance of local coordinators in the program implantation, and their behaviour about their own disclosure process towards the participants. This training session illustrates how, through a community-based research, research stakeholders and community members are complementary. The theoretical framework is brought by researchers, the feasibility in context is ensured by community members and tools and methodology are worked together. Their experience and experimental knowledge are necessary to improve the implementation of health interventions. Training sessions appear to be an essential stage to boost participation and commitment in community-based research programs. Both ways exchanges are crucial to build interventional health programs that fit the local reality of the field, and therefore increasing the chances of success.