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 lainiciativadecomunicacion.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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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.