The Drum Beat 177 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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As we close the year 2002, we would like to express our gratitude for your support throughout the past year, and whatever your choice of celebration at this time, we wish you peace and prosperity in the transition into the year 2003. We look forward to working with and in support of you.
- The Communication Initiative Team
Our next issue of The Drum Beat will be January 6, 2003.
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PROGRAMMES
1. Beej Bachao Andolan (BBA) - India - a people's movement to conserve indigenous seeds and promote traditional agricultural practices. The programme included food marches as well as meetings to create awareness about the importance of protecting traditional seeds. BBA also actively promoted the use of traditional farming methods such as baranaja. The use of traditional farming methods and seeds has resulted in higher yields, improved health of humans and livestock, and the increased conservation of soil fertility and agro-biodiversity.
2. National Diabetes Education Program Hispanic/Latino Campaign - United States - strategies included use of Hispanic media and reinforcement of media messages through community organisations. Campaign included 15- and 30-second TV public service announcements (PSAs) in Spanish and English, a 30-second radio PSA and a print PSA in Spanish, all with the theme "Rayos y Truenos" or "Thunder & Lightening." A press kit in Spanish and English included a photo board, print PSA, press release, educational brochures, fact sheets on the burden of diabetes among Hispanics, an overview of the NDEP, and other background materials. These kits were mailed to Hispanic media throughout the nation. Contact Alan Andreasen [email protected]
3. Swift Jyoti for Women - India - a 10-hour IT course with follow-up support. The course includes exercises that will help participants find women-oriented websites, where they can access tips on entrepreneurship, financing, and parenting. For 3 months following the course, participants receive a password that enables them to receive online support. Their queries are purported to be answered within 2 hours of the request. IT training is also available to women and girls who work and learn in government-run schools. 1 female principal, 3 teachers, and 6 girls from 2,000 schools will receive Swift Jyoti materials free of charge. Contact [email protected]
4. MAGIC Online Initiative - Global - launched in Dec 2002 with a full title of "Media Activities and Good Ideas by, with and for Children", MAGIC offers information and examples of media projects that have had a "positive impact on children". Available in Spanish, French, and English, the MAGIC site features the MAGIC Bank, a searchable, expandable database of information, advice, and best practices. In addition, the site offers separate informational pages meant for children, parents, the media, the government, teachers, and groups working for children. Contact Marian Rivman [email protected] OR Regine Kachtiane [email protected]
5. Women Build Africa - Canada & Africa - an art exhibition presented at museums in various Canadian cities in 2000-2001 and in various African cities in 2002 to raise awareness among Canadian and African audiences about the status of women in Africa and their contribution to the development of the continent. The exhibition includes colour photographs; a 30-minute soundtrack of women singing about tradition, customs, marriage and motherhood; audiovisual documents; comic strips; ritual objects and handicrafts; and everyday objects that reflect women's lives. The exhibition, texts, and audiovisual documents are presented in French and English. Contact Ginette Caron [email protected]
6. You and Me - China - a project to provide unmarried individuals with access to information and services, as well as to develop comprehensive Adolescent Sexual Health (ASH) interventions. These included initiatives that provided condoms and offered newspaper columns and training workshops. Specific components: 1) "Reaching Urban Youth - a Creative Approach to HIV/AIDS Awareness" targeted vulnerable youth through interventions in popular bars and clubs in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong; 2) "ASH/HIV/AIDS Awareness among Middle School Students" a 4-page newspaper feature for World AIDS Day 2001 that reached over 1 million rural and urban middle school students throughout China. An evaluation of this project is available. Contact Lily Liu Liqing [email protected]
7. Inter Press Service (IPS) - Global - an independent international association of journalists that provides information on global issues through satellite communications, the internet, printed materials, and email. IPS works to provide in-depth analysis of the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations, especially in the South. In addition to its main services in English and Spanish, news bulletins are produced in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Dutch, Finnish, German, Hindi, Kiswahili, Mandarin, Nepali, Norwegian, Sinhala, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, and Urdu. These are available through online computer facilities, electronic databases, and printed bulletins. Contact (subscriptions) [email protected] (projects) [email protected]
