The Drum Beat 295 - Communication and Change News and Issues
Issue #
295
***
PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1.Making Sex Work Safe in the Face of HIV/AIDS - Nigeria
A project of the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) and Women Health, Education and Development (WHED) to address female sex workers (FSWs) in Nigeria. Using poetry and drama to educate people about HIV/AIDS and safe sex work, this project is not an effort to abolish sex work, but, rather, is an attempt to improve the lives of women who find themselves selling sex to survive. Organisers believe that, in the long run, an unsafe sex industry will have detrimental effects on public health on a broader scale. The project uses poetry and drama to introduce discussion in which sex workers are given opportunities to share their experiences in the sex industry.
Contact Irene Patrick-Ogbogu [email protected]
2.Smart|connect - Sheffield, United Kingdom
An online consultation that runs alongside classroom-based citizenship lessons. As part of the government's National Smart Card Project, Sheffield City Council (SCC) and Connexions Card worked together in Feb and Mar 2004 to run a pilot project in 4 Sheffield, UK schools. Students from Year 10 upwards in the participating schools were issued both a "smart card" including their unique cardholder number and a separate letter indicating a unique password. Both these numbers enabled students to log on to the website to take part in the online debate. The project included 2 stages during which the students could visit this website to post their views. The first, which took place for a 2-week period, invited students to log on to express their opinions and have a say on the issues that affect young people. In the second, the students were asked to revisit the website to vote on specific issues raised during the first stage. By taking part in smart|connect, students earned reward points for each issue they participated in. At the end of the project, the school with the highest number of points averaged out per student won a community prize.
Contact Susie Ruston [email protected] OR Barry Phillips [email protected]
3.Where Masculinity is in Play - Latin America
In 2002, the Adolescent Health and Development teams from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) began training soccer coaches to promote adolescent health and gender equity in boys ages 8 to 12 who live in the Latin American region. The purpose of the 18-month pilot project was to improve the health and development of both adolescent boys and girls by introducing a new perspective of masculinity and gender in pre-adolescent boys. The project used interpersonal communication and printed materials to reach boys through their soccer coaches. A manual called "Soccer School: Playing for Health" was designed for soccer coaches so that they might learn how to incorporate lessons about gender equity, adolescent rights and responsibilities, and healthy lifestyles into soccer training.
Contact Sylvia Singleton [email protected]
4.Learning Resource Centers - Central and Eastern European (CEE) and New Independent States (NIS)
The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) has worked in collaboration with its Central and Eastern European (CEE) and New Independent States (NIS) partners to establish a Learning Resource Center (LRC) within each partner institution. Through training workshops and ongoing collaborative projects, AIHA works with a designated Information Coordinator at each LRC, who then works with staff at his or her institution to provide access to information resources. The purpose of the programme is to enable physicians in remote parts of the region to access current medical literature and to update their practices for the improved provision of health care. Located at various healthcare institutions - hospitals, polyclinics, medical universities, research institutes, and health care administration offices - LRCs are composed of a computer, a printer, and access to the Internet. Once set up, each LRC then provides the following: Internet/e-mail access; training and support; access to online and CD-ROM databases and educational resources; and books and subscriptions on evidence-based medicine.
Contact Mark Storey [email protected], [email protected] OR Irina Carnevale [email protected]
5.Christian Polio Eradication Partnership - Angola
Beginning in 1998, UNICEF created alliances with Angola's Christian churches in a communication initiative to end polio, one household at a time. In response to the news that some of Angola's Catholic clergy, including bishops and archbishops, were preaching against polio vaccination (saying that the vaccine being used had been altered to cause sterilisation), UNICEF set out to stop the rumours as well as to recruit the churches as active allies in polio elimination. Through face-to-face meetings and interpersonal communication channels, a partnership was formed to help correct misunderstandings about polio vaccination and to encourage parents to immunise their children against the crippling disease.
Contact Patricia Cervantes [email protected] OR Judith Graeff [email protected]
6.Smritivan - Pune, India
Established in 1987, Smritivan is an effort to develop connections between human beings and the environment through the planting of trees. The notion of a "forest of memories" was introduced by Nisargasevak, a Pune-based NGO that seeks people's participation in the conservation process. Their motto is: "Plant a tree towards a memory you wish to cherish and help us grow it". Smritivan works by getting community members involved in supporting environmental development by making their efforts personal. Organisers offer an example as an illustration of this strategy: Shila and Shirish Kamble planted a sapling on the occasion of their son's first birthday. Shirish explains, "As my son turns a year old I have taken out various insurance policies to secure his future. This plant will go a long way in ensuring a safe environment and oxygen that my son will require as he grows older." As of early 2004, Smritivan supported 1,520 trees in almost 135 varieties. People who wish to plant a sapling at Smritivan are required to pay a moderate sum, which goes towards maintaining the plant as it grows.
