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.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Action Health Participatory Video Project - Nigeria

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The Action Health Participatory Video Project is dedicated to giving Nigerian youth access to reproductive health information and life planning skills through video and film. The project provides access to equipment and skills development for video production that is focussed on young women and students and the issues that affect them. The project trains adolescents as health educators who can communicate effectively with their peers both at Action Health's centre and in public schools, largely through "Health and Life Planning Clubs." The goal is to encourage students to express themselves, become more actively involved, and increase their leadership skills.
Communication Strategies

Organisers held the first Action Health Participatory Video Workshop in 1992, which was attended by 10 peer educators, 4 staff, and 3 founding members. A representative of the Nigerian Youth AIDS Programme (NYAP) in Calabar was also invited to attend the workshop. Other attendees included teenagers who were top students in their class and in their final year at school. Though the workshop participants had no previous experience producing video, they were devoted viewers of popular Nigerian television programmes and music videos that addressed family planning.


The teen participants were trained to operate Hi-8 equipment. During the 15-day workshop, they gained further skills in production planning and storyboarding, researching, interviewing, and working as part of a team while shooting. By the end of the training, each participant had produced his or her own programme.


After the students were trained, they in turn trained a younger student in production and playback skills. The students trained through this apprentice-type arrangement were dubbed "video babies" and subsequently received peer educator training as well.


The team produced programmes on sex education, parent-child communication, AIDS and sexually transmitted infection (STI) awareness, puberty, drug use, smoking, rape, and the role of health counselors. Some are dramas; others mini-documentaries. They include on-the-street interviews, songs, dances, in-depth conversations and panel discussions. The element they all share is the "creative force of young people addressing other young people about concerns they have in common."


Action Health's videos are shown at the organisation's drop-in centre as well as in public schools. Young people sometimes make their first visit to the Action Health centre requesting to see a particular video.

Development Issues

Reproductive Health, Youth.

Partners

Action Health Incorporated (AHI), John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, NYAP, Communication for Change

Sources

Communication for Change site.