Helping Each Other Act Responsibly Together (HEART) Campaign

The programme uses the television to reach urban youth, radio to reach both rural and urban youth and uses popular music to reach them all.

To develop the campaign, a design team of communication and adolescent reproductive health specialists, including seven young people, was created. The design team was responsible for strategic planning, campaign development and implementation. The young people on the design team, who were drawn from a variety of backgrounds—including print, radio, peer education, video and drama, were the key decision-makers for critical aspects of the campaign. One of these youth is HIV positive.

To achieve broader youth involvement a Youth Advisory Group (YAG) constituted by 35 young people from 11 youth organisations was formed. The YAG served as an advisory body to the design team. The YAG developed the communication objectives and messages for each of the four audiences namely; abstinent males, abstinent females, inconsistent male condom-users and inconsistent female condom-users, all in the age range of 15 - 19 years.

Message concepts were tested for appeal and comprehension through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews; post-broadcast spot surveys were conducted to test reach and recall. The fieldwork involved over 1200 young people (ages13-19) in rural and urban settings as well as in and out of school.

The design team assessed available data and segmented the audience as follows:

• girls, 15-19, who have never had sex;
• girls, 15-19, who are sexually active and sometimes use condoms;
• boys, 15-19, who have never had sex;
• boys, 15-19, who are sexually active and sometimes use condoms.

As a result of the above audience segmentation and message development, five television health communication spots were developed for Phase One. The spots include:

• Ice Garden Braii, with the message to boys that condom use is cool and non-use is risky;
• Choices I Make , with abstinent boys reminding their peers of why they choose to be abstinent;
• “When He Says . . .”, with a series of lines from boys to which girls can reply, “no to sex” and maintain their “virgin power/virgin pride”;
• When it Matters , with a message that condoms are not just for casual partners, but for consistent use with regular partners; and,
• Mutale and Ing’utu, with the message that you can’t tell who is HIV+ by looking.

Radio spots and songs were also developed by adapting the same messages and concepts. Radio spots were adapted to the rural context and translated into seven local languages. Other materials such as posters, stickers, exercise books, messages on buses and music videos were also developed to complement the mass media materials.

The findings reported in this study are restricted to the Phase One of the HEART Campaign. After the follow-up study was fielded, Phase Two commenced. This phase has four new spots:

• Ice Mechanic, with a message encouraging consistent condom use by boys;
• Christine , with the message encouraging consistent condom use by girls;
• Basketball, with the message that you can't tell who is HIV+ by looking; and
• Mary, which advocates abstinence for girls.