The Drum Beat 233 - Communication and Change News and Issues

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PROGRAMMES

1. Moving the World, Voices of Justice - Mexico
Comunicación Intercambio y Desarrollo Humano en América Latina (CIDHAL A.C.) produces a radio programme called Moviendo al Mundo, Voces de Equidad (Moving the World, Voices of Justice). Broadcast weekly on a public radio station in Morelos, the radio show addresses issues related to discrimination and inequality that characterise the current situation in which Mexican women live. The show is divided into the following sections: In-consciousness - news related to sexual and reproductive health, gender violence, and civic participation; Women & Power - encourages women to exercise their right to vote and seek positions of power; The interview - features discussion with specialists, decision makers, activists, etc.; Recommendation of the week - offers literature or audio/video recommendations from CIDHAL's Betsie Hollants Documentation Center.
Contact [email protected]

2. Freedom from Tobacco - India
The Voluntary Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education (Consumer VOICE) has joined with other Indian NGOs in an initiative to support international tobacco reform efforts and to inform consumers about the health risks associated with tobacco use. Participating NGOs are undertaking advocacy efforts in support of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. In addition, a media kit has been produced to encourage the media to deliver accurate and comprehensive information about tobacco use to consumers. The kit materials provide information (statistics) and also encourage readers to take action against tobacco advertisers.
Contact Bejon Misra [email protected]

3. HIV/AIDS Community Response Database - Global
An online database of programmes serving children affected by HIV/AIDS around the world. Listings include a brief programme description, contact information, activity location, services offered, and areas of potential support. Included in the database are community-based programmes, government agencies, NGOs, youth groups, health workers, associations of people living with HIV/AIDS, and individuals.
Contact Suzi Peel [email protected] OR Anita Smith [email protected]

4. Youth Broadcasting Project - Somalia
A programme to develop locally-based radio and video broadcasts for, with, and by young people designed to prompt dialogue to the end of resolving issues at the local level. Members of youth groups between the ages of 14 and 24 are trained in radio and video production. They interview community members to gather perspectives on various social and health issues and then produce their own broadcasts. The programmes focus on a wide range of issues that are relevant to youth, such as HIV/AIDS, hygiene, immunisation, female genital mutilation, cholera, children’s rights, and peace and reconciliation. They provide information while portraying issues in a local context and drawing attention to misconceptions that community members might have. Young participantsoften venture into their communities to interview citizens to highlight what people think and why they make the choices they do about these issues.
Contact Tisha Wheeler [email protected] OR Julia Spry Leverton [email protected]

5. Big Noise - Global
In April 2002, Oxfam launched a campaign that uses online strategies to advocate for fair trade. The purpose of the campaign is to engender cooperative local and global action to make market trade fair. Big Noise uses online email campaigns to gather signatures to present at major worldwide conferences and to key decision makers in other situations. For example, in Dec 2002 Big Noise members sent 50,000 emails to protest Nestle's actions to claim US$6 million from the government of Ethiopia. After one week Nestle retreated. The interactive Big Noise website also provides a host of action tools and resources for citizens seeking to make a statement about free trade. The "act now" section offers a campaigning toolkit that includes online resources to support writing letters, sending emails, organising events, promoting the campaign through local media, and other actions expressing support for free trade.
Contact Sam Barratt or Amy Barry [email protected]

6. Speak Your Mind - South, South East & East Asia
In 2002, MTV Networks Asia teamed up with UNICEF and the Levi's® Brand to launch this campaign designed to encourage youth from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Korea, Taiwan, China, and Japan to communicate about issues that are important to them, such as HIV/AIDS, education, and their rights. To culminate the campaign, MTV channels in Asia delivered 24-hour youth-related programming in celebration of Youth Day, August 1.
Contact [email protected]

