The Drum Beat 223 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1.Uva Community Radio - Sri Lanka
As part of a broad community involvement strategy, 20 young producers and 378 community volunteers underwent training in community broadcasting and participatory programme production. After this training, UNESCO launched Uva Community Radio (UCR) with a stated purpose of using low-cost digital radio production technology to enable communities to produce media that addresses their own development needs and interests. Community participation is UCR's central strategy. The initial need for a community media outlet was gleaned from meetings of Knowledge Societies. Participants in these meetings first articulated the need for a radio for the people, by the people, that would address problems and issues specific to their community (like water scarcity and lack of transport facilities).
Contact Ms. Kusum Weerathunga [email protected]
2.Women in Action Against AIDS (Mujeres Unidas en Accion Contra el Sida) - Mexico & United States
Mujeres Unidas en Accion Contra el Sida (MUACES) was founded in the early 1990s by New Mexico, USA housewives seeking to understand HIV/AIDS in the context of poverty and limited resources. Fifteen housewives and 20 teenage peer educators speak to women about the dangers of HIV/AIDS, and the risks associated with unfaithful spouses. Workshops are organised by MUACES members, who talk to their peers about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention of STDs.
No contact information currently available. If anyone has any information on this project, please contact us at [email protected]
3.Kids Helping Kids - Ireland
Launched in 2000, Kids Helping Kids is designed to offer an opportunity for Irish children to make a difference in the lives of other children living in difficult circumstances. Beginning each year in late October, UNICEF Ireland provides information, online and printed materials, and suggested activities to teachers and students about an issue impacting children globally. It also encourages kids and their teachers to initiate educational fund-raising activities. Information provided on the UNICEF Ireland site is the basis for this programme. On the basis of the guidance provided on this site, each year students, teachers and parents organise initiatives such as fashion shows, plays, raffles, bake sales and dance-a-thons in their schools and communities. Partnering newspapers agree to make an effort to publish submissions from schools about their action projects and to raise awareness of the issue of child victims of war.
Contact Molly Morrison [email protected]
4.Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) - Antigua & Barbuda
Works to help school children, community groups, tour operators, tourists, and the general public appreciate the importance of conserving the wildlife and natural resources of Antigua and Barbuda. EAG receives and disseminates environmental information and works on conservation projects in partnership with the government, private companies, and overseas organisations. Projects include production of educational videos, workshops, school-based education campaigns, print materials for use in school curricula, field trips, a resource library, and environmental promotion merchandise to sell to tourists.
Contact [email protected]
5.Journal International des Quartiers (JIQ) [International Neighbourhood Journal] - Latin America & Europe
For training and information exchange on the part of people living in poor urban neighbourhoods and rural communities in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador and Bolivia and France, Belgium and Spain. The purpose of JIQ is to sustain the development of local projects and to develop a community voice by fostering the production of video "journals". The films tend to focus on local projects addressing particular issues or problems, with an eye to exchanging concrete, useful information about project development and best practices. It is hoped that these short films - one per month - will be shown on community television stations, on the Internet, and on video projectors in public squares. They will also be distributed to NGOs and grassroots organisations that focus on "the local".
Contact Greta Alegre [email protected]
6.Paint Me Like I Am - United States
Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems from WritersCorps is a collection of poems by 100 teens who have taken part in writing programmes run by the United States-based WritersCorps. Local writers in Washington, DC, San Francisco, California, and the Bronx, New York conduct creative writing workshops for young people in schools, homeless shelters, youth detention centres, and prisons. The programme is designed to get young people from disadvantaged communities in the United States excited about the written and spoken word, thereby improving their literacy. The publication itself is designed to inspire young people to share their thoughts and feelings on violence and other issues impacting their lives.
Contact [Bronx] [email protected] [Washington] [email protected] [San Francisco] [email protected]
7.Communication for Effective Social Services Delivery (CESSD) - Pakistan
This 4-year community participation project was designed to improve social service delivery at the local level by supporting the Government of Pakistan's (GoP) "Local Government Plan 2000". Key components included improving the exchange of information about best practices, providing adult education shaped by the needs of the community, and involving participants in capacity-building to address barriers to good communication. The ultimate aim of CESSD was to involve citizens in community development planning and monitoring as part of an effort to shift political power and administrative authority to the district level by forming local governments at 3 levels: district, tehsil, and union.
