The Drum Beat 280 - Communication and Change News and Issues
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Please accept our warmest wishes for a joyous celebration season. We look forward to working with and in support of you in 2005. Peace and prosperity to you all.
- The Communication Initiative Team
Our next issue of The Drum Beat will be January 10 2005.
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1.Bhima Sangha - Karnataka, India
When working children in Karnataka, India realised that they were not recognised as workers by the State, legislation, or trade unions, they decided (in 1990) to form their own union to fight for their rights. Supported by the Concerned for Working Children (CWC), Bhima Sangha is an independent union of, by, and for working children (aged 18 years and younger). With a membership of over 20,000, Bhima Sangha advocates for the rights of working children and works to improve the quality of life of their parents and communities. Strategies for creating this child-centered development model include advocacy, networking, and participation.
Contact [email protected]
2.Women's Rights Programmes - South Africa
This project aimed to put women's issues on top of the broadcast agenda by translating existing women's rights programmes originally in English into other South African languages. "Fight Against the Fist" is a 6-part drama series about domestic violence, which covers issues such as what constitutes domestic violence, the effect of domestic violence on children, police involvement and getting an interim order. "Talking Man / Talking Woman" is a series of dramatised plays that address gender equality. Both series were translated into Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Sotho and Tswana and redistributed to a network of 50 community radio stations around South Africa.
Contact Lynn Taylor [email protected]
3.Healthy Russia 2020 - Russia
In 2002, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and its partners (The Futures Group International and Project HOPE) launched Healthy Russia 2020, a 5-year programme using networking and web-based efforts to help Russian institutions improve the health of their people. The central strategy involves helping Russian health-related organisations reach young people and other key groups by creating a new non-governmental health advocacy organisation. This organisation - the Healthy Russia Foundation (HRF) - is a Russian NGO based in Moscow and staffed by health communication and advocacy specialists that will carry on Healthy Russia after the project ends. Organisers have helped HRF promote healthy behaviours by fostering the creation of the Healthy Russia 2020 web portal. The portal is designed to give users an online platform through which they can obtain information and collaborate on solutions to numerous health issues.
Contact Healthy Russia Foundation [email protected] OR Lisa Cobb [email protected] OR Neill McKee [email protected] OR Jim Lindley [email protected]
4.World Ecitizens - Global
The purpose of the web-based World Ecitizens (WE) project is to encourage understanding between individuals and communities worldwide and to communicate about diversity within nations and across the world - especially among young people. UK's Department for Education and Skills (DFES), Promethean, Microsoft, MirandaNet, 2000AD, Toshiba, and Select Education hope that the WE online learning environment will be a resource for educational collaboration in topics such as responsible citizenship, mutual respect, combating social injustice, and conflict prevention and resolution. With the help of the WE website, teachers and students register in order to collaborate within schools or across the wider community and internationally. This collaboration takes various forms: an online journal for sharing ideas, online resources on core key skills, and online classrooms can be established.
Contact Christine Knight [email protected]
5.EduTV@La Mesa - Colombia
Launched in 2001, EduTV@La Mesa is a Colombia-based non-profit organisation whose goal is to foster the social development of the Tequendama region by educating rural inhabitants in video technics, guiding them in the production of educational videos that are then broadcast on EduTV@La Mesa's own local television channel. This project uses local or regional television production and broadcasting to offer basic education through a language, topics, and tools accessible to local residents. Media technologies support participatory production of programmes that feature locally relevant themes and that use local dialects in an effort to "change the established perception of the countryside as backward, replacing it with an awareness of its economic and environmental potential and encouraging rural inhabitants to discover new economic possibilities without the need to abandon the countryside."
Contact Jan Henk Kleijn [email protected]
6.Monica Vaccination Campaign - Global
A comic book character called Monica, created by Brazilian artist Mauricio de Sousa, acted as the spokesperson for a continental vaccination campaign coordinated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). For the vaccine campaign, de Sousa created a special Monica's Gang comic book called Vaccination: An Act of Love that points out the importance of children receiving their vaccines, in language and with characters aimed at children.
Contact Daniel Epstein [email protected]
7.Hamari Awaz (Our Voice) Radio - Pakistan
In 1999, Sarsabz Foundation launched Hamari Awaz (Our Voice) as part of its Radio Faisalabad station in an effort to give women in Pakistan a forum, a voice, and the skills necessary to articulate their need to transform unequal gender relations. The purpose was to discuss the problems faced by the women during the local body elections; to provide them with accurate information; and to offer solutions to their problems in clear and easy-to-understand language. Broadcast in Urdu, Hamari Awaz's 24 30-minute programmes were aired twice a week from 12:00 to 12:25 a.m. Organisers formed listening groups to increase the reach of the broadcast and to engage women in dialogue about the issues raised. 16 listener groups were established in 8 union councils with the help of social activists. Each group included 15-20 community women, female councilors, and a group coordinator.
