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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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Evaluation of a kindergarten-based nutrition education intervention for pre-school children in China

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Hu, C., D. Ye, et al. (2010). "Evaluation of a kindergarten-based nutrition education intervention for pre-school children in China." Public Health Nutrition 13(2): 253-260.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of nutrition education in kindergartens and to promote healthy dietary habits in children.

Design: Prospective cohort study. Four kindergartens with 1252 children were randomized to the intervention group and three with 850 children to the control group. The personal nutritional knowledge, attitudes and dietary behaviours of the parents were also investigated. Each month, children and parents in the intervention group participated in nutrition education activities. The main outcome measures were anthropometrics and diet-related behaviours of the children and the nutritional knowledge and attitudes of the parents at baseline, 6 months (mid-term) and 1 year (post-test). Baseline demographic and socio-economic characteristics were also collected.

Setting: Seven kindergartens from Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province, eastern China.

Subjects: Two thousand one hundred and two 4- to 6-year-old pre-schoolers from seven kindergartens participated.

Results: The prevalence of childrens unhealthy diet-related behaviours decreased significantly and good lifestyle behaviours increased in the group receiving nutrition education compared with controls. Parental eating habits and attitudes to planning their childrens diets also changed appreciably in the intervention group compared with the control group (P < 0.05). However, there were no statistically significant differences in childrens height, weight, height-for-age Z-score or weight-for-age Z-score between the two groups.

Conclusions: Kindergarten-based nutrition education improves pre-schoolers lifestyle behaviours and brings about beneficial changes in parents attitudes to planning their childrens diets and their own personal eating habits.