Media
Media development action with informed and engaged societies
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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.
 
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 cila.comminitcila.com and is linked with The CI Global site.
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I Know My Goal Campaign

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In April 2003, The Ghana Education Service's Girls Education Unit launched a programme to improve the capacity of 11- to 15-year-old girls to protect themselves from HIV infection and other factors that may threaten their ability to fully benefit from the country's education system. The campaign addresses all primary and junior secondary schools in Ghana and child welfare NGOs operating at the community level, while also focussing on boys, teachers, parents, and community members. The central purpose of the initiative is to help girls in Ghana develop the confidence necessary to create their own education-related goals.

This project is one phase of the ongoing Stop AIDS Love Life national HIV/AIDS programme, which began in February 2000. This initiative, part of the Sara Communication Initiative, is a joint effort of the Ghana Education Service's Girls Education Unit and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP) with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Communication Strategies

Programme strategies will be designed to enable Ghanaian girls to develop self-esteem, self-efficacy, decision-making skills, and personal risk perception. Informing these strategies is the conviction that girls need to be educated, and that developing positive relationships with male peers, abstaining from sex, and avoiding HIV/AIDS will facilitate that goal.


Specifically, training programmes for 900 District Girls Education officers and teachers will be held throughout Ghana to promote the formation of Sara Clubs in many schools and the facilitation of Sara activities in the communities. USAID has supported the development of 5,000 Sara Club kits, which contain videos, books, posters, stickers, Sara Game boards, and facilitation manuals.

Development Issues

Girls, Education, HIV/AIDS.

Key Points

Inadequate life skills, peer pressure, misconceptions about reproductive issues, and a lack of parental guidance are factors that organisers say lead Ghanaian youth to engage in risky behaviours that may ultimately spread sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS.

Partners

Ghana Education Service's Girls Education Unit, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/CCP, with support from USAID.

Sources

Press release entitled "Ghana Launches National Program to Encourage Adolescents to Develop Skills to Fight HIV/AIDS Infection" forwarded by Kim Martin on April 8, 2003.