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Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
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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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Global Video Letters (GVL)

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Global Video Letters (GVL), a youth-focused collaborative initiative, provides education and media training to youth around the world. GVL is led by a collective of teachers, documentary filmmakers, peace and human rights educators, photographers, researchers, and journalists from Venezuela, Norway, Haiti, and the United States. The goal is to empower youth to use film as a creative tool and to make art, express themselves, self-advocate, and promote human rights and social inclusion by creating international relationships within a global community.

Communication Strategies

GVL works with local community activists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and youth to use film to inspire social change. The initiative also seeks to teach youth the skills they need to tell their own stories about what they see, experience, and want to share with the world. GVL workshops focus on human rights concepts, social advocacy, and the art of filmmaking and encourage participants to engage in their communities and then engage with the world.

 

The most common project is a "video letter", which serves as a community self-portrait and is shared with youth around the world via an online portal. According to organisers, a video letter is "a communication tool allowing young people to connect with other youth from communities around the world. Video letters can take the form of a 'postcard' - small video snapshots intended to be sent from one community to another, or a full length 'Video Letter' that more closely resembles a media advocacy piece or short form documentary. Both are meant to allow youth a means to represent themselves, advocate for their communities, and communicate something to the world."

 

Details about this youth media initiative - and the videos that emerged from it - are provided on the GVL website. For example, 10 children in the favela of Nova Holanda, Brazil, were given cameras during human rights workshops. They introduced project organisers to life in their community. This version was screened at the filmmakers' school.

 

GVL has been working in Kabul, Afghanistan, since the summer of 2011. This has resulted in:

In 2012, GVL ran a separate series of workshops in Oaxaca, Mexico, called "De La Luna". Click here to access the project's page on the GVL website. After the workshops ended, the participants held an exhibition on December 16 2012, with films, pictures, and sound installations.

Development Issues

Children, Youth, Rights.

Sources

Emails from Flannery Miller and Christoffer Næss to The Communication Initiative on September 29 2011 and December 19 2012, respectively.