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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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Diarrhea and ARI in rural areas of Bangladesh

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Piechulek, H., A. Al-Sabbir, et al. (2003). "Diarrhea and ARI in rural areas of Bangladesh." Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health 34(2): 337-342.

BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, one third of the total child death burden is due to diarrhea. Every year, a rural child suffers on average from 4.6 episodes of diarrhea, from which about 230,000 children die.

METHODS: In this study, information was collected from 8,287 children under five years of age and 7,082 caretakers in 120 clusters chosen by a two-stage random cluster sampling method.

RESULTS: As compared to the baseline survey, carried out in 1996, children now are about 30% less likely to suffer from diarrhea, and the risk of dying has been reduced by 60%. Although the 2-weeks prevalence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) has risen from 39% (1996) to 46% and that of Acute Respiratory Infections needing assessment (ANA) from 12.4% to 16.9%, now more caretakers (59.9%) than in 1996 (56.7%) are able to identify correctly danger signs for seeking care and 58.4% (1996: 46.6%) of parents seek help when danger signs are present. Similar for diarrhea and ARI, village doctors and traditional healers are most frequently sought for help by caretakers; government health centers and hospitals are sought to a much lesser degree. Since 1996, intervention activities were implemented for four years in the study area using an IEC strategy. This strategy included raising awareness and training of health personnel, NGO personnel and village volunteers, especially women. Diarrhea issues were included in school health education with emphasis on practical exercises of diarrhea management. For all target groups (health personnel, village volunteers, NGOs, mothers and school children) specific education material was developed and deployed. In the political arena, women leaders who are part of the local government were included in an awareness-raising campaign. The results of the study undertaken over four years later show that in a relatively short time behavior of mostly poor and illiterate caretakers can be changed leading to a significant reduction of ARI mortality and diarrhea morbidity, and mortality in children.