Contact Dr. Naveeda Zia [email protected]
8.PROLINNOVA - Global
Officially launched in 2004, PROLINNOVA (PROmoting Local INNOVAtion) is an NGO-led initiative to build a global learning network that promotes local innovation in ecologically-oriented agriculture and natural resource management. The emphasis is on recognising indigenous knowledge and learning how to strengthen the capacities of family farmers to adjust to changing conditions by developing and adapting their own resource management systems and institutions. One key communication tool is the PROLINNOVA website, an e-platform for exchanging information and experiences about how to promote local innovation. Using tools sustained by and announced on this website, planners of the country programmes share and learn from each other's experiences, define common needs, and plan and implement international activities.
Contact [email protected]
9.Pacific Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) Project - South Pacific
A regional initiative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with funding assistance from the United Nations Foundation for International Partnerships (UNFIP). Launched in 2001, the 3-year project is being executed and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in collaboration with 9 Pacific Island countries: Fiji Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands. The ARH Project works to support in- and out-of-school youth, providing sex education and counseling in schools and multipurpose youth centres. Cultivating a particular emphasis on girls, the project introduces livelihood and life-skills initiatives. Awareness-raising activities include drama, song, dance, and mass media tailored to specific age groups and sectors of society.
Contact Dr. Jimmie Rodger [email protected]
10.Building the HIV/AIDS Capacity of Health Care Providers and Communities in Jamaica - Jamaica
In 2004, the USA-based affiliate of Johns Hopkins University JHPIEGO began collaborating with Jamaica's Ministry of Health (MOH) and local NGOs in an effort to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma. The goal of the programme, which is supported by Pfizer Foundation funding, is to build the capacity of both NGOs and health care providers in Jamaica to address the issue of stigma and discrimination. JHPIEGO is conducting (1) opportunistic infection and infection prevention training, into which JHPIEGO plans to integrate stigma and discrimination role plays, case studies, and messages to the healthcare providers being trained, (2) feedback sessions on data collected from client satisfaction surveys and health provider surveys on stigma and discrimination and quality of care, and (3) a process for decreasing stigma and discrimination by health care providers in Jamaica. The intervention process will also provide NGOs with data documenting the way stigma and discrimination are manifested in Jamaica for advocacy regarding stigma and discrimination.
Contact Leslie Gianelli [email protected]
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MAZI (Together) is a new monthly email newsletter that focuses on where the Communication for Social Change (CFSC) Consortium works and why, trends in the field, and what communities are learning from CFSC approaches.
Click here to access the newsletter.
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11.Iran Jailing Journalists and Blocking Websites
Two articles published in autumn 2004 suggest a trend toward tighter restriction on media voices in Iran. That is, the authors cite evidence indicating that the Iranian government is increasingly arresting journalists who report on women's rights and other culturally sensitive or contentious topics, as well as blocking pro-democracy websites.
12.Latin America and the Global Children's Media Market
by Ryan Shiotani
This paper explores some of the challenges related to making Latin American children's television programming part of the global kids market. According to sources cited by author Ryan Shiotani, the children's programming market is defined by shared languages rather than national borders.
13.eResults: Bridging the Technology Divide
by Karma Tshering
"Getting examination results from the internet used to be a distant dream for most students in Nepal, particularly those in rural and remote areas. However the situation is changing thanks to an innovative combination of new and traditional technologies."
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Pulse Poll
Peace-building communication initiatives should prioritise building local communication platforms for dialogue and sharing over directing peace messages at the parties to the conflict.
[For context, please see The Drum Beat 278]
Do you agree or disagree?
DISCUSS!
To read contributions please click here
Discussion continues through January 7, 2005.
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14.Open Source in Africa: Towards Informed Decision-making
by Martin Bruggink
This Brief summarises research carried out in Tanzania, Uganda and Burkina Faso and other countries, asking where, how, and why open source software is being used in Africa. Topics discussed: advantages and risks for organisations; obstacles to open source adoption; a changing policy environment; total cost of ownership; and international support.
15.Handling the Media: A Free Toolkit from CIVICUS
by Karen Hurtr
This toolkit aims to provide useful insights and tips on how best to use the media. It is meant to be especially useful for organisations working through issues relating to the mass media, and for those who provide interviews to the media.
16.Manager's Guide to Social Marketing
Intended to be a stand-alone tool to help people apply effective social marketing to their public health programmes and practices, this publication defines 6 phases of the social marketing process, suggestions on finding a great advertising or public relations company, a sample job description and a resource list.
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Public Participation in Decision-making Regarding GMOs in Developing Countries: How to Effectively Involve Rural People - Jan 17 - Feb 13 2005
Organised by the FAO Electronic Forum on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture, this e-mail conference will deal with the theme of public participation in decision-making regarding GMOs (genetically modified organisms) for food and agriculture in developing countries. The conference is open to the public, is free and will be moderated.
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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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