Media Impact - News Summary

Spring 2010 Newsletter

Bolivian Homemaker Takes To The Airwaves

“I have a strong will to improve my community, I’m very proud to be a radio producer.” – Lurdes Alvarez

Lurdes Alvarez -- wife, mother and proud weekly radio broadcaster – learned about a lot more than Entertainment Education at a training hosted by
Media Impact and the Bolivian Catholic University in Huajchilla, Bolivia one year ago.

The training also addressed discrimination, human rights and “how women don’t have the same opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities,” said Lurdes. Lessons the radio spot writer and host knows all too well.<< click here to view full newsletter >>

Climate Change Just Got A Little More Dramatic; Literally
First Soap Opera to Fight Climate Change in Eastern Caribbean

NEW YORK (March 8, 2010) – PCI-Media Impact has joined forces with 11 regional and international partners to fight the effects of climate change in the Eastern Caribbean with a little soap. A little soap opera, that is.

Launching its newest program, My Island – My Community, Media Impact and partners will work with national coalitions in the 9 countries of the Eastern Caribbean to produce the first ever soap opera designed to promote community-based solutions to combating the devastating effects of climate change on small island nations.<< click here to view full press release >>

New Islands Environmental Initiative Launched
Islands are the bell-weathers of international environmental policy. The world will see their success, or failure, first. - James A. Michel, President, Seychelles

February 18, 2010 - PCI Media Impact announced the launch of its new Caribbean Initiative called My Island - My Community. The initiative is an ambitious new partnership program committed to building public awareness across the Eastern Caribbean to encourage wide spread behavior change with regard to small island community preparedness and adaptation to climate change. It brings together a unique network of organizations committed to using the power of communications to enhance knowledge sharing, engage the public and directly support CBA activities (Community Based Adaption) across the 9 countries of the Eastern Caribbean.

The Eastern Caribbean is at the front line of adapting to climate change. Small islands, especially those experiencing significant population growth, are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, economies, tourism and the communities that live there.

While global attention has been brought to bear on this issue, there remains a critical communications challenge. A key strategy to respond to climate change is to enhance the resilience of the ecosystem, as well as the communities that live within the ecosystem. This can only be accomplished with a well informed, committed and engaged public. However, a persistent challenge remains: how does one effectively engage the public, ensuring they have access to sound and timely information and a clear vision of what they can do to help?

My Island – My Community will use a multi-pronged communications approach to motivate social change. A regional radio drama will weave together relevant information on climate change with a compelling story. Coalitions comprised of national partners in each of the 9 countries will complement the radio drama through interactive call-in shows and Community Action Campaigns. A technical advisory committee will bring the best of science to the messaging. With action on the ground in 9 countries, regional sharing will allow for unique peer-to-peer learning opportunities.

My Island – My Community is a partnership of Media Impact, the Secretariat of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States(OECS) , The Nature Conservancy (TNC), GEF Small Grants Programme, implemented by UNDP (GEF SGP), Global Island Partnership (GLISPA), the Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), BirdLife International, Durrell, SeaWeb and the St Lucia Folk Research Center. We are actively seeking further partners.

The power of story-telling has shaped cultures and captivated people around the globe for centuries. Powerful stories in song, drama and poetry affect our knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. Stories remind us of our identity, our responsibility to help others, and our need to protect the world we live in. << learn more about the program by clicking here >>

A Radio Station with a Mandate
AYNI TAMBO FM 90.4
By Brenda Campos, Sdenka Cespedes, Mike Castlen

February 12, 2010 - Illimani mountain is an iconic symbol for Bolivians. Rising more than 16,000 feet, it viewed in the mythology of the indigenous peoples of the region as a protective deity. The town of Palca lies "on the other side" of the Illimani, two hours outside of La Paz. The Palca has a population of 14,000 people, many of whom struggle to make a living. Illiteracy is high, making radio a critical information source for the community. In 2006, Maria B. and Prudencio C., a couple of courageous

dreamers, conceived of the idea of creating the first community radio station in the warm and beautiful valley that holds Palca. On August 18, 2008 Ayni Tambo FM was born. The compound name, Ayni which is Quechua and Aymara for reciprocity, as the notion of giving and receiving, and Tambo for a community space where diverse people from different places converge, is in itself a strong reflection for the radio's spirit and mandate as a place for meeting, exchange, and reciprocity. "When you need help, someone helps you. In the future, you'll return it," is how Maria describes it, with a light in her eyes.

Maria is a strong and funny woman whose priority lies on her values and her family, Prudencio and her daughter. She joined the Our Voices Program during her participation to the 4th Regional Entertainment-Education Workshop held by Media Impact in Cochabamba on September 4-6, 2009. Convinced that it is never too late to learn and having just finished high school at the age of 40, participated at the workshop along with Herminia G. and María L., two indigenous young women wearing polleras, a type of colorful skirts typical in the Andean and Quechua region. As an Aymara woman herself, what she enjoyed the most at the regional workshop was sharing with people from other parts of the country, particularly with those coming from Santa Cruz, "they were very cheerful and enthusiastic. I really enjoyed it; I felt among family, as if I was at my own radio station, like being home." Her friend María was empowered by the experience: "the workshop has given her (Maria) a stronger character, now she knows she is equal rights to others and that she should not allow to be discriminated. She wants to study communication in spite that her parents warned against it because of the little money it pays. I also want to study communication, although I believe it's not always necessary to have a diploma to make a difference." << read more about the program by clicking here >

An Engine That Could - Bolivia Heros
“I have a strong will to support my community,
I’m very proud to be a radio producer”
by Brenda Campos, Sdenka Cespedes, Mike Castlen

January 10, 2010 - At first glance, there is nothing extraordinary about Mrs. Lurdes A. She is a slight woman, not taller than 5 feet. She has the weathered-look of someone who has spent many years in the mountains, tending to her garden and grazing animals. She is a mother and a wife. She has two adolescent sons, a 5 year old and a husband who is an agricultural technician that is working now as a miner.