8. Foundation for Children & Adolescents (FUNAC) - Brazil - seeks to reduce feelings of racial inferiority, racial preferences, use of racial slurs, and reproduction of negative values at the family and community levels. The project uses 3 strategies: Training in the culture, entertainment activities, and identity of black children; implementation of educational and informational activities about black children's development; and training in the dissemination of "brinqueidotecas" (festivals) and operation of community radio. The project works with existing community radio stations, or helps to establish them, to disseminate and information about child development, resiliency, ethnic and racial identity of black families, history and reality of blacks, and black culture. Contact [email protected]
9. Kaalamang 343 - The Philippines - a street play on HIV-AIDS prevention performed for 5 years for audiences in Metropolitan Manila, as well as in areas in rural towns. "K343" stands for the 3 themes emphasised in the performance: 3 agents of infection, 4 common modes of infection, and 3 ways of prevention. Performance venues, arranged in partnership with local organisations such as village governing councils or youth clubs, were identified on the basis of population density and poverty. The relationship between the performers and local organisations began with a full-day workshop on basic AIDS knowledge that involved local village residents (barangays). Contact Virgilio Pernito [email protected]
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Echoing Green Fellowships - created to provide social entrepreneurs who have ideas for driving social change with the tools and resources to start new autonomous public service projects or organisations.
Initial application deadline: Jan 6, 2003.
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CHANGE THEORIES
10. Facilitating Community Change - 6 steps from Community Initiatives, Inc.
- Assessing Readiness: Identifying choice
- Energizing the Group: Building and equipping a leadership team
- Early Wins: Getting to work - A community leadership team becomes the catalyst for the successful launch of a community-wide change effort.
- Energizing the community: Building knowledge for action
- Setting Direction for Change: Fine-tuning aim
- Implementing Change: Making it last
11. : An introduction to appreciative inquiry
by Charles Elliott
An appreciative inquiry usually proceeds through 4 stages:
- Discovering periods of excellence and achievement - through interviews and story-telling.
- Dreaming an ideal organisation or community - using past achievements to envisage a desired future.
- Designing new structures and processes.
- Delivering the dream - acting on propositions, establishing roles and responsibilities, developing strategies, forging institutional linkages and mobilising resources.
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Apparently - Jan 1, 2003 is the 20th Anniversary of the Internet! Click here for more details...
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MATERIALS
12. Helping Young People Become Youth Advocates for Immunization
By Timothy Smith & Scott Wittet
Contains practical ideas for teaching children and young adults about infectious disease, immunisation, and injection safety and for encouraging them to promote immunisation in their communities. Includes activities and ideas for children ages 6-13 and young adults ages 14-18.
13. Oasis of Dreams: Teaching and Learning Peace in a Jewish-Palestinian Village in Israel
By Grace Feuerverger
The result of the author's 9-year ethnographic study of the schools in Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam (Hebrew & Arabic words for Oasis of Peace), a community founded by Jews and Palestinians that is aimed at demonstrating the possibilities for living in peace while maintaining their respective cultural heritages and languages.
14. United Nations Guide for Indigenous Peoples
Designed to provide indigenous peoples with practical information on the operations and procedures of the UN and its various agencies to the end of increasing their participation further. Available in Spanish, English, and French.
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Pulse Poll
Development focused organisations should never pay for radio or television air time.
Do you agree or disagree?
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LINKS
15. Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) - works to establish digital villages in rural Nigerian communities by providing technological resources to, and training, youth (especially young women) in an effort to reduce poverty, empower people, and create jobs.
16. People's Health Movement - a coalition of grassroots organisations dedicated to changing the prevailing health care delivery system, which they say fails to serve the poor in an equitable manner worldwide. Features the full text of Voices of the Unheard - the testimonies of the people from the People's Health Assembly (PHA), copies of the Charter in several languages, and access to all of the background papers and issue papers from the PHA.
17. Schools Online - helps students gain access to and use communication and information resources available on the Internet by developing locally-driven and sustainable Internet Learning Centers, facilitating professional development, and cultivating online cross-cultural projects. Available in 9 languages.
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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
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