The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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Published 24 years ago
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Impact Data - New Home New Life (NHNL)

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Knowledge Shifts
Long term retention of knowledge was very good. In the first phase the increases were dramatic. For example, the number of men who knew that weaning should be introduced after 3-6 months increased from 38 to 72%. Another example is that the number of women who knew that a lactating mother should cover her mouth if she has TB and is feeding her child increased form 30% to 96% in the first phase, and two years later, 91% of the women still knew.
Access
The drama is widely popular, at least as popular as the news. The AED estimate that up to 80% of Afghan adults listen to ‘New Home New Life'. In 1997, 83.5% of families were found to either own or have access to a radio, the BBC was the station that was most listened to (80.5%) and drama was the family's favorite radio programme (64.5%). 63% of women listened to the drama regularly, but 37% revealed that they were unable to listen due to constraints by money (5%) loss of radio (5%), male kin (25%) or by mother-in-laws (2%).
Source
Mary Myers Summary of Afghan Education Drama (AED) “New Home New Life” 1998, and many sources, including: 1) Gordon Adam and John Butt, 2) Butt, J., 1997 “Radio for Meeting Learning Needs in Emergencies” Presentation to UNICEF Workshop, Cairo Oct./Nov. 1996, and others available upon request.