My Water—My Community: The Story of Our Water is a transmedia be-havior change program which leverages the power of storytelling across multi-ple communications platforms to gen-erate awareness and motivate social change. PCI-Media Impact and USAID are producing Sed de Ti, a 90-episode Entertainment-Education radio drama to address water protection and man-agement and gender equality across four regions of Peru (Lima Norte, Piura, Cusco, Loreto). PCI-Media Impact and partners have been gathering information about the capacity and the needs of the com-munity through a comprehensive pro-cess of formative research. We con-

ducted workshops in each of the regions to provide the coalitions with training on “Communications for Development” as well as essential background on the challenges of water resource manage-ment, hygiene and sanitation. The pro-gram targets beneficiaries at two levels: the community coalitions developing the campaigns as well as the listeners and the population at large, which the program aims to reach across targeted regions. Four regional coalitions will broadcast the radio drama, host region-al call-in shows and implement tailored Community Mobilization Campaigns. Stay tuned as Sed de Ti will hit the air-ways this summer!

Here’s an update of what’s happening at

PCI-Media Impact. In this issue we’re sharing voices from the field.

Water & Sanitation in Peru

Spring 2013

Primary schools across St. Lu-cia are bubbling with excitement after a visit from a White-Breasted Thrasher, Iguana, Coral and “Tin Tin.” These vis-its represent one of a series of activities that are part of our My Island-My Com-munity program. The students played and sang with the mascots and asked a number of questions, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the important role that nature plays in protecting the community from climate change.The vi-brant mascots and students also danced to a specially produced theme song and local experts shared information about the need to preserve local mangrove and watershed areas. Secondary school students were in awe when popular recording musi-cians from St. Lucia performed at their schools. Addressing climate change and biodiversity through their music, the local celebrities performed their popular songs. In order to effectively address the climate change issues, with the ap-propriate level of knowledge and cultur-al sensitivity, the musicians attended a half-day seminar, which was conducted

by the coalition agencies and the Or-ganisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat. This comprehen-sive coalition of over 10 organizations has come together to raise awareness and to promote tangible action to ac-celerate adaptive measures that can reduce St Lucia’s vulnerability to the ef-fects of cli mate change. Building upon our on-air 130 episode radio novella, Callaloo, these activities are inspiring and encouraging communities to take individual and col-lective actions. The school visits will cul-minate in a community cleanup of the Mankòtè Mangrove later in the year.

School Visits & More Drama in the Caribbean

“In primary schools children are known to react

positively to a mascot costume and hands-on activities. In secondary

schools the visiting team adopted a different

approach where popular musicians helped convey

messages pertaining to climate change.”

- Alleyne Regis, Regional Manager

There we were at the foot of Kili-manjaro in a conference room like no other. Skull specimens of horned un-gulates covered every wall, displayed in age-graded rows, looking down on us like ancestor spirits urging us on in our efforts to ensure that their species would endure into the future. They had presumably been collected by the peo-ple who, 50 years before, founded the Mweka College of African Wildlife Man-agement where the latest PCI-Media Impact workshop was being held. The opening day happened to coincide with the presentation by four groups of Mweka students of Entertain-ment-Education products that they had been preparing as part of their course work – songs, dances, skits, poetry, posters and other materials aimed at engaging communities in conservation and sustainable development activi-ties. There couldn’t have been a more relevant or inspiring opening to the week’s work that brought together East Africans and others from a variety of backgrounds to brainstorm initial steps in designing a radio drama and related campaign aimed at discouraging bush-meat hunting and wildlife poaching. Board member Arvind Singhal and I were commandeered (quite will-ingly!) into becoming full participants as

Reflections from Tanzania

work proceeded in plenaries and small groups to identify messages, story lines and characters who might populate the series. We thus had a unique opportu-nity to learn from the rich knowledge and experience of the others, who included people with scientific, communications, conservation and community develop-ment work backgrounds, and even a “reformed” poacher, whose insights were invaluable. And Arvind contribut-ed his matchless storytelling to provide insights that broadened, deepened and inspired the dialogue. Perhaps most importantly from our viewpoint as Board members, we were able to see the PCI-Media Im-pact program team in action, applying a really impressive range of facilitation skills so that by the end of four days the group had actually created and agreed on an initial draft of a drama. For me this was a real eye opener – something that at the beginning of the week I never would have believed would be possible. Altogether this experience gave me a much better understanding of the work that the organization is accomplishing, of its challenges and its huge potential, as well as reinforcing my appreciation of my own amazing good fortune at being able to play a small part in helping it to fully realize this potential.

This month, our team, along with two board members, conducted a storytelling

workshop at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Board member, Sally Timpson talks about her

experience.

We are extremely proud to announce that PCI-Media Impact’s Strong Women, Strong Voices program in Peru, Bolivia and Columbia won this year’s Global Award for Excellence in Communication at the Avon Communica-tions Awards. The event showcased organizations that use communications to bring an end to violence against women. Actress and activist Salma Hayek-Pinault presented us with the event’s top award on March 8th, International Women’s Day. The ceremony took place during the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women at the UN General Assembly in New York.

In December 2012, our My Community: Young People Who Tell Stories to Inspire Change program, based in Peru, was awarded UNFPA’s award for Best Prac tices in Adolescence & Youth, taking first place in Latin America, making it one of the top five best global practices. The program consists of two innovative radio dramas created by groups of young people dedicated to lowering teen-age pregnancy rates in their communities. We recently published a joint book with UNFPA that illustrates this comprehensive approach to increasing awareness among teenagers on the sensitive topics of sexual and reproductive health. Sharing this experience around the world is an integral element of a recently-signed 5 year extension to continue this important work.

Recent Awards

Avon Foundation

UNFPA

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For more information contact Director of Partnerships, Alex Cottin at acottin@mediaimpact.org