Contact Ashvini Pandit Tel.: 25433731
7.CONNECTIONS - South Africa
A project aimed at promoting social and economic development through the efforts of civic organisations that collectively initiate and sustain development processes at the grassroots level. CONNECTIONS' integrated capacity-building programme combines training, organisational development, technical assistance, and infrastructure support. The organisation links community organisations to technology through computer training and a Resource Centre. CONNECTIONS is committed to people-centred and participatory development; the training curriculum includes role play, group discussion, and experiential learning, with a strong link to community development theory and practice.
Contact Ninnette Eliasov [email protected]
***
PULSE Poll
The Commission for Africa Report "basically confirms what African NGOs and Governments have been saying all along. Core structural adjustment policy conditionality associated with debt and aid packages for Africa for the last two decades have been destructive to human security and economic growth. With this report, the World Bank and IMF must stop."
- reaction to the report signed by 7 African and regional civil society organisations and networks.
[For context, please see The Drum Beat 293]
Do you agree?
***
STRATEGIC THINKING
8.Communication for Isolated and Marginalized Groups: Blending the Old and the New
by Silvia Balit
Published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this paper asks the question: "Why is it that after so many years of experience there are still few participatory communication processes in programs to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of vulnerable groups?" Balit recognises that ICTs (information and communication technologies) are important to addressing the needs of the poor but argues that by no means should they replace traditional dialogue and existing indigenous communication systems. She advocates for a blending of these two approaches as a means of improving the sustainability of participatory communication processes in international development.
9.Active Participation or Just More Information?: Young People's Take up of Opportunities to Act and Interact on the Internet
by Sonia Livingstone, Magdalena Bober & Ellen Helsper
This report examines factors that influence how children and teenagers who are part of "the internet generation" relate to the internet. The authors note that increasingly there is recognition that children and teenagers should be active in debates and decisions that affect them. While this may be the case, teenagers describe politics as "boring, dull, irrelevant to them."
10.Refining Performance Improvement Tools and Methods: Lessons and Challenges
by James McCaffery, Michelle Heerey & Kirsten P. Böse
This 6-page paper explores the application of performance improvement methods and tools to health services work in resource-poor settings around the world. It explores an area of evaluation and means of sharing knowledge that may get shortchanged in settings that cannot afford dedicated staff with sufficient time, expertise, and means of collecting, analysing, and sharing data for improved performance. Despite these and other challenges often associated with applying performance improvement methodologies, the authors argue that these methodologies "offer the possibility of achieving substantial gains in the quality and access of health services in low-resource settings".
***
Seeking materials - including video, film and print publications - which can be used to help children who were traumatised by a car accident in which they were involved.
Contact Dr. Augustin Hatar [email protected]
***
MATERIALS
11.Investing in People: National Progress in Implementing the ICPD Programme of Action 1994-2004
This report from UNFPA presents results from a global survey of national experiences 10 years after the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action was agreed in Cairo. Responses indicate that countries have made substantial progress in reproductive health services and information, including measures to address the needs of adolescents, and to prevent and manage sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Most responding countries had taken measures to improve access to education, promote gender equality, and enforce reproductive rights. However, fewer countries reported information-education-communication (IEC) or advocacy strategies, or institutional changes - key elements in realising reproductive rights. Social and cultural factors were cited by many countries as a key constraint to addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
12.Enacting Participatory Development: Theatre-based Techniques
by Julie McCarthy with Karla Galvão
This publication presents exercises designed to be used at all stages of participatory workshops ranging from initial ice-breakers and warm ups to exercises dealing with conflict resolution, power relations, issue-based work and project evaluation. Each is explained in an easy-to-follow format and is followed by commentaries from experienced field practitioners. In addition, it contextualises theatre for development practice within current debates on empowerment and participation, and presents case studies illustrating the contexts in which theatre for development can be used.
