Making Waves: ACTION HEALTH
Stories of Participatory Communication
for Social Change
TITLE: Action Health Incorporated (AHI)
COUNTRY: Nigeria
MAIN FOCUS: Youth sexual and reproductive health
PLACE: Lagos
BENEFICIARIES: Suburban youth
PARTNERS: Communication for Change
FUNDING: MacArthur Foundation, Martha Stuart Communications, UNICEF and United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP)
MEDIA: Video
"Bola, what do you think about what we just said?" a voice echoed through my subconscious. It wasn't until Sandra, my friend in the video class, tapped me on the shoulder, that I realised I was too engrossed in mythoughts and didn't notice the question directed at me.
Barkley, our video production instructor, had just painted a vivid picture of the challenges we face as young people growing up and how the glamorisation of sex in the mass media, has influenced young people into taking risky choices about their sexuality. As he spoke, it seemed I was looking into a mirror and my life just stared back at me. When I was 13 years old, I thought only "mummies" made babies. How? I could not say. My busy parents were never around to talk with me about changes I experienced while growing up.
I can remember how terrifying my first menstruation was. In fact, I thought I was going to bleed to death. It happened when I was at school. Fortunately for me, my class teacher Mrs. Akinpelu, cleaned me up and reassured me that it was normal. When I got home, all mum said was that I shouldn't go close to a boy again, since I am now menstruating. "Why, shouldn't I?" She didn't tell me. I was "lucky". I got information from friends. Although I discovered later that not all I was told by my friends were true. They needed information as much as I did.
I live in a suburb Ifako. My friends and I learned most of what we know about sexuality in the "streets", so to speak. While hanging out with the girls, we talked about boys that had made sexual advances on us, and how the relationship turned out. You were teased if it was discovered that you were still a virgin. Losing your virginity was in vogue. My mum, who was the only one around most of the time, was not disposed to discussing sexuality. She was annoyed when I asked her about love and told her a guy was making sexual advances on me. She threatened to tell my father that I was becoming wayward.
Comments by Yomi Iyiola-Martins and Netu Ilavbare, who were trained in video production by ACTION HEALTH
The Participatory Video Communication (PVC) Unit was introduced in 1992 as an integral part of Action Health's information, education and communication strategy. Communication for Change (C4C), a USA-based organisation, conducted a 16-day training workshop for seventeen members of the video team. Three project staff and four AHI members went through the basics of participatory video communication, particularly the technical skills for videotape production and playback facilitation techniques, as the initial group of ten adolescent peer educators trained.
The initial training had a multiplier effect as it began the training of trainers programme. These pioneering video members went on in 1993 to train 19 other adolescents to further strengthen and ensure continuity of the video project. The process of continuous training has ensured the continuity of the participatory video project through present times.
The PVC unit of Action Health has been crucial to the information and educational activities of AHI. The goals are:
- To establish a Teen Video Team (Teen Tee Vee) trained to produce videos on issues concerning reproductive health for educating other adolescents;
- To produce videotapes on AHI peer programmes that can be used for sharing experiences between groups across countries;
- To make videos targeted at sensitising adults, especially parents;
- To influence policy so as to reduce the resistance to accommodate the genuine needs of adolescents regarding reproductive health information and services;
- To use the entertain /educate approach to reach adolescents through playing back tapes.
The PVC Unit carries out certain specific activities. The first is video production, which encompasses the production of both dramas and musicals for reproductive health information and education. This involves a drama troupe made up of secondary school students and out-of-school young people. Their functions include writing scripts and acting in selected dramas. The drama troupe is used during outreach activities, performing in markets, halls and during road shows, using the participatory drama strategy to involve the audience in the shows. Members function in a volunteer capacity only and do not receive any remuneration except a transportation subsidy and an occasional honorarium. They join the troupe based on their interest and commitment, not for monetary gains.
So far, the PVC unit has 64 productions, in formats varying from documentary to drama and musical videos, covering many issues including: adolescent health problems, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, the role of adolescents in overcoming communication barriers, teen sexuality, STDs/AIDS diseases, abortion, rape, pubertal problems, and family planning. In December 1998, the unit produced a musical video entitled Be Wise and Other Songs a video for adolescent health in which young people wrote their own lyrics and sang their own songs.
Another function of the PVC Unit is video editing. This involves the training of new video project assistants on the techniques involved in editing videotapes produced by the drama troupe. Probably the most important function, particularly in terms of its education and information objectives is playing back tapes at the Youth Centre and at various schools and organisations. During the first half of 1999 alone, it was able to reach over 4,000 adolescents.
