PCI-Media Impact and Calandria
Plan Expanded
Media Partnership Covering Latin America
Agreement will broaden entertainment-education programming
and reach wider audiences with life-saving messages
May 2, 2007 – PCI-Media Impact, a global not-for-profit producer
of TV and radio shows in over 25 countries, announced today
an expanded partnership with its long-time Peru-based partner,
Calandria Association of Social Communicators (www.calandria.org.pe).
An organization that uses communications to promote Peru's
political, social and economic development, Calandria will
collaborate with PCI-Media Impact to jointly develop new entertainment-education
programs and formats using TV, radio, internet, and new media
technologies in Peru and across Latin America.
A partner since 2002, Calandria has worked with PCI-Media Impact to develop
three powerful entertainment-education radio miniseries. The
latest project “Con El Viento al Favor”
(With the Wind in My Sails”), a drama about
HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health, launched on the
air this month and is set to run in at least 10 cities this
year as part of the U.N. Global Fund initiative. The broadcasts
are part of an intensive intervention in 6 Peruvian provinces
in which local teams of youth, radio producers, and service
providers receive training and technical assistance in HIV/AIDS,
sexual and reproductive health, radio production, monitoring
and evaluation.
The new drama follows the success of PCI-Media Impact and Calandria’s
mixed-format radio program called En Buena Onda (Cool!),
which featured a serial drama on adolescent sexual and reproductive
health and rights called Empezando a Vivir (Beginning
to Live). Adolescents and young people played a major
role from the radio show’s design, production, broadcast,
and evaluation. The show was broadcast on community and commercial
radio stations in Peru, and has been adapted into a new miniseries
for youth in Colombia.
PCI-Media Impact and Calandria’s first joint program was
Loma Luna (Moonscapes), a radio program addressing
HIV/AIDS, family planning, and environmental issues through
a serial drama set in two fictional rural and urban Peruvian
towns. The 90-minute, weekly radio program reached an estimated
audience of 240,000 listeners in and outside of Lima.
“Having worked closely with Calandria on three successful
shows, it’s clear we’ve found a valuable partner;
one that is tackling the most pressing social issues in an
area of the world that is a critical focus of PCI-Media Impact’s
work,” said PCI-Media Impact Executive Director, Mike Castlen. “This
partnership is really a natural next step. On a practical
level, it means we want to raise money and resources to take
on new initiatives and broaden our programmatic areas, raising
awareness about issues like human trafficking, child and maternal
health, education, and environmental conservation. Moving
forward PCI-Media Impact and Calandria would launch these programs regionally,
beginning with Peru first, then moving to Bolivia, Ecuador,
Colombia and beyond.”
“This is an exciting time in our history together,”
said Calandria Executive Director, Mirtha Correa Alamo. “Never
before have media and communications shown the important role
they can play to promote social and political development.
Combined, PCI-Media Impact and Calandria have nearly 50 years of experience
developing and executing entertainment-education programming
that have been evaluated and tested, around the world. This
partnership is simply an outgrowth of that experience, and
we’re excited about the road ahead.”
From April 30-May 4, 2007, PCI-Media Impact and Calandria will host a
weeklong training for 25 radio journalists from the interior
of Peru. The Peru-American Exchange Program (“PAX”)
promotes professional standards in journalism through responsible,
accurate, and ethical coverage of democracy and development
issues. PCI-Media Impact and Calandria will train and support Peruvian
and U.S. journalists using radio as a tool to advance the
participation and inclusion of underrepresented groups in
democratic and development processes. The program aims to
foster mutual understanding, networking opportunities, local
capacity building and sustainable partnerships between Peruvian
and US journalists and media institutions. The training will
coincide with Calandria’s 25th Anniversary.
“This partnership will positively affect people across
Latin America,” said PCI-Media Impact Treasurer and former Ambassador
to Peru, Alec Watson. “It’s truly a marriage of
equals. PCI-Media Impact and Calandria have similar missions and a solid
understanding of how popular media can be used to educate
and entertain. I’m confident this joint effort will
inspire people to take control of their lives and their health
by empowering them with knowledge about a wide range of public
health issues.”
About Calandria Association of Social Communicators
Founded in 1983, Calandria Association of Social Communicators
is an organization that uses communication in an effort to
impact Peru's political, social and economic development.
As PCI-Media Impact’s partner on several programs since 2002, Calandria
is responsible for ensuring that each radio project complies
with PCI-Media Impact’s standards of finding and training local producers
and journalists to create effective, high quality Entertainment-Education
radio broadcasts. For more information, please visit Calandria’s
website at www.calandria.org.pe
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