The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Hopes and Dreams Online Video Project

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Launched on November 20 2009, Hopes and Dreams engages Palestinian refugee children in creating an online video yearbook to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child. This effort to bring together - online - a community divided and scattered is a project of the United Kingdom-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Hoping Foundation together with the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main body caring for some 4 million Palestinian refugees.
Communication Strategies

"Twenty years on, what difference has it made in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugee children?", UNRWA asked in a news release on the anniversary of the Convention. Hopes and Dreams uses information and communication technology (ICT) in an effort to explore this question.

Hundreds of flip cams have been distributed to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugee children in UNRWA schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Each student is recording a 30 second message which will form the basis of a living network for the future, to be added to each year. The segments show the youngsters outlining their hopes and aspirations in various situations - in the classroom or library, sitting by the roadside, kicking a soccer ball.

Visitors to the Hoping Foundation website may watch these videos. (The website features 5 unlabelled coloured bars. Click on the second from top (medium-pink-coloured) to see multiple video subjects. Click on individual photos to see video segments).

Development Issues

Children, Youth, Rights.

Partners

Hoping Foundation and UNRWA.

Sources

Posting to the Women's UN Report Program & Network (WUNRN) listserv, November 23 2009; "Palestinian Children Mark 20th Year of UN Rights Treaty with Video Testimony", UN News Centre; and Hoping Foundation website, December 29 2009.

Teaser Image
http://www.comminit.com/files/yearbook.jpg
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