Children
Child rights action with informed and engaged societies
Children

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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KnowZone

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KnowZone is a children's educational television series that aired in Kenya in 2009 in an effort to raise the educational standards of young Kenyans by improving their grasp of key literacy and numeracy syllabus requirements. The programme, which was produced by Mediae, also provided life-skills messages ranging from children's rights and responsibilities to health concepts and ideas. The programme also addressed issues such as ethnicity, peace building, and diversity. The primary audience was 8- to 12-year-olds, along with their parents and caregivers. Primary school teachers comprised a secondary audience.
Communication Strategies

The KnowZone programme used a combination of drama, storytelling, animation, and studio-based programmes backed up with interactive support materials such as leaflets and a website. The intention was to encourage parents to watch KnowZone with their children, as research has shown that this greatly improves a child's learning and retention of educational television. During the course of the show, audiences were invited to send text messages if they wanted a worksheet detailing more information on an issue covered, or if they wished to interact with the show on other issues.

In Kenya, children are taught in a vernacular language until class 3 (the third year of education), and, from class 4 onwards, instruction is given in English. The sudden switch can cause learners whose English skills have not developed adequately to fail or drop out. Because of this, the programme was been designed to enrich the Class 4 syllabus; every show incorporated key English vocabulary, grammar and phrases, mathematics, and life skills children need to succeed in class.

Know Zone developed an interactive website (no longer in operation as of December 2010) that offered additional math, spelling, literacy, and art activities, as well as African stories and facts - all related to the current episode of the show. It also provided links to contact the show via email or text message, gave information about the show's presenters and cast, and provided an archive of activities from previous episodes.

Development Issues

Children, Education

Key Points

According to Mediae, Know Zone was the first ever children's educational television programme in Kenya. KnowZone aired in Kenya throughout 2009 on Citizen TV on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5.30 p.m., with a Family Omnibus on Saturdays from 5-6 p.m..

Partners

Mediae, with funding from the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID).

Sources

Mediae website on March 19 2010.

Comments

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/13/2010 - 01:04 Permalink

My child is complaining about the program. It seems you keep on repeting the same prgram after 3-4 days .What is going on?.Farther more you have stoped sending her letters in our p.o.box number 454.

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