7. I Know My Goal Campaign - Ghana
A programme to improve the capacity of 11- to 15-year-old girls to protect themselves from HIV infection and other factors that may threaten their ability to fully benefit from the country's education system. The campaign addresses all primary and junior secondary schools in Ghana and child welfare NGOs operating at the community level, while also focussing on boys, teachers, parents, and community members. Programme strategies will be designed to enable Ghanaian girls to develop self-esteem, self-efficacy, decision-making skills, and personal risk perception. Informing these strategies is the conviction that girls need to be educated, and that developing positive relationships with male peers, abstaining from sex, and avoiding HIV/AIDS will facilitate that goal. This project is one phase of the ongoing Stop AIDS Love Life national HIV/AIDS programme.
Contact Emmanuel Fiagbey [email protected]

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STRATEGIC THINKING

8. Media Strategies for Promoting Gender Violence Free Society in Nepal
by Ms. Banda Rana
Ms. Rana argues that it is only through "effective media interventions that we can help society to deal honestly with the problem, ensure justice and support to the victims, and enforce sanctions against the perpetrators." In 1996, Sancharika Samuha (SAS) was formed to mainstream gender issues in the media with the goal of promoting "Communication for Equality". In this article, Ms. Rana describes several ways in which SAS has used media to combat gender violence in Nepal.

9. The Effectiveness of Entertainment Mass Media in Changing Behaviour
by William N. Ryerson
Why does entertainment-education work? What makes this methodology such a powerful tool to positively change human behavior on a mass scale? In this paper, Ryerson describes the effects of entertainment-education serial dramas on public health in Mexico, India, Kenya and Tanzania.

10. Door to Door for Health: Volunteer Health Educators Improve Services in Bolivia
by Abdel Padilla
In the city of El Alto, Bolivia, volunteer health promoters known as manzaneras are teaching residents the basics of prevention and self-care while bridging the gap between health services and those who need them. From the outset being a manzanera has been strictly a voluntary undertaking. More recently, a new and important element has been added: Each promoter is now elected by a neighborhood council, making the experience not only voluntary but also democratic and representative.

TRENDS

11. Himalayan kingdom goes mobile
by Richard Taylor
According to this article, Bhutan is now home to a mobile phone network. The capital city of Thimpu is one of the few places in the country where the network is up and running. However, life in rural Bhutan, home to most of the population, will remain largely untouched by this leap of technology. Outside the cities life is basic and few people own any kind of phone, relying instead on central communication centres which use microwave links to direct traffic around the country.

12. Gay internet cruisers, less unprotected sex, but increased STI risks
by Michael Carter
According to this article, a number of studies have found a connection between gay men using the Internet to find sex and a greater risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) (including HIV). To explore this trend, investigators provided 150 gay men attending a United States sex resort in the summer of 2002 with a questionnaire designed to assess STI-associated risk behaviours.

13. Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting
by Kim Zetter
While critics in the United States grow more concerned each day about the insecurity of electronic voting machines, Australians designed a system two years ago that addressed and eased most of those concerns: They chose to make the software running their system completely open to public scrutiny.

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POLL

Do you agree or disagree?

The use of the term "target group" is inappropriate in the context of economic and social development.

[For context, please see The Drum Beat 230]

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MATERIALS

14. Participatory Communication aand Adult Learning for Rural Development
by the Communication for Development Group Extension, Education & Communication Research, Extension & Training Division
Traces the growth of participatory communication in FAO's field programmes and provides examples of notable successes. It concludes by noting that the current rush to apply the new internet-based information and communication technologies in rural areas would be well served by observing the hard-learned lessons from traditional and older electronic media applications.

15. The Oral History Manual
by Barbara W. Sommer & Mary Kay Quinlan
This is a guide to assist people doing oral history research and to "think like an oral historian." The guide presents step-by-step instructions, checklists, full-size forms to reproduce, sample planning documents, project descriptions and summary sheets, sample materials, and illustrations.

16. India's Karate Girls: An Audio Package for Radio Broadcasters
UNICEF has produced an audio package on a teenage girl from a poor rural background in India, who has made her mark by learning karate and gone on to teach other kids. The package was tied in with the launch of the State of the World's Children 2004 Report on Girl's Education officially released in Dec 2003. All the material is recorded and scripted by UNICEF and is for broadcast use, free of charge.

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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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