13.Reducing Stigma and Discrimination Related to HIV and AIDS: Training for Health Care Workers, Trainer's Manual and Participant's Handbook
Developed by EngenderHealth, this 2-volume curriculum aims to offer a training opportunity for health workers in countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic. The training course is meant to be used to guide health workers through an investigation of the root causes of stigma and discrimination while helping them to understand their own attitudes about HIV, AIDS, and individuals affected by these conditions and how these attitudes might affect the care they offer. The training also provides a review of clients' rights in receiving health care services, information about the use of standard precautions and proper infection prevention techniques to help minimise the risk of occupational exposure to HIV, and guidance in developing action plans to help the participants put what they have learned into practice at their service settings.
***
LINKS: Non-Governmental Organisations
14.Youth-policy.com
Provided by YouthNet and The POLICY Project, this online resource contains a searchable database of full-text policies addressing youth reproductive health and HIV/AIDS from more than 40 countries. The website also contains guidelines for creating youth policies, as well as case studies, links and other resources, a network directory, and a discussion forum.
15.The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
An international membership organisation working to connect, inform, and mobilise people and organisations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development, and women's human rights. Drawing in part on the resources available on this website (which is available in English, French, and Spanish), AWID facilitates ongoing debates and builds the individual and organisational capacities of those working for women's empowerment and social justice.
16.Bookshare.org
Offered by the USA-based Benetech Initiative, this online community enables people with visual and other print disabilities to legally share scanned books. Paying members of this community may access books and connect with fellow readers through an e-newsletter and interactive discussion list.
17.Map of Creativity
An interactive database of educational projects that have been implemented throughout the world to support creativity, learning, and play. Provided by the private, non-profit, UK-based Next Generation Foundation, this tool enables browsing by location, age group, or theme. Users are encouraged to add and/or rate a project.
18.inSPOT (Internet Notification Service for Partners or Tricks)
A free, confidential e-card service designed to enable gay men to inform their partners - anonymously or from their own email address - that they may have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Recipients of an InSPOT e-card may visit this website for information and resources, including a list of gay-friendly clinics that screen for and treat STDs in San Francisco, California, USA. Created by the non-profit Internet Sexuality Information Services (ISIS), with funding from the San Francisco Department of Health.
***
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.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann [email protected]
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.
To subscribe, click here.
PROGRAMME EXPERIENCES
1.Making Sex Work Safe in the Face of HIV/AIDS - Nigeria
A project of the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) and Women Health, Education and Development (WHED) to address female sex workers (FSWs) in Nigeria. Using poetry and drama to educate people about HIV/AIDS and safe sex work, this project is not an effort to abolish sex work, but, rather, is an attempt to improve the lives of women who find themselves selling sex to survive. Organisers believe that, in the long run, an unsafe sex industry will have detrimental effects on public health on a broader scale. The project uses poetry and drama to introduce discussion in which sex workers are given opportunities to share their experiences in the sex industry.
Contact Irene Patrick-Ogbogu [email protected]
2.Smart|connect - Sheffield, United Kingdom
An online consultation that runs alongside classroom-based citizenship lessons. As part of the government's National Smart Card Project, Sheffield City Council (SCC) and Connexions Card worked together in Feb and Mar 2004 to run a pilot project in 4 Sheffield, UK schools. Students from Year 10 upwards in the participating schools were issued both a "smart card" including their unique cardholder number and a separate letter indicating a unique password. Both these numbers enabled students to log on to the website to take part in the online debate. The project included 2 stages during which the students could visit this website to post their views. The first, which took place for a 2-week period, invited students to log on to express their opinions and have a say on the issues that affect young people. In the second, the students were asked to revisit the website to vote on specific issues raised during the first stage. By taking part in smart|connect, students earned reward points for each issue they participated in. At the end of the project, the school with the highest number of points averaged out per student won a community prize.
Contact Susie Ruston [email protected] OR Barry Phillips [email protected]
3.Where Masculinity is in Play - Latin America
In 2002, the Adolescent Health and Development teams from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) began training soccer coaches to promote adolescent health and gender equity in boys ages 8 to 12 who live in the Latin American region. The purpose of the 18-month pilot project was to improve the health and development of both adolescent boys and girls by introducing a new perspective of masculinity and gender in pre-adolescent boys. The project used interpersonal communication and printed materials to reach boys through their soccer coaches. A manual called "Soccer School: Playing for Health" was designed for soccer coaches so that they might learn how to incorporate lessons about gender equity, adolescent rights and responsibilities, and healthy lifestyles into soccer training.
