The Drum Beat 782 - Entertainment-Education for Health: A Teaser

• 1.De Taali
  De Taali is the Indian organisation Breakthrough's adolescent empowerment initiative. Among the strategies used is theatre of oppressed, which is staged at the various spots where the De Taali video van stops. Plays on locally relevant themes begin by inviting all present to join in clapping and singing to celebrate and support girls. One show, "Chanda Pukaare", is a daughter's plea to her father to not force her into an early marriage. Reportedly, girls from even socially and economically marginalised communities in the villages have come forward to play Chanda's role and make bold statements, indicating they are becoming conscious of their rights and confident in expressing them.
   
• 2.Zathu
  Girl Effect launched Zathu in an effort to tackle HIV and inspire behaviour change through a locally built brand that is rooted in Malawian culture, creativity, and real youth engagement. "Zathu", meaning "ours" in Chichewa, a group of 6 boys and girls who are characters in a fictional band. As "ambassadors for change", the 17- to 22-year-olds role-model progressive, positive friendships between girls and boys through a weekly radio show, narrative music videos, and live performances.
   
• 3.Life Skills through Drama: Equipping Adolescent Girls with Key Knowledge and Skills to Help Them to Mitigate, Prevent, and Respond to Gender-Based Violence
  Featuring games, songs, and other activities, this International Rescue Committee (IRC) curriculum relies on active learning and incorporates various creative drama techniques in an effort to promote the protection of Syrian and Lebanese adolescent girls from gender-based violence (GBV) and to enhance their psychosocial wellbeing. [Oct 2018]
   
• 4.The Power of Song in the Struggle for Health and Development Outcomes in Africa: Lessons for Social and Behaviour Change Programmes
  by Adebayo Fayoyin and Sara NieuwoudtThis article explores the use of music to tackle various development issues in Africa, such as family planning (FP). While songs' role in information diffusion, awareness raising, and partnership is validated with the case studies, the paper calls for more empirical investigation and robust theorising on the relationship between songs and development. [2017]
   
• 5.Developing Culturally Oriented Strategies for Communicating Women's Health Issues: A Church-based Intervention
  This intervention revolved around the observation that activity-based approaches to improve the health status of the community can be effective, particularly in Christian churches where stories, songs, proverbs, and illustrations are commonly used to convey pertinent spiritual messages - a legacy that can be extended to health promotion.
   
• See also:
  Endline Study of the Nzotheka Project Implemented by Theatre for a Change
  

• 6.Los Humos de mi Barrio (My Neighbourhood's Smoke)
  Households cooking with firewood on an open fire or on a non-improved stove (plancha sin chiminea, o con chiminea vieja) are exposed to household air pollution. In Sacatepéquez, Guatemala, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (La Alianza) took a dramatic approach to changing behaviours. An estimated 250,000 people were reached with cookstove messaging via the social marketing campaign's radio "novela" (soap opera) and other channels (e.g., social media, stakeholder interviews on local cable and TV stations, and live events).
   
• 7.Didier - An Edutainment-based Human-Centred Design Project
  Didier uses an ongoing interactive story to engage and promote dialogue among young men working in the informal sector of the economy and their partners about contraception and FP. Initiated by IDEO.org and Population Services International Côte d'Ivoire in 2017 with USAID funding, the project revolves around the character of Didier, who engages in sex and relationship dialogues with 2 strong women. Through SMS, Facebook, and events, the audience can vote on how the story progresses at key moments.
   
• 8.Digital and Social Media for Social and Behaviour Change Communication
  by Linda RaftreeEE programming is a social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) approach that can capitalise on multi-modal, transmedia approaches to reaching and engaging with young people. Some of the examples explored include: the reality TV series 16 and Pregnant; the web television series East Los High, which reached American Latina/o youth with sexual and reproductive health messages; and SKAM, a Norwegian web series dealing with teen girls' day-to-day challenges that became popular globally. [Mar 2019]
   
• 9.Toward Spreadable Entertainment-Education: Leveraging Social Influence in Online Networks
  by Roel O. Lutkenhaus, Jeroen Jansz, and Martine P.A. BoumanThis article introduces the concept of "spreadable EE", an approach that builds on transmedia storytelling and that entails collaboration with online platforms, communities, and social influencers to stimulate meaningful conversations and, potentially, to impact individuals' knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, and behaviours. [Oct 2019]
   

• You may also be interested in::
  The CI's Entertainment-Education theme site
  Soul City
  Revelados
  

• 10.Priya and the Lost Girls
  by Dipti Mehta, Ram Devineni, Syd Fini, and Neda KazemifarCreated as part of a larger initiative to move people, especially young people, to take action against GBV around the world, Priya and the Lost Girls is a comic book focused on sex trafficking that uses augmented reality to entertain while educating readers and sparking conversation. [Nov 2019]
   
• 11.Menstrupedia
  Menstrupedia is an effort to open up the conversation on menstruation in India, where discussion of the topic is taboo. Drawing on the EE approach, the Menstrupedia comic book is meant to be colourful, fun, and accessible; the initiative also includes a website, videos, and social media.
   
