Social norms 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.
 
Co-founder Victoria Martin is pleased to see this work continue under Wits' leadership. Victoria knows that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction.
 
We honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades. Meanwhile, La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA) continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
Time to read
1 minute
Read so far

Africa’s Child - Africa

0 comments
Africa's Child is a Television series that takes a journey around the African continent. The series shows Africa's different cultures.The programe is done by young children and is aimed at young audience aged between eight and 13.
Communication Strategies
The programme is presented through children's eyes. Each programme focuses on one child, whose dubbed-over ‘voice' narrates the story, with no adult narrator presence.

The series looks at the present and future of Africa through the eyes of children. The programmes focus on the lives of ten children who describe in their own words what it is like to be growing up in Africa at the beginning of the twenty-first century. "Although it does touch on the continent's harsher realities, this series introduces children to a positive view of life in Africa."

Where there is interaction between a child and others, sub-titles are used, but only on a minimal basis. The children use a hand-held camera to record their lives.

The children featured come from diverse backgrounds - rich and poor, urban and rural - and a range of religious, cultural and language communities. They live in sites of contrasting geographical interest, including the Sahara Desert, the rainforest, the Nile and the Great Rift Valley.

"Aspects of the continent's rich and diverse history are also touched upon, although the emphasis is very much on life in modern Africa, from the Islamic culture of Cairo and Zanzibar to the townships of South Africa and the cities and villages of the sub-Sahara."
Development Issues
Children
Key Points
The organisers say, "Africa's Child aims to encourage young viewers to feel they have made personal, emotional contact with other children of Africa."
Partners

SABC Education

Sources

Lesley Fahey sent an e-mail to Soul Beat Africa on March 5, 2004