The Drum Beat 206 - Communication and Change News and Issues
PROGRAMMES
1. Trendsetters - Zambia
A youth-run newspaper aiming to provide sexual and reproductive health information to young people and help them adopt safer sexual practices. Trendsetters also attempts to foster an atmosphere in which young people can discuss sex-related issues with family members and guardians. The paper is operated by 7 youth who research and write stories, sell advertising, market and distribute the paper, and manage administrative tasks. The editorial board, also composed of youth, selects the stories for each issue with an eye to the information that will be most relevant to their peers.
Contact Mary Phiri [email protected]
2. The Bombay Leprosy Project (BLP) - India
BLP uses mobile phones and pagers to provide leprosy services to patients in slums in partnership with general health care services. A team of community volunteers (CVs) trained by the paramedical workers of BLP pick up on new leprosy cases among the slum population through a door-to-door survey, provide domiciliary medical treatment, monitor nerve damage, offer field-based disability care, and identify clinical problems occurring in some of the patients who have already completed the prescribed course of treatment. The phones and pagers enable the workers to obtain specific advice or instructions on the management of complications from physicians in the central monitoring cell.
Contact Dr. R. Ganapati [email protected]
3. Beats the Box - UK
Through participatory drama and discussion, young people in 3 communities identified bullying as a major concern. Small World Theatre has worked with these youth to design 2 plays to present to younger children in the area. These plays are based on personal narratives gleaned from interviews conducted by the young people with children and adults in the community about their attitudes toward and experiences with bullying. The plays are interactive; the young performers serve as peer facilitators to stimulate the audience. 'Streets' also gets the community involved in addressing bullying and building community identity. Participants interpret their own streets through theatre, poetry, light projection, stellar mapping, sculpture, flat art, and web art to illustrate and enhance a sense of place.
Contact [email protected]
4. Information & Knowledge for Optimal Health project (INFO) - Global
This 5-year global reproductive health information programme will work to create a network for knowledge-sharing by collecting, synthesising, and disseminating information on family planning and reproductive health. INFO will also work with worldwide health professionals' organisations, health information organisations in developing countries, other USAID-support organisations, and USAID country missions to help build capacity to generate and share information. INFO will also work to strengthen networks within and among local organisations and in communities of practice.
Contact Vanessa Carroll [email protected]
5. Local Advocacy Project (LAP) - The Philippines
Aims to solicit political and popular support at the local level in the form of passage of local initiatives allocating resources for population/RH programmes through advocacy work. In Balingasag, billboards were developed and installed in strategic locations. In Tanjay, the theatrical group "Balitaw sa RH" was formed to act as a medium to help increase awareness and build support for RH at the barangay level. And in Sorsogon, "Hatod Kapatiran", a mobile clinic initiated by the LGU and local NGOs provides FP/RH information and services to the barangays.
Contact [email protected]
6. Radio La Cometa - San Gil, Santander, Colombia
A radio programme that is part of an effort on the part of 14 community organisations (12 non-profit, 2 private) to support educational and social projects through exchange of ideas about agro-technical initiatives and diverse programming reflective of local interests and beliefs. Designed to enable San Gil farmers to hear their own voices and to empower themselves through open, democratic communication. The ultimate aims are to build citizenship and social accountability; to foster cultural development; and to strengthen solidarity initiatives supportive of peace in the city.
Contact [email protected] OR Fernando Tibaduiza Araque [email protected] OR Jose Muñoz [email protected] (English)
***
Evaluate Participation!
The website of the Informal Working Group on Participatory Approaches & Methods to Support Sustainable Livelihoods & Food Security of the FAO - aims to capitalise on FAO's normative and field experiences with participatory approaches and methods and to provide an interactive learning forum to share and exchange resources, knowledge and information on participation in development.
To complete the evaluation questionnaire, click here and send to [email protected] by July 31, 2003.
***
EVALUATIONS
7. Impact Data - Let's Work Together to Beat Measles - Australia
Up to 88% and 86% of parents of primary-school-aged and preschool-aged children, respectively, reported awareness of the information pack and television ads, during the campaign. 1.7 million primary school aged children (96% of children this age) were vaccinated during the campaign. More than 1.3 million of these children were vaccinated at the school. A serosurvey conducted after the campaign showed that 94% of children aged 6-12 years were immune to measles, an increase from 84% before the campaign.
Contact Lisa Brett, Tel: 8223 1130 OR 0411 261 336
8. Impact Data - Choose Life - East and Southern Africa
3 in 5 youth in Botswana said they had discussed the booklet with someone. 45% of Choose Life readers, as opposed to 30% of young non-Choose-Life-readers, knew it was safe to touch an HIV positive person. In response to the statement "people with HIV/AIDS should be moved away," 81% of all Choose Life readers disagreed, in contrast to 63% of youth not reading Choose Life.
Contact [email protected]
AWARDS
9. Shell Economist "Do we need nature?" Writing Competition
Open to all African journalists. For original essays of no more than 2,000 words that consider how much, why and when in relation to the question - "Do we need nature?". Deadline: Aug 22 2003
10. 2004 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA)
Nominees must currently be involved in work for the promotion and protection of human rights. Deadline: Oct 1 2003.
11. First Light Funding
For films in the UK where young people (aged 7 -18 years) take a lead role in all aspects of the production process. Deadline: Oct 7 2003
***
PULSE Poll
Do you agree or disagree?
There is a contradiction between development by and for the most affected and international, large scale development initiatives.
[For context, please see Drum Beat 203.]
VOTE
***
STRATEGIC THINKING
12. AIDS in South Africa: The Invisible Cure - by Helen Epstein
Explores what the author describes as a "striking and deeply mysterious" denial of the reality of AIDS in South Africa. This country has one of the highest infection rates in the world and an equally high level of awareness about how to avoid being infected. Why, the author asks, have so many HIV prevention programmes - like those addressing high-risk youth - been so unsuccessful?...
13. Advancing Health Communication: The PCS Experience in the Field - by Phyllis Tilson Piotrow, Jose G. Rimon II, Alice Payne Merritt, Gary Saffitz
A guide based on the worldwide experience of the Population Communication Services (PCS4) project from 1995-2002. PCS4 offers here some practical lessons as to what works and does not work in the rapidly evolving field of health communication...
14. National Plans of Action for Children: involving children and young people in their development
Suggests that previous National Plans of Action (NPAs) for children have failed due to a lack of involvement of children and young people and the failure to link the goals of the NPAs to children's rights. It outlines obstacles to children and young people’s involvement, as well as ways in which governments, civil society, and children and youth themselves can foster this involvement.
***
The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann [email protected]
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.
To subscribe, click here.