The first impression people will get of her is as a typical, shy Bolivian housewife, but it all changes when she approaches you. Mrs. Alvarez is also a radio reporter and disc jockey for Radio Agricultura in Quime, Bolivia.

Quime is a small farming and mining community five hours from La Paz by way of a winding two lane, occasionally paved road. The town is typical of many in the high mountains of western Bolivia. Tensions exist between the iners and the farmers in the valley, tension that dates back generations when one group or the other was more privileged. Now both groups struggle, but the tensions continue. << read more about the program by clicking here >

Water Conservation Radio Makes a Splash in Honduras
Radio novella attracts listeners to drama on the environment
By Lindsey Wahlstrom

January 2, 2010 Rosita is on a perilous mission: raging forest fires caused by illegal slash-burning threaten to consume the forests surrounding her highland village. She must find a way to stop these devastating fires, because if the forests go up in smoke, so too will the livelihood of her people.

If five year-old Rosita does not accomplish her imperative mission before the angel of water fades from the façade of the town’s quaint chapel – as the angels of land and fauna have already done – the village’s last vestiges of hope will vanish forever.

Realistic? Maybe. Dramatic? Definitely. Did it get your attention? Absolutely.

Rosita is one of several characters in the Honduran radio soap opera, Angel Water, written and produced by Red de Desarrollo Sostenible (RDS) - Honduras (Sustainable Development Network – Honduras). RDS is a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable development through information sharing technology and project development. This year, RDS adopted a new strategy to disseminate their message in Valle de Ángeles, Honduras when, in May, they employed drama to creatively address threats to the local eco-system and way of life in the country’s first environmentally-focused radionovela and radio magazine, From the River Basin. << read more about the program by clicking here >

Media Impact Hosts
International Workshop on
Entertainment Education and Social Marketing

November 2, 2009 - PCI-Media Impact, a New York-based non-profit with 25 years experience using communications for development, is initiating its sixth season of the My Community program on November 2 with an international training on Entertainment Education and Social Marketing in Lima, Peru.

The 32 selected participants – including radio hosts, journalists, community activists, and professors– representing Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, will participate in a five-day hands-on training and learn how to design, produce and broadcast entertaining radio soap operas that address urgent community needs.

“This year’s training promises to be one of the best,” said Media Impact Programs Director, Sean Southey. “Between staff, community activists and media leaders and representatives of current My Community coalitions, we will have representatives from leading NGOs and grassroots social movements in Latin America coming together to discuss how to create global changes beginning at the local level.”

Media Impact received applications from more than 40 coalitions hoping to participate in the training, of which the top 11 were invited to attend. After successfully completing the Entertainment Education training, coalitions are then eligible to apply to the My Community program. << read more about the program by clicking here >

The Premiere of “Echo”
A Radio Program Supporting the
Youth Struggle for Sex Health Awareness in Belize

August 24, 2009: Belize – Media Impact is partnering with UNICEF Belize and Red Cross Belize to produce "Echo", the first radio magazine show to discuss HIV/AIDS and healthy sex practices in this underserved nation. Echo’s highlight is the 20-episode radio soap opera Dah Alla Wah Bizniz (All of Our Business). Written by a team of young, Media Impact-trained volunteers under the supervision of a professional writer and UNICEF Belize staff, Dah Alla Wah Bizniz targets local youth, ten to eighteen years old. The series is receiving great praise from the community, shows extremely high levels of audience participation and is widely known and enjoyed among the community.

Since its initial airing, Echo’s impact has reverberated throughout Belize City and Stan Creek. The region is largely silent when it comes to discussing sex, reproduction, and HIV—these topics are considered taboo. Because of this attitude, sexual and reproductive health education for the region’s youth is extremely limited, leading young and old Belizeans alike to label HIV a “gay disease.” Moreover, the stigma of HIV is so prevalent and effective testing and treatment are so difficult for youth to obtain, that a fatalistic attitude has taken root—currently, the young people of Belize actually prefer to remain ignorant about HIV. As a result of these cultural conditions and prevailing attitudes, 2.2% of Belize's 308,000 inhabitants’ live with HIV, and 60% of women have no comprehensive knowledge of the disease. Alyssa Noble, Acting Director of the Belize ational AIDS Commission, describes Echo as a completely new and innovative approach. She says it has “created a target audience” for a larger national campaign to combat the rising rates of HIV among youth. << read more about the program by clicking here >>

Our Voices - Media Impact leverages capacity in Latin America to aid community radio outlets in Bolivia

May 7, 2009, La Paz, Bolivia - PCI Media Impact, a non-profit organization specializing in the use of Entertainment Education methodology to promote social change, launched its new community media program, Our Voices. This three year program will help to rebuild the capacity of community radio in rural Bolivia and, in the process, reestablish vital bonds needed for civic participation and democratic institutions. The program strives to build the professionalism of Bolivian radio stations to produce and broadcast high-quality independent programming in native languages, strengthen networking among community radio stations and civil society organizations, increase access among indigenous Bolivian citizens to independent media, and build support for media freedom and civic participation. << click here to view full press release >>

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