Child rights action with informed and engaged societies

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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Nutritional intervention: a key to child survival

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Guthrie, H. A., G. M. Guthrie, et al. (1990). "Nutritional intervention: a key to child survival." Asia-Pacific journal of public health / Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health 4(1): 53-58.

Methods: In a collaborative relationship, researchers from the Cebu Institute of Medicine and from the United States have carried out a series of longitudinal studies of breast feeding and infant growth in a rural Philippine community. On the basis of our findings, we have conducted field experiments designed to have mothers improve their infants' diets using locally available food. Contingent reinforcement strategies were used successfully to get mothers to change their behavior and beliefs about infant feeding practices.

Results: The use of reinforcements resulted in improved diets and very high rates of continuation of participation in the field experiments. We believe that this is a highly productive and cost effective way to approach the problem of gaining cooperation and continued involvement in a nutrition intervention effort.