The spread of AIDS/STDs in Africa has prompted NGOs to organise programmes aimed at promoting reproductive health. The Action Health Incorporated adolescent reproductive health programme was initiated to address the poor status of adolescent health in Nigeria where there are very limited channels that provide appropriate information to adolescents.
AHI action is predicated on the realisation that adolescents need to be aware of the various factors that influence the experience they have at this crucial stage of their lives. It believes that providing them with this knowledge will empower them to make informed decisions concerning their sexuality and life planning directions.
In pursuance of this goal, Participatory Video Communication (PVC) was introduced in 1992 as an integral part of AHI's information, education and communication strategy in collaboration with Communication for Change (C4C). While the PVC Unit administratively works as a subunit of the IEC Unit, it has carved a niche for itself, and could easily be said to make independent contributions to the functioning and overall efficiency of the organisation.
In Nigeria, as in many other countries, television, home video and films, have become a popular mode of communication, with enormous influence among adolescents who reside in urban areas. As a tool of information, education and communication, video is perhaps the most user-friendly and cost-effective medium for information dissemination to an audience.
Action Health video productions have been used to educate people both young and old on the reality of the problems encountered by adolescents on reproductive health issues. However, AHI considers that providing video production skills to more than 3 young people over the years has been its most important achievement with long term impact. Training is empowering young people with skills that they can develop in the future to make their lives better and to use as a stepping-stone to success.
The PVC Unit also helped to discover and develop talents in acting and singing. These talents are mostly discovered from performances of the drama troupe. For example, the Unit's production of AHI's musical, Be Wise and Other Songs gave the young people who were involved in the production the opportunity to expose their talents to a much larger audience and at a much faster rate than they probably could have achieved on their own. The Unit's approach is popular with adolescents and is easily reflected in the enthusiasm shown by youths desiring to participate in its activities.
It is evident that young people are becoming more and more dynamic in their mode of communication. This is the advantage of a participatory approach because the young people themselves make productions that will hold the interest of their peers and still get their message across to other stakeholders as well who can make a difference in issues that make an impact on their lives.
"The participatory video communication strategy is a good mirror of society. It uses 'real' people with whom the audience can relate their experience, thereby making the video more believable and effective for attitude change", wrote Yomi Iyiola-Martins and Netu Ilavbare, Action Health second generation trainees.
According to Action Health video possesses several advantages over other media:
The first advantage is its attractiveness: images are often remembered longer than verbal messages and moving images attract even more attention. Secondly, there is the entertainment/educating feature: video can educate while still carrying out the role of entertaining. Third, it is an influential medium: decision-makers and policy makers who are used to receiving information through these media often watch television, video and films. In the fourth place, videotapes can be played over and over again. A fifth advantage is its record-keeping and documentation potential. Finally, the activities are also participatory: during the video playback sessions everyone that is involved in the process has the opportunity to make individual contributions.
The method of continuously training other adolescents has ensured the stability of the participatory video communication project. Action Health has made a wise decision in the video project by allowing young people to run it, with minimal supervision from adults. Young people write the scripts, handle the production equipment and do the editing of tapes.
Moreover, in carrying out its function of making productions to pass information and education along, the project keeps a drama group made up of adolescents. These young people produce plays and musical videos, which are afterwards evaluated by a larger group of adolescents to see if the contents are appropriate for them.
The use of the strategy in facilitating discussion promotes sharing experiences among participants so that they can learn from one another. The audience is then able to assess their decisions or actions regarding their sexuality in this kind of forum.
Though Action Health's Participatory Video Communication unit has contributed in making videos on sexuality education more accessible to young people, the challenges are still enormous. Participatory video can only positively affect the lives of small groups of youths, while the large majority is under the influence of the avalanche of pornographic material which is easily accessed by young people in Nigeria.
To compete in number and quality with foreign productions that misinform youths, Action Health would have to enter the grounds of professional video productions, which may be out of its reach and also beyond its current methodology. Currently, the PVC makes the best use of equipment that is quickly getting older. The Hi-8 analogue cameras and editing suite can no longer produce materials of high technical quality comparable to the output of modern digital equipment. In fact, Action Health has been renting professional video cameras for some high-quality productions.
Information for this chapter provided by Nike O. Esiet, Action Health director.
The Mirror of Our Lives: Participatory Video Communication in Action Health Incorporated by Yomi Iyiola-Martins and Netu Ilavbare.
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