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

Time to read
1 minute
Print
a- a+
Published 13 years ago
Last updated 1 year ago
Read so far

We Change the World: How to Live in 2015 and Beyond

0 comments

From Radijojo World Children's Radio Network in Berlin, Germany, this project connected students in classrooms in four countries to learn about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), exchange ideas of what needs to change in each country to achieve them, and find out their wishes for the future. In addition, the students from Hannah High school in Berlin discussed the MDGs with people working in development and received updates from the World Innovation Summit for Education (2012) in Doha, Qatar. The students then joined across borders to produce a video.

Communication Strategies

Young people in Berlin joined with students from Radio Paix Sanwi Ivory Coast, Radio Miraya in South Sudan, and Pachamama Media Project in Spain via radio network and web portal connections in their classrooms. Via microphones and shared computers or projected realtime computer connections, they held conference-style meetings to exchange ideas on their countries' needs and their hopes for the future in order to begin to respond to the United Nations (UN) process of looking beyond the year 2015, which is the final year of the reach of the MDGs.

 

Their goal is to ensure that "all children in the world attain education, live in a safer and better environment, and that women, men, girls and boys are treated equally."

 

The students engaged with both a representative of development agency GIZ (the German Society for International Cooperation), who paid a visit in person to the class, and attendees at the World Innovation Summit for Education, via the internet, with whom they shared their thinking on making the world better in 2015. The students in Berlin then joined with students of Pachamama Media Project to produce a video (below) on MDG 4: reduce child mortality.

 

Development Issues

Children, Youth, Education, Health

Key Points

Based in Germany, Radijojo World Children's Radio Network is an international non-profit initiative producing educational and entertaining radio and online content for and with children aged 3-13 on all 5 continents. Its core emphasis is on bringing kids from Europe (particularly Germany) together in joint radio-based projects with peers throughout that continent - as well as in more distant places like Africa and North America. Radio is a tool here for connecting schools, community radio stations, and/or culture/media initiatives that engage children seeking to learn about each other's lives, cultures, and history. The ultimate goal is to foster intercultural understanding.

Sources

Radijojo website, February 1 2013.