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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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Mine Risk Education via Entertainment Education

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Author: Sergiy Prokhorov, February 5 2018 - Would like to share a good case of Entertainment Education (EE) application in Mine Risk Eduction (MRE) done by UNICEF Ukraine. In Ukraine 580,000 children were affected by an armed conflict in the Eastern part of the country. Ukraine is fast becoming one of the world’s most mine contaminated countries. During the entire conflict period, from 14 April 2014 to 15 August 2017, at least 2,505 civilians were killed in shelling, UXO and landmine related incidents: 1,382 men, 837 women, 137 children. Families who are coming back and those who remained at post-conflict areas of Donbas are at risk due to a lack of knowledge about the dangers of landmines and other explosive devises. Children are not properly informed about how to stay safe in areas where they are present.

With the aim of protecting school-kids and preventing injuries among children, UNICEF Ukraine has developed an entertainment education program to educate children about safe behaviors called “Superteam against mines". Based on the KAPB baseline conducted with main audiences, key messages were developed. The most critical practices were embedded in the characteristic of each Superteam’s hero appealing to children with lifesaving rules educating them how to avoid landmines and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO): Notice!, Bypass!, Report!, and Don’t panic!. It used multiple platforms to reach children living in high-risk areas to promote safe practices among adolescents through digital platform (www.inforce.team), social media, printed comics, stickers, posters, school diaries and notebooks.

A video featuring UNCEF Goodwill ambassador Orlando Bloom  was intended to reinforce lifesaving practices among adolescents, motivating them to actively use the website to seek for related information. The edutainment campaign reached 2.4 million children online. Among them, over 500,000 children received comic books, posters, stickers and about 200,000 children were engaged in direct training sessions during 2016-2017.

The post-campaign survey stated that knowledge and intended practice of safe behavior when observing mines increased by 12% among children in affected areas. The ability to identify risky areas among children have increased by 15%; ability to identify suspicious and dangerous objects increased by 20% among teenage children living in affected areas. The Superteam against mines concept is now planned to be used for conducting interactive education games (live performances) for children of preschool and elementary school age, and has been already turned into series of cartoons.

As with all of the blogs posted on our website, the content above does not imply the endorsement of The CI or its Partners and is from the perspective of the writer alone. We do not check facts and strive to retain the writer's voice, as is detailed in our Editorial Policy. 

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