• 12.FightHPV: Design and Evaluation of a Mobile Game to Raise Awareness About Human Papillomavirus and Nudge People to Take Action Against Cervical Cancer
  by Tomás Ruiz-López, Sagar Sen, Elisabeth Jakobsen, Ameli Tropé, Philip E Castle, Bo Terning Hansen, and Mari NygårdThe mobile app FightHPV is a game-based learning tool that "nudges" users to engage in storylines with the goal of helping the layperson understand human papillomavirus (HPV) transmission, as well as to shift attitudes and inspire healthy behavioural changes. Players are encouraged to share their score on social media to drive engagement among their wider circles. [Apr 2019]
   

• 13.The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change: Fighting HIV with MTV
  by Abhijit Banerjee, Eliana La Ferrara, and Victor H. Orozco-OlveraA randomised controlled trial (RCT) tested the effectiveness of the third season of the EE television series MTV Shuga. The researchers found "striking effects on knowledge about sources of transmission of HIV and its treatment, on attitudes towards HIV+ people and on a range of behavioral outcomes (both self-reported and objectively measured)". For example, subjects in the treatment group were twice as likely to get tested for HIV. [Sep 2019]
   
• 14.Effect of a Behaviour Change Intervention on the Quality of Peri-Urban Sanitation in Lusaka, Zambia: A Randomised Controlled Trial
  by James B Tidwell, Jenala Chipungu, Samuel Bosomprah, Robert Aunger, Val Curtis, and Roma ChilengiThis study investigated to what extent sanitation could be improved by the residents of an informal settlement in Zambia through behaviour change promotion alone. Working with a creative agency, the researchers designed an EE intervention for the landlords called Bauleni Secret. Plots in the intervention group had significantly better-quality toilets compared with those in the control group across all 4 dimensions of quality improvement. [Apr 2019]
   
• 15.Entertainment-Education and Child Marriage: A Scoping Study for Girls Not Brides
  by Martine Bouman, Sarah Lubjuhn, and Hester HollemansThis report looks at the opportunities and challenges of EE as a way to address child marriage. In it, the Center for Media & Health (CMH) and dance4life analyse a selection of initiatives in 9 countries (Pakistan, India, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Nepal, Nigeria, and Nicaragua), draw out key lessons, and provide tips. For example, creative solutions such as the use of "markers" (unique words, expressions, or slogans) can help evaluators trace back conversations in real life or on social media to the EE intervention. [Jan 2017]
   
• 16.Advances in Theory Driven Design and Evaluation of Health Communication Campaigns: Closing the Gap in Practice and Theory
  by D. Lawrence Kincaid, Richard Delate, Douglas Storey, and Maria Elena FigueroaScrutinize was a multimedia campaign for HIV prevention in South Africa featuring an animated, consumer-oriented television campaign and DramAidE-trained peer educators. This case study details its statistically significant impacts on condom use, talking to one's friends and sexual partners about HIV testing, getting tested for HIV, and knowledge about the increased risk from having multiple sexual partners. [Mar 2012]
   
• 17.The Effectiveness of Using Entertainment Education Narratives to Promote Safer Sexual Behaviors of Youth: A Meta-analysis, 1985-2017
  by Victor Orozco-Olvera, Fuyuan Shen, and Lucie CluverThis meta-analysis of EE narratives' effectiveness on promoting HIV testing and reducing risky sexual behaviours of youth in developed and developing countries found small but significant effects: reduced the number of sexual partners, reduced unprotected sex, and increased testing and management for sexually transmitted infections. [Feb 2019]
   
• 18.Platform Validation and Evaluation Process of Revelados, desde todas las posiciones
  by Jair Vega CasanovaPresented at the 2016 SBCC Summit in Ethiopia, this lecture details the process of validation and evaluation of the Colombian EE series Revelados, desde todas las posiciones (seasons 1 and 2). [Feb 2016]
   

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