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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freedominspeech.org

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The website freedominspeech.org was launched in 2011 as a result of a collaboration between Gay Kenya, Kenya's gay identifying men's group, and Artists for Recognition and Acceptance (AFRA)-Kenya, a lesbian, bisexual, and trans women's group.  The website, which was envisioned by its founders as a news site for news and information on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues, was developed with technical support from Internews as part of their human rights project. The interactive website seeks to be a one-stop source for information for the gay and lesbian community.

Communication Strategies

The website development itself was a strategic initiative by the two founding groups who sought to fill a gap in gay-friendly news reporting as well as provide a space for LGBT Kenyans to share their stories. Internews Executive Director Ida Jooste echoed this need when evaluating her organisation's previous interaction with the LGBT community. "There was no comprehensive reporting that we could identify. When a chance came to engage human rights in a much broader and full way, we knew the gay and lesbian community, considered a minority, was a prime candidate to kick-start this project..."

 

Internews provided strategic training for members of Gay Kenya and AFRA-Kenya in basic journalism skills such as "writing, reporting, multi-media, recording, photography, and any other emerging genres we thought were significant to ensure they write good stories," according to Patrick Rukwaro, an Internews trainer. During an intensive week, trainees also learned photography and audio recording, in order to enable them to upload stories with visuals and audio. Stories produced during the training provided the initial feed for the website, which continues to provide links to stories written, filmed, and taped by Kenyans, as well as local and international news in the areas of world, business, health, technology, travel, arts and entertainment, sport, fashion, spirituality, life & style, and the law.

Development Issues

Gender

Partners

Gay Kenya Trust, Artists for Recognition and Acceptance (AFRA), Internews in Kenya

Sources

freedominspeech website, November 8 2011.