Communicating for Reproductive Health

From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development

In this issue of The Soul Beat:

* Addressing TEENAGE SEXUALITY through lifeskills training, peer education, and radio drama...
* Improving FAMILY PLANNING using social marketing, community dialogues, and video advocacy...
* INTEGRATING FAMILY PLANNING AND HIV to improve the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS...

This edition of The Soul Beat looks at the use of media and communication for reproductive health and features a range of programme experiences, strategic thinking documents, and resource materials from the Soul Beat Africa website with a specific focus on teenage sexuality, family planning and contraception, and integrating family planning and HIV/AIDS services.

If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com

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TEENAGE SEXUALITY

1. Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) - Swaziland
Launched in March 2009 by the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) and funded through The International HIV/AIDS Alliance, this initiative is designed to equip young people with knowledge and skills to allow them to determine and enjoy their sexuality in all spheres of life. Through teacher training and peer education, the programme is introducing sexuality education in schools and communities.

2. Biruh Tesfa (Bright Future) Project - Ethiopia
Initiated in 2006, Biruh Tesfa (meaning "Bright Future" in Amharic) is a programme for adolescent girls in the urban slum areas of Ethiopia. The programme is designed to assist out-of-school girls, especially migrant adolescent girls who have relocated to urban areas, by creating safe spaces through which they can build support networks with other girls and build mentor relationships with supportive adults. The programme seeks to protect these girls by reducing their social isolation and providing them with health information, including HIV prevention information, and services to address sexual exploitation and abuse.

3. Kenya Girl Guides Association Peer Education - Kenya
Re-launched in 2007, the Kenya Girl Guides Association (KGGA) is implementing a peer education, lifeskills, and behaviour change programme for adolescents, with technical support provided by Family Health International, and under the auspices of the AIDS, Population, and Health Integrated Assistance Programme (APHIA II) in two regions of Kenya. The interactive life skills curriculum covers such topics as self-esteem and being a good friend; values and school performance; understanding feelings of attraction; communication skills for protection; and talking to helpful adults. Other topics are: understanding HIV transmission and prevention; reducing stigma and discrimination; preventing rape; and refusing drugs and alcohol.

4. Early Sexual Debut, Sexual Violence, and Sexual Risk-Taking among Pregnant Adolescents and Their Peers in Jamaica and Uganda
By Maxine Wedderburn, Jennifer Wagman, Cynthia Waszak Geary, Joy Noel Baumgartner, Heidi Toms Tucker, and Laura Johnson
From the Youth Research Working Paper Series of Family Health International (FHI), this eighth Working Paper focuses on early sexual début and experiences of sexual coercion/violence as they are related to each other and to unintended adolescent pregnancy. It found that for many, first sex was coerced; thus, the timing of their sexual début was not a choice. Results showed that conscious use of contraception appeared to be the main difference between pregnant and never-pregnant girls in both countries.

5. Coñal Keele (Harvesting the Seeds of Life) - Senegal
Launched in November 2008, Coñal Keele is a serial radio drama produced by Population Media Center (PMC) designed to address adolescent reproductive health and early marriage in Senegal. Working in coordination with Réseau Africain de l'Education pour la Santé (RAES) based in Dakar, Senegal, and the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health in the United States, the 58-episode radio drama is part of a 3-year project by PMC with funding from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The 2 main story lines address early marriage and adolescent reproductive health.

6. Responding to What Young People Really Want to Know: Developing Question-Answer Booklets on Sexuality, HIV and AIDS with Young People
By Regina Görgen, Akwilina Mlay, Babette Pfander, and Siegrid Tautz
This report, published by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) in 2007, presents an experience of developing a set of question and answer sex education booklets designed to meet the needs of young people. The report outlines the approach taken by the project organisers in developing the materials and includes a number of steps that, according to the report, make the approach easily adaptable to different socio-cultural settings.

7. It's All One Curriculum: Guidelines and Activities for a Unified Approach to Sexuality, Gender, HIV, and Human Rights Education
By Nicole Haberland and Deborah Rogow
This resource, published by the Population Council in 2009, is meant to help readers develop sexuality and HIV education curricula with an emphasis on gender and rights, and enable educators to teach young people about topics such as: gender norms; communication and decision making; sexual consent and coercion; fairness and human rights (including sexual rights); power and relationships; preventing HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unintended pregnancy; puberty; and social change.

