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. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Malaria Dialogue Education - West Africa

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Freedom from Hunger (FFH), in partnership with five West African countries, will develop and disseminate a malaria education curriculum as part of its existing Credit With Education programme. The Malaria Dialogue Education project will be implemented in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Togo. Supported by a three-year grant from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), this curriculum aims to improve prevention, early detection, and treatment of malaria in the home and to stimulate demand for better services from local providers by creating better-informed health care consumers. GSK's grant will be matched by a USAID grant for institutional capacity building and expansion of the programme.
Communication Strategies

This malaria education module consists in a community-based education plan designed to engage primary caregivers (mostly mothers) in a dialogue about how to prevent and treat malaria. This dialogue will focus on early detection in children so that prompt treatment can be sought. It will also promote the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets as a primary means of preventing malaria. Finally, it will challenge women to think about protecting another vulnerable group - pregnant women - via prevention and rapid action for treatment. Organisers hope to reach over 115,000 women - and their 500,000 family members - in West Africa.


GSK, a producer of anti-retroviral and anti-malarial drugs, will provide technical expertise to Freedom from Hunger for this initiative, along with financial support.

Development Issues

Health, Children, Women.

Key Points

Malaria is one of the leading killers of children. According to organisers, more than one million people will die from malaria in 2002, with one out of every 20 African children dying of the disease before their fifth birthday.


Founded as Meals for Millions in 1946, FFH is a non-profit organisation based in California, USA. FFH's programmes focus on low-income women from rural areas and work in partnership with indigenous organisations to develop innovative solutions to increase household food security and health. Malaria Dialogue Education will piggyback on FFH's Credit for Education programme, which operates in rural regions of 15 economically deprived countries worldwide. Credit with Education provides women with microfinance services (access to very small cash loans and savings) along with participatory education to learn about better health, nutrition, and sound business strategies. Credit with Education reaches more than 217,000 women through partnership with 25 collaborating organisations.

Partners

Funders include GSK and USAID.

Sources

"Local Charity Wins Half Million Dollar Grant to Fight Malaria", press release dated November 22, 2002.

Comments

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/30/1999 - 00:00 Permalink

It contained useful information about initiatives being tried in my region.