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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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Maternal and congenital syphilis in Zambia

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Kamanga, J. (1995). "Maternal and congenital syphilis in Zambia." Africa health 18(1): 15-17.

Background: In Zambia during 1985-1987, 6 health centers in Lusaka took part in a syphilis intervention study where all pregnant women at the 3 study centers were screened for syphilis at least twice. Treatment reduced the prevalence of syphilis antibodies from 12.8% to 8%. Women continuously received clear messages encouraging them to go early to a clinic for prenatal care, resulting in an increase in attendance of women during the 1st trimester from 10% to 42.5%. Health education and routine syphilis screening prevented adverse pregnancy outcomes. The treatment of both women and their husbands was cost-effective. Many problems arose as a result of the loss of funding: sporadic shortages of screening reagent, absence of needles and syringes, lack of antibiotics, and serious shortage of trained laboratory staff. By 1993, the prevalence of syphilis antibodies in pregnant women in Lusaka clinics had climbed to 13%. In early 1995, only 2 of the 10 health centers with laboratories were screening more than 80% of pregnant women for syphilis. On the most part, they did not perform repeat tests to confirm syphilis in late pregnancy. In January 1994, UNICEF provided funds to the Zambian National AIDS/STD (sexually transmitted disease) Control Programme to strengthen syphilis control in pregnancy, initially focusing on health centers in Lusaka. Nurse-midwives perform the screening test on day of the prenatal visit while the pregnant woman awaits the results. They also conduct health education to encourage pregnant women to attend prenatal care early. They give positive mothers condoms for their partners to use until the men also receive treatment. Between January 1994-January 1995, screening of prenatal patients increased from 36% to 86% and 78% of positive women received treatment. Political commitment for syphilis intervention is needed to achieve program sustainability.