8. Impact Data - Youth Radio for Better Adolescent Reproductive Health - Uganda
Kisoro is a small and remote district in far south-west Uganda. Until the Straight Talk Foundation (STF) began broadcasting its youth radio show "Tuvuge Rwatu" in the local language, Lufumbira, in July 2007, Kisoro's young people were largely isolated from STF's "conversation" on growing up and staying safe; they reportedly also had low levels of knowledge on HIV and reproductive health and also held attitudes about condoms and gender which put them at risk. The 2-year project incorporated a local language youth radio show with complementary information, education, and communication (IEC) materials and face-to-face activities - a package of interventions meant to facilitate sustained and informed conversations amongst adolescents and the adults.

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MORE INFORMATION ON REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ON THE SOUL BEAT AFRICA WEBSITE

If you are looking for more information on reproductive health in Africa, go to any of the sections on the Soul Beat Africa website: Programme Experiences, Evaluations, Strategic Thinking documents, Materials, etc.). Under Regions, choose Africa (or a country/countries of your choice), and under Development Issue select Reproductive Health and then submit. For the complete listing, click here to go to the ALL SECTIONS section which will give you the full range of summaries on the Soul Beat Africa website from all knowledge sections.

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FAMILY PLANNING AND CONTRACEPTIVES

9. Social Marketing for Health and Family Planning: Building on Tradition and Popular Culture in Niger
This 2009 German HIV Practice Collection study from Niger examines the social marketing methods used by the Association Nigerienne de Marketing Social (Animas-Sutura). Social marketing, as stated in the study, "uses commercial marketing methods (consumer research, market segmentation, targeting of messages at particular segments of the market, providing financial and incentives to producers and consumers) to increase knowledge, change attitudes and promote practices, including the use of low-cost, high quality products to improve public health."

10. Family Planning Dialogue Guide
This guide, published by C-Change in 2010, is designed to help community health workers ("relais") in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as they talk to small and large groups of men and women about family planning (FP). Relais are outreach workers who serve as the interface between health centres and the community and create links to referral and education. Issues covered in the booklet include spacing of pregnancies for the health of the mother and her children, visiting the health clinic for FP counselling and antenatal care, and adopting use of modern contraceptives.

11. Neighbors Radio Drama - Uganda
This radio mini-drama series was part of the Uganda National Family Planning Revitalisation Campaign implemented by the Uganda Ministry of Health with technical assistance from the Johns Hopkins University Health Communication Partnership (HCP) project between December 2007 and December 2009. The Neighbors radio drama focused on population and family planning in Uganda and formed the centrepiece of a multi-channel communication campaign. It was reinforced by radio spots, billboards, booklets, interactive community dramas, and men-only seminars.

12. Keneya Ciwara: Supporting Family Planning In Mali
By Sarah Castle
From the paper series "Voices from the Village: Improving Lives through CARE's Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs", this 2009 report highlights a communication-centred family planning programme implemented in Mali. The case study describes Keneya Ciwara, an initiative carried out in the economically poor and remote commune of Kendie, located in the heart of Mali's Dogon country (named after the area's principal ethnic group). The goal is to increase the availability and demand for quality health services at the community level while improving essential health practices in the household.

13. Empty Handed: Responding to the Demand for Contraceptives
Produced by Population Action International, Empty Handed is a short film, accompanied by an advocacy guide, that tells the story of women’s lack of access to reproductive health supplies in sub-Saharan Africa, and its impact on their lives. According to the producers, around the world, more than 200 million women lack access to basic contraception. Often, these women must travel far from their communities to reach a health facility, only to return home empty handed due to shortages and stock-outs.

14. Universal Access to the Female Condom Joint Programme (UAFC) Nigeria - Nigeria
This Programme works to make female condoms widely available by supporting a range of activities including advocacy, support for female condom programming, and research and development. The project uses different strategies to reach different groups. For example, unmarried boys and girls are difficult to reach through conventional distribution channels like pharmacies and public health centres and informal channels, such as non-governmental organisations and peer educators, have been identified instead. Other specific sub-groups identified through the campaign are people living with HIV/AIDS, specific professions, youth, female sex workers, market women, and men and women in uniform.

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PLEASE VOTE IN OUR SOUL BEAT POLL ON THE INTEGRATION OF HIV/AIDS and REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

According to many local and international organisations working in HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health (SRH), there is an increasing need for more widespread linkages between SRH and HIV/AIDS services. Do you think we are meeting this need in Africa?


