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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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Using cognitive-behavioural techniques to improve exclusive breastfeeding in a low-literacy disadvantaged population

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Rahman, A., Z. Haq, et al. (2012). "Using cognitive-behavioural techniques to improve exclusive breastfeeding in a low-literacy disadvantaged population." Maternal and Child Nutrition 8(1): 57-71.

OBJECTIVE: Despite being an important component of Pakistan's primary health care programme, the rates of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months remain among the lowest in the world. Low levels of literacy in women and deeply held cultural beliefs and practices have been found to contribute to the ineffectiveness of routine counselling delivered universally by community health workers in Pakistan. We aimed to address this by incorporating techniques of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) into the routine counselling process.

METHODS: We conducted qualitative studies of stakeholders' opinions (mothers, community health workers, their trainers and programme managers) and used this data to develop a psycho-educational approach that combined education with techniques of CBT that could be integrated into the health workers' routine work. The workers were trained to use this approach and feedback was obtained after implementation.

RESULTS: The new intervention was successfully integrated into the community health worker programme and found to be culturally acceptable, feasible and useful. Incorporating techniques of CBT into routine counselling may be useful to promote health behaviours in traditional societies with low literacy rates.