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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Namma Vaani

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Namma Vaani is a social networking platform designed to empower the disability community in Karnataka, India. Created by EnAble India, Namma Vaani is a channel to build a community of people with disabilities whom they help place in companies, to enable them to share their experiences and problems, and to suggest solutions to each other. Namma Vaani is primarily for:

  • persons with disability who want to know about job opportunities, life skills, and mobility or who wish to share their life stories journeys and their solutions;
  • government organisations that wish to launch interventions and easily reach many stakeholders;
  • businesses and companies who want to advertise job opportunities or sell products relevant to persons with disabilities;
  • non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and social organisations who wish to mobilise communities and hold outreach programmes; and
  • different stakeholders who wish to use the platform for engagement, data collection, announcements, etc. pertaining to the disability sector.
Communication Strategies

Namma Vaani uses mobile phones to create an interactive platform for persons with disability and their communities. The voice-based platform allows people to use a number (9266 344 111) to give a missed call and get a call back so they can leave messages about their own journey or their community. Namma Vaani is an interactive voice response system with Kannada language audio plays, songs with messages, and narrations that give different kinds of disability-specific information. The platform also contains content generated by persons with disability from the community itself - who may be interested in sharing their own stories or listening to solutions that other persons with disabilities use. For example, one can "[l]isten to the journey of a person with low vision who is self-employed in sheep-rearing activities. Rajanna, by overcoming his challenges, has become a role model in his village." And: "This is the inspiring story of Pradeep, a person with intellectual disability, speech impairment, low-vision, and hard of hearing who has found success in his career, with the support of his parents. Pradeep has now received awards for his performance!"

Development Issues

Economic Development

Key Points

EnAble India provides training, resources, services, and interactive tools for persons with disability to make them ready for livelihood opportunities. According to the organisation, 70% of persons with disability in India live in rural areas and have limited exposure to opportunities and solutions available.

Currently, Namma Vaani is operational only in Karnataka. To increase the reach of the platform, EnAble India is working closely with 30 District Disabled Welfare Officers (DDWOs), 220 Multi Rehabilitation Workers (MRWs), and over 5,000 Village Rehabilitation Workers (VRWs) all across Karnataka. As of May, 2016, 4,115 people had reached out to Namma Vaani, calling in with queries and stories regarding self-employment, wage employment, opportunities, and solutions.

Sources

Email from Aaditeshwar Seth to The Communication Initiative on August 28 2016; and EnAble India website, August 30 2016.