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.
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Bilingual Intercultural Education

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Educación Bilingüe Intercultural (EBI) - or Bilingual Intercultural Education - is an educational programme directed to boys and girls in the rural communities of Aymara and Quechua, Peru. Offered by the Center of Preservation of the Culture and Literature Aymara Quechua (CEPCLA), EBI uses radio, a magazine, interpersonal training, and other channels to enhance capacity to speak and write in the mother tongues and Spanish. Cultural awareness is a key emphasis.
Communication Strategies
In an effort to support early, primary, secondary, and adult education (literacy), EBI works with themes such as self-esteem, cultural identity, linguistic relevance, and equality. The programme emphasises technical training for rural education and serves as the base for the production of school materials contextualised to particular cultural environments. Further, EBI promotes and sustains micro projects to support self-sustainability.

EBI's core educational work is carried out through various mass media:
  • Radio programmes are meant to serve as a space for communication and information diffusion. Broadcast in the languages of Aymara, Quechua, and Spanish, these programmes are dedicated to the themes and experiences of EBI (cultural identity and the rural population, with the aim of improving awareness and self-respect). The goal is to fortify the processes of the programme through broad participation, for the purpose of improving the living conditions of the region's children and youth, as well as to reinvigorate the mother tongue, challenge negative images of Aymara and Quechua cultures, and bolster cultural identity. EBI disseminates its experiences through a rural FM radio station, and sometimes pays for time on AM urban radio stations; EBI is seeking a licence, and has acquired land, for its own AM radio station.
  • The intercultural magazine Aymara Quechua ("AQ") is designed to share: EBI's experiences; research results (e.g., of projects focusing on communication for rural development); environmental issues; customs, functions, and grammatical rules of the Aymara and Quechua languages; and stories, songs, and poems written in the mother tongue.
  • In addition, the programme uses: video-documentaries as supportive materials; various photographs that illustrate key themes; and the Internet (to network with other like-minded educational initiatives).
Development Issues
Education.
Key Points
Ministerio de Educación-Perú, Asociación Perú Infancia - España.
Sources

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