Contact Sylvia Singleton [email protected]
4.Learning Resource Centers - Central and Eastern European (CEE) and New Independent States (NIS)
The American International Health Alliance (AIHA) has worked in collaboration with its Central and Eastern European (CEE) and New Independent States (NIS) partners to establish a Learning Resource Center (LRC) within each partner institution. Through training workshops and ongoing collaborative projects, AIHA works with a designated Information Coordinator at each LRC, who then works with staff at his or her institution to provide access to information resources. The purpose of the programme is to enable physicians in remote parts of the region to access current medical literature and to update their practices for the improved provision of health care. Located at various healthcare institutions - hospitals, polyclinics, medical universities, research institutes, and health care administration offices - LRCs are composed of a computer, a printer, and access to the Internet. Once set up, each LRC then provides the following: Internet/e-mail access; training and support; access to online and CD-ROM databases and educational resources; and books and subscriptions on evidence-based medicine.
Contact Mark Storey [email protected], [email protected] OR Irina Carnevale [email protected]
5.Christian Polio Eradication Partnership - Angola
Beginning in 1998, UNICEF created alliances with Angola's Christian churches in a communication initiative to end polio, one household at a time. In response to the news that some of Angola's Catholic clergy, including bishops and archbishops, were preaching against polio vaccination (saying that the vaccine being used had been altered to cause sterilisation), UNICEF set out to stop the rumours as well as to recruit the churches as active allies in polio elimination. Through face-to-face meetings and interpersonal communication channels, a partnership was formed to help correct misunderstandings about polio vaccination and to encourage parents to immunise their children against the crippling disease.
Contact Patricia Cervantes [email protected] OR Judith Graeff [email protected]
6.Smritivan - Pune, India
Established in 1987, Smritivan is an effort to develop connections between human beings and the environment through the planting of trees. The notion of a "forest of memories" was introduced by Nisargasevak, a Pune-based NGO that seeks people's participation in the conservation process. Their motto is: "Plant a tree towards a memory you wish to cherish and help us grow it". Smritivan works by getting community members involved in supporting environmental development by making their efforts personal. Organisers offer an example as an illustration of this strategy: Shila and Shirish Kamble planted a sapling on the occasion of their son's first birthday. Shirish explains, "As my son turns a year old I have taken out various insurance policies to secure his future. This plant will go a long way in ensuring a safe environment and oxygen that my son will require as he grows older." As of early 2004, Smritivan supported 1,520 trees in almost 135 varieties. People who wish to plant a sapling at Smritivan are required to pay a moderate sum, which goes towards maintaining the plant as it grows.
Contact Ashvini Pandit Tel.: 25433731
7.CONNECTIONS - South Africa
A project aimed at promoting social and economic development through the efforts of civic organisations that collectively initiate and sustain development processes at the grassroots level. CONNECTIONS' integrated capacity-building programme combines training, organisational development, technical assistance, and infrastructure support. The organisation links community organisations to technology through computer training and a Resource Centre. CONNECTIONS is committed to people-centred and participatory development; the training curriculum includes role play, group discussion, and experiential learning, with a strong link to community development theory and practice.
Contact Ninnette Eliasov [email protected]
***
PULSE Poll
The Commission for Africa Report "basically confirms what African NGOs and Governments have been saying all along. Core structural adjustment policy conditionality associated with debt and aid packages for Africa for the last two decades have been destructive to human security and economic growth. With this report, the World Bank and IMF must stop."
- reaction to the report signed by 7 African and regional civil society organisations and networks.
[For context, please see The Drum Beat 293]
Do you agree?
***
STRATEGIC THINKING
8.Communication for Isolated and Marginalized Groups: Blending the Old and the New
by Silvia Balit
Published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this paper asks the question: "Why is it that after so many years of experience there are still few participatory communication processes in programs to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of vulnerable groups?" Balit recognises that ICTs (information and communication technologies) are important to addressing the needs of the poor but argues that by no means should they replace traditional dialogue and existing indigenous communication systems. She advocates for a blending of these two approaches as a means of improving the sustainability of participatory communication processes in international development.
9.Active Participation or Just More Information?: Young People's Take up of Opportunities to Act and Interact on the Internet
by Sonia Livingstone, Magdalena Bober & Ellen Helsper
This report examines factors that influence how children and teenagers who are part of "the internet generation" relate to the internet. The authors note that increasingly there is recognition that children and teenagers should be active in debates and decisions that affect them. While this may be the case, teenagers describe politics as "boring, dull, irrelevant to them."
