Impact Data - Rope Guna Fal Radio Serial Drama

Child marriage:

• Rope Guna Fal resulted in an estimated 54,000 people intending to stop child marriage in their family and community.
• 95.5% of listeners said they intend to stop child marriage in their family and community, compared to 78.9% of non-listeners. This is a statistically significant difference (adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=5.48, 95% confidence interval, or CI [1.32, 22.77]). In other words, listeners were 5.5 times more likely than non-listeners to intend to stop child marriage in their family and community.
• Listeners were 3.8 times more likely to report they'd taken actions to discourage child marriage, building on 2 previous PMC shows in Nepal, Mai Sari Sunakhari ("Orchid, Like Me") and Hilkor ("Ripples in the Water"). For these two previous shows, listeners were 2.1 times more likely than non-listeners. According to evaluators, this demonstrable change in magnitude of behaviour change is meaningful.

Also, 83% of listeners agreed they "have tried to improve child learning and development" in their home, compared to only 69% of non-listeners. (This 14-percentage-point difference is impressive, but not statistically significant.)

• Rope Guna Fal resulted in an estimated 72,000 people believing their community does not find it acceptable to scold or beat children as a form of discipline.
• Listeners were one-third as likely as non-listeners to believe that their community finds it acceptable to scold or beat children as a form of discipline. This is a statistically significant different difference (aOR = 0.34, 95% CI [0.15, 0.73]). This difference in descriptive norms shows that listeners have a more nurturing worldview than non-listeners.
• When asked about their own views, listeners were about half as likely as non-listeners to feel scolding or beating is OK.
• Listeners were over 4 times more likely than non-listeners to agree that their community expects them to support girls' completing their education before marriage (aOR = 4.36, 95% CI [1.043, 18.22]).

• Rope Guna Fal resulted in an estimated 88,000 people believing adolescents in their community talk about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as HIV. This normalises the behaviour and makes it okay to talk about STIs.
• Listeners were nearly 3 times (aOR = 2.96, 95% CI [1.48, 5.89]) more likely than non-listeners to believe that adolescents in their community talk about STIs, such as HIV.

PMC-Nepal uses a Stages of Change model, and the Rope Guna Fal assessment included a series of questions to assess the degree to which listeners felt they 1) became aware of new social issues, 2) gained knowledge, 3) changed their attitudes, 4) reflected on social norms in their community, 5) were inspired to change behaviour, and 6) received motivation to maintain changes they made. 100% agreed or somewhat agreed their knowledge increased, 90.0% reported change in attitude, awareness of new issues, and reflection on social norms, and 88.6% reported new behaviour change or maintenance of recently changed behaviour.

A vignette: 40-year-old Rope Guna Fal listener Jodhani wanted to go to school as a child, but she was denied an education because she was a girl. She married young to a man who had neither education nor wealth, but Jodhani continued to share with her husband her wish to read and write. Despite the disapproval of her in-laws, she and her husband decided she would gain an education at the same time as their youngest son. It was attaining a basic level of education that allowed Jodhani to become a community social worker. "I have been advocating to end child marriage. I tell about the consequences to health, education, and how it would affect their life," she says. She uses the characters in Rope Guna Fal to motivate people she previously could not engage on the issues. The characters make concepts real without someone having to have that lived experience. She says she sees the community "rethinking". Raising her voice, Jodhani says, has become easier, and now more people are listening - and agreeing to create change.