Contact Zahid Elahi [email protected]
STRATEGIC THINKING
8.Impact of Mass Media Campaigns on Intentions To Use The Female Condom in Tanzania
by Sohail Agha & Ronan Van Rossem
Data on 2,712 sexually experienced men and women in Tanzania, collected in an exit survey at outlets that sell the female condom, were used to determine if a mass media campaign [which was implemented in 1999 via radio and newspapers] promoting the female condom had an impact on women's and men's intentions to use this method.
9.Hygiene Promotion
by Brian Appleton & Dr. Christine van Wijk
Covers the the topic of hygiene promotion which includes how to: reduce the main risky hygiene practices and conditions for women, children and men - in a measurable way, to a significant level, in a pre-set period and within available resources; provide alternative approaches to hygiene promotion programmes that have a "better chance of success" including pointers on how to spread the hygiene promotion messages more widely; and monitor and evaluate hygiene promotion initiatives.
10.And A Child Shall Lead Them - Maybe: Children as Opinion Leaders in Social Marketing Campaigns
by Bey-Ling Sha
Attempts to open a dialogue on the role that children might play in social marketing campaigns. The author reviews marketing research suggesting that children can influence their parents' consumer behaviours (by, say, demanding that they purchase a certain type of candy or cereal). But, Sha asks, what about marketing that aims to "sell" a certain kind of social good, like health?
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Do you agree or disagree?
The degree of sustainable long term impact on any development issue is directly proportionate to the level of leadership by people immediately affected by that issue multiplied by the scale of public debate and private dialogue on that issue multiplied by the extent to which the issue in question is a 'local' action priority in any given context.
[For context, please see The Drum Beat #222]
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UNIVERSITIES
11.University of the West Indies - Jamaica
* MA in Communication for Social and Behaviour Change
* MA in Communication Studies
12.Institute of Development Studies - Sussex, England
* MA in Participation, Development & Social Change
13.Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health - Maryland, United States
* MA of Health Science - Health Communication concentration
EVENTS & TRAININGS
14. Culture, Communication & Health: An Introductory Course - Dec 5-7 2003 - London, UK
Combines individual presentations from experienced aid workers from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The methodology uses a variety of participatory training methods such as case studies, simulation exercises, problem solving activities and group discussions along with some formal presentations.
15. Health Promotion in Developing Countries - Dec 10-12 2003 - Melbourne, Australia
Course Objectives: Overview of basic concepts of health promotion; Analyse case studies for process, impact and outcome; Strengthen application of health promotion methods in international development programmes.
16. Transnational Risks - the Responsibility of the Media & the Social Sciences - Jan 2-10 2004 - Berlin, Germany
Will explore how knowledge about global issues is gathered, packaged and distributed by transnational organisations and whether the public is being denied full access to relevant information about risks to their freedoms or quality of life. The conference will also attempt to determine what kind of information or assumptions currently guide political responses to transnational risks.
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African communicators - African communication for social change.
To contribute, contact [email protected]
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MATERIALS
17.Advances Through HIV/AIDS Series
This 2002-2003 series from the Synergy Project includes papers covering a range of emerging issues such as Breastfeeding & HIV Transmission, Microfinance & HIV/AIDS, Home Self-Testing for HIV, and Human Capacity Development for HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care & Support. The goal of the series is to disseminate key research findings and expert analyses to practitioners and policy makers working in the field.
18.Hands Around Everest: Transboundary Cooperation for Conservation & Sustainable Livelihoods
Summarises progress of transboundary cooperation in the region around Mt. Everest (in the Himalayas) started in 1994/1995. It gives a brief background of the transboundary region and outlines the results of discussions and exchange activities among protected area managers, scientists, and local people. May be of interest to individuals concerned with transboundary issues or with approaches to reconciling the needs of people with those of conservation, or with the fate of the Mt Everest ecoregion.
19.Profits Over People: Tobacco Industry Activities to Market Cigarettes and Undermine Public Health in Latin America & the Caribbean
by Stella Aguainaga Bialous & Stan Shatenstein
Summarises a year long investigation of over 10,000 pages of previously secret internal tobacco company documents, mainly from Philip Morris and British American Tobacco, who combined share most of the market share in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The report shows that the tobacco companies...designed "youth smoking prevention" campaigns and programmes primarily as public relations exercises aimed at deterring meaningful regulation of tobacco marketing...
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