Soul Beat Africa
African development action with informed and engaged societies
Soul Beat Africa
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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Published 24 years ago
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Impact Data - Mass Media Campaign HIV/AIDS

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Date
Knowledge Shifts
Ratio of people who think “you can avoid getting infected with AIDS by avoiding people who look sick” decreased to 42% from 56%. First named mode of AIDS prevention as condoms increased from 5 to 11% and the increase of awareness that condoms existed grew by 11%. Knowledge differences between the target group and the control group was 11%. 38.5% of exposed people could name three modes of AIDS transmission prevention, compared to 15.7% of the control region.
Practices
85% of respondents, 6 months after the songs were released, said that the songs affected their behaviour. Of the 85%, one in three were discouraged from multiple partners, one in four began to believe in abstinence, and one in six were encouraged to remain faithful to one partner. After two years of the project, 16% more of the people affected by the project said that they had become mutually faithful to their partners (from 28.9 to 45.7%). When asked how their behaviour had changed, 5 times more people responded “by using condoms” (2.6 - 18.8%). After the TV drama, nearly 75% of the viewers were encouraged to change their behaviour, and 90% wanted to see another programme.
Increased Discussion of Development Issues
Over 50% of sample discussed issues raised in the television drama with friends or family.
Access
(from Kinshasa sample) Six months after the theme song for the campaign was released, 65% of the target audience had heard it, 90% of those could sing one or two verses of it, and 93% of those who had heard it retained key AIDS messages. For the television drama, 66% of the intended audience watched the programme, and 66% of those could recall the plot, more than 66% retained the AIDS messages.