Options:
* Most African organisations/governments are not even aware of this need.
* Very little has been done in this area in Africa so far.
* African programmes are starting to move in this direction.
* Many projects in Africa are already integrating RH and HIV/AIDS services.

To vote and send comments, click here and see the Top Right side of the page.

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INTEGRATING FAMILY PLANNING AND HIV

15. Making the Case for Integration: Tides Foundation's Africa Family Planning and HIV Integration Fund
By Micah Gilmer and Brian Baughan
This report from the Tides Foundation, published in 2010, is intended to contribute to a growing body of information about family planning (FP)/HIV integration in sub-Saharan Africa. It contains a summary of research, documentation on FP/HIV integration approaches, an evaluation of challenges and solutions, profiles of organisations working on the integration, and insights from experts representing government and philanthropy. It aims to contribute to a base on which to build a more robust model of care, treatment, and prevention.

16. Study of Family Planning and HIV Integrated Services in Five Countries
By Susan Adamchak, Barbara Janowitz, Jennifer Liku, Emmanuel Munyambanza, Thomas Grey, and Emily Keyes
Published by Family Health International (FHI) in 2010, this study provides a "snapshot" of early family planning/HIV services integration efforts to inform future integration planning. It uses data from 5 countries: Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa. The study concludes that much remains to be done to offer fully integrated services, taking into account the human and financial resources and local data available.

17. Increasing Access to Contraception for Clients with HIV: A Toolkit
This resource from 2009 was developed by FHI for trainers, presenters, providers, programme managers, and policy-makers to update and expand upon the information provided in an earlier module, Contraception for Women and Couples with HIV. Toolkit contents include: a performance-based training curriculum; counseling tools, checklists, guides, and other job aids for providers and programme managers; an updated version of the orientation presentation contained in the original 2005 module; and full-text resources of current guidance and technical information about integrating family planning and HIV services.

18. Linking Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS, Gateways to Integration: A Case Study from Kenya - Antiretroviral Delivery within a Sexual and Reproductive Health Setting: Transition from Traditional to Pioneering Role
By Susan Armstrong
This case study from 2008 is part of a series published by the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to raise awareness of the pressing need for more widespread linkages between sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS. According to the publication, the process of linking sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS needs to work in both directions: this means that traditional sexual and reproductive health services need to integrate HIV/AIDS interventions, and also that programmes set up to address the AIDS epidemic need to integrate more general services for sexual and reproductive health.

19. Addressing the Family Planning Needs of People Living with HIV and AIDS through Integration of Family Planning Services at an ART Center in Uganda
By G. Nagendi, C. Ngobi, B. Farrell, N. Johri, L. Subramanian, H. Searing, and H. Kakande
Developed for the International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices, which took place in November 2009, Kampala, Uganda, this presentation looked at a project to provide family planning (FP)-integrated HIV services for people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Mbale, Uganda. Included are the following: a discussion of an approach to integrating FP and HIV services, the range of levels of FP integration, and examples of interventions to strengthen service delivery systems in coordination with demand creation and advocacy activities.

20. The Astonishing Neglect of an HIV-Prevention Strategy: The Value of Integrating Family Planning and HIV Services
By Rose Wilcher and Willard Cates
This document, published by Family Health International (FHI) in 2009, examines the neglect of one strategy for reaching the United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions (UNGASS) target of reducing HIV-positive births by 50 percent by the year 2010. The goal was to be achieved with the implementation of a four-part strategy to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. The authors conclude that: "Reducing the unmet need for contraception will not only produce tangible gains against the HIV epidemic, it will also improve the overall health of mothers and their children."

21. Integration of Family Planning and HIV Services in Zimbabwe Hormonal Implants and Dual Protection Messages
This brief, published by Population Services International/Zimbabwe in 2010, examines a family planning/HIV integration programme to prevent primary infection of HIV and unintended pregnancies in young women, as well as vertical (from mother to child) and horizontal (from one sexual partner to another) HIV transmission in infected women and discordant couples. The report concluded that counseling combined with direct, onsite access to FP methods as well as female and male condoms or counseling combined with strong linkages to FP service providers can increase dual protection among women and couples.

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Related previous issues of The Soul Beat e-newsletter include:

The Soul Beat 165 - HIV/AIDS and Communication

The Soul Beat 130 - Promoting Family Planning

Click here to view ALL archived editions of The Soul Beat Newsletter.