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

Time to read
2 minutes
Print
a- a+
Published 12 years ago
Last updated 1 year ago
Read so far

Healthcare Is a Human Right

0 comments

Launched in 2012, this is a statewide grassroots campaign that strives for universal healthcare in Maryland, United States (US). Organisers - United Workers, Healthcare-NOW! Maryland, and Physicians for a National Health Program-Maryland - are working to achieve this goal through building a people's movement that unites communities across Maryland, grounded in a human rights vision that is guided by 5 principles.

  1. Universality: "Human rights must be afforded to everyone, without exception."
  2. Equity: "Fair and equal access where everybody can afford the same high quality care."
  3. Accountability: "There must be means of holding the government accountable for failing to meet human rights standards."
  4. Transparency: "People must be able to know how public institutions needed to protect quality access to healthcare are managed and run."
  5. Participation: "Government must engage people and support their participation in decisions about how their health care system is shaped and supported."
Communication Strategies

This grassroots campaign revolves around the creation of self-run organising committees in each county in Maryland (8 committees exist, as of this writing). Each committee meets at least once a month and engages in a combination of self-education and outreach. Throughout the state, leaders of the campaign are holding public healthcare speakouts, surveying their communities, connecting with faith groups, collecting testimonies, and educating themselves on how to organise themselves and empower their communities.

 

For example, on Martin Luther King [MLK], Jr. Day, January 20 2014, the United Workers, Healthcare Now!, and Baltimore members of Healthcare is a Human Right – Maryland participated in Baltimore's 2014 MLK Day Parade. They carried a banner that read: "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and the most inhumane." The quote is from MLK, spoken on March 25 1966 at the Second National Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights. To cite another example, on October 26 2013, residents from across the state of Maryland marched for the human right to healthcare. A healthcare justice play took place just after a rally that kicked off the march near Baltimore's Patterson Park. Click here to listen to an audio clip of speeches, interviews, and sound from the event. Featured are: Sergio Espana, the statewide organiser for Healthcare is a Human Right-Maryland, two speakers from the healthcare rally before the march, the beats of the Baltimore Christian Warriors Marching Band, and some of the participants at the march. One 32-year-old member of the Howard Chapter said: "I am tired of other people speaking for me and I want my voice to be heard directly. Too often important policy decisions are decided behind closed doors without any involved of the people that have the most to lose and it's time that we change that dynamic. We can't look the other way when are neighbors are dying needlessly. The time to be a participant in society is now. And that is why I am marching!").

 

For more information, please see:

Development Issues

Health, Rights

Key Points

Many members of the Healthcare Is a Human Right campaign have gone into bankruptcy or lost their homes because of medical debt. Others have had to forgo necessary treatment for illnesses such as cancer because of cost or a lack of health insurance. In Maryland alone, 400,000 residents will remain uninsured even after the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented.

Partners

United Workers, Healthcare-NOW! Maryland, and Physicians for a National Health Program-Maryland

Sources

United Workers website and Healthcare Is a Human Right website, both accessed on January 22 2014.