10.Refining Performance Improvement Tools and Methods: Lessons and Challenges
by James McCaffery, Michelle Heerey & Kirsten P. Böse
This 6-page paper explores the application of performance improvement methods and tools to health services work in resource-poor settings around the world. It explores an area of evaluation and means of sharing knowledge that may get shortchanged in settings that cannot afford dedicated staff with sufficient time, expertise, and means of collecting, analysing, and sharing data for improved performance. Despite these and other challenges often associated with applying performance improvement methodologies, the authors argue that these methodologies "offer the possibility of achieving substantial gains in the quality and access of health services in low-resource settings".
***
Seeking materials - including video, film and print publications - which can be used to help children who were traumatised by a car accident in which they were involved.
Contact Dr. Augustin Hatar [email protected]
***
MATERIALS
11.Investing in People: National Progress in Implementing the ICPD Programme of Action 1994-2004
This report from UNFPA presents results from a global survey of national experiences 10 years after the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action was agreed in Cairo. Responses indicate that countries have made substantial progress in reproductive health services and information, including measures to address the needs of adolescents, and to prevent and manage sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Most responding countries had taken measures to improve access to education, promote gender equality, and enforce reproductive rights. However, fewer countries reported information-education-communication (IEC) or advocacy strategies, or institutional changes - key elements in realising reproductive rights. Social and cultural factors were cited by many countries as a key constraint to addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
12.Enacting Participatory Development: Theatre-based Techniques
by Julie McCarthy with Karla Galvão
This publication presents exercises designed to be used at all stages of participatory workshops ranging from initial ice-breakers and warm ups to exercises dealing with conflict resolution, power relations, issue-based work and project evaluation. Each is explained in an easy-to-follow format and is followed by commentaries from experienced field practitioners. In addition, it contextualises theatre for development practice within current debates on empowerment and participation, and presents case studies illustrating the contexts in which theatre for development can be used.
13.Reducing Stigma and Discrimination Related to HIV and AIDS: Training for Health Care Workers, Trainer's Manual and Participant's Handbook
Developed by EngenderHealth, this 2-volume curriculum aims to offer a training opportunity for health workers in countries hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic. The training course is meant to be used to guide health workers through an investigation of the root causes of stigma and discrimination while helping them to understand their own attitudes about HIV, AIDS, and individuals affected by these conditions and how these attitudes might affect the care they offer. The training also provides a review of clients' rights in receiving health care services, information about the use of standard precautions and proper infection prevention techniques to help minimise the risk of occupational exposure to HIV, and guidance in developing action plans to help the participants put what they have learned into practice at their service settings.
***
LINKS: Non-Governmental Organisations
14.Youth-policy.com
Provided by YouthNet and The POLICY Project, this online resource contains a searchable database of full-text policies addressing youth reproductive health and HIV/AIDS from more than 40 countries. The website also contains guidelines for creating youth policies, as well as case studies, links and other resources, a network directory, and a discussion forum.
15.The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
An international membership organisation working to connect, inform, and mobilise people and organisations committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development, and women's human rights. Drawing in part on the resources available on this website (which is available in English, French, and Spanish), AWID facilitates ongoing debates and builds the individual and organisational capacities of those working for women's empowerment and social justice.
16.Bookshare.org
Offered by the USA-based Benetech Initiative, this online community enables people with visual and other print disabilities to legally share scanned books. Paying members of this community may access books and connect with fellow readers through an e-newsletter and interactive discussion list.
17.Map of Creativity
An interactive database of educational projects that have been implemented throughout the world to support creativity, learning, and play. Provided by the private, non-profit, UK-based Next Generation Foundation, this tool enables browsing by location, age group, or theme. Users are encouraged to add and/or rate a project.
18.inSPOT (Internet Notification Service for Partners or Tricks)
A free, confidential e-card service designed to enable gay men to inform their partners - anonymously or from their own email address - that they may have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Recipients of an InSPOT e-card may visit this website for information and resources, including a list of gay-friendly clinics that screen for and treat STDs in San Francisco, California, USA. Created by the non-profit Internet Sexuality Information Services (ISIS), with funding from the San Francisco Department of Health.
***
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.
Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann [email protected]
To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.
To subscribe, click here.