August 2005.Pmd
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Newsletter The Periodic Newsletter of Population Media Center September 2005 PMC Launches Radio Serial Drama in the Philippines with UNFPA On July 18, 2005, Sa Pagsikat ng Araw Further, many see family planning as (“The Hope After the Dawn”) went on the being shameful. Some confuse family air nationwide in the Philippines. planning with abortion, which carries much The project began in April 2005 with stigma since many Filipinos are Roman a grant from the United Nations Population Catholic. Some people associate family Fund (UNFPA) in Manila. At that time, planning with prostitution. Some are PMC President Bill Ryerson went to the embarrassed to purchase condoms from Philippines to sign the agreement with drugstores or local shops. Also, the Roman UNFPA and to help PMC Country Catholic Church maintains a strong stance Representative Maggie Cudanin get the against modern methods of family project started. They selected TNS planning and openly advocates for natural Global, one of the most prestigious market methods. research firms in the Philippines, to carry Likewise, there is similar awareness, out a literature review to inform the but lack of knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Many scriptwriters about existing attitudes and believe that it is curable, like other STDs, behaviors regarding reproductive health in and, therefore, do not take precautionary the country. steps to avoid contracting the virus. There In June, Kriss Barker, PMC’s Vice is a lack of effort by those already infected President for International Programs; Tom to undergo treatment or use preventive Kazungu, Director of Radio Production Women working outside; Visayas region of methods in the future. Many who have Training; and Rocha Chimerah, central Philippines. Credit: Liz Gilbert/David contracted the disease find it difficult to and Lucile Packard Foundation. Courtesy of Scriptwriting Trainer, facilitated a three- Photoshare. accept, which is made worse by week scriptwriting workshop in Manila. discrimination and stigmatization by family The three veterans of the Sabido building capacity in the country for future members and neighbors. methodology for behavior change entertainment-education programs.” Yet, Filipinos acknowledge that public communications trained 20 scriptwriters The Philippines has several health measures are necessary, which and 12 actors from June 13 to July 1, 2005. reproductive health and HIV/AIDS bodes well for the acceptance for PMC’s The training took place at the National indicators that show an alarming trend. radio program. There is growing public Commission for Culture and the Arts, Research conducted by UNFPA found that opinion that population growth needs to which is headed PMC Senior Country although youth generally do not engage in slow down. People look to the government Advisor Cecile Guidote Alvarez. premarital sex, those who do are aware of to provide family planning services and Five scriptwriters were ultimately its possible consequences but do not use information, including the use of condoms chosen to write the radio serial drama protection. As a whole, the concept of for protection against HIV/AIDS. Also, addressing issues of HIV/AIDS, women’s modern family planning has not quite taken they recognize spousal communication is empowerment, adolescent reproductive root in this island nation. key to behavior change at the family level. health, and family planning. Twelve actors Throughout the country, there is high Filipinos also acknowledge that there is a and actresses were chosen to be the voices awareness of, but lack of understanding, lack of role models regarding positive for the characters in the program. Ms. regarding methods of family planning. behavior towards family planning. PMC Barker was particularly enthusiastic about While many Filipinos are progressive aims to fill these voids. the inclusion of young scriptwriters in this thinking and open to family planning, they This project grew out of a UNFPA- program. “This is the youngest group of do not actually practice it for various funded regional training workshop PMC scriptwriters we’ve ever trained! All were reasons. For example, some believe in the held for six Asian countries in Manila in under 28, which is great for creating “Bahala na” concept, that fate and/or May 2003. Ms. Cudanin was a participant relevance to young listeners and for destiny controls fertility. at this workshop, which was part of a See Philippines on page 5 President’s Message S o far in 2005, PMC has added -four new country projects (Jamaica, Niger, Nigeria and the Philippines), bringing the total number of countries where PMC is active to twelve. A growing number of partnerships with outstanding NGOs have aided PMC’s mission to stabilize human population numbers in order to help create a sustainable world. In Jamaica, we are starting a five-year project that will use a radio serial drama to promote avoidance of adolescent parenthood. You will find more about this project in this newsletter. As a measure of the success to date of PMC’s radio serial drama project in West Africa, USAID has provided funding to PMC to create a similar program in Niger. There, we plan to address the same issues that we are addressing in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast: linking child exploitation to unplanned childbearing and poverty and addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is leading to a growing number of AIDS orphans, who are easy prey for traffickers. PMC is also beginning a new project with the Rotarian Fellowship for Population and Development (a branch of Rotary International) in northern Nigeria, dealing with issues of maternal and child health, specifically obstetric fistula. Obstetric fistula is an entirely preventable, but extraordinarily debilitating, injury that occurs to many women who give birth before adulthood, both as a result of their physical immaturity and as a result of unassisted childbirth. PMC’s communication program will encourage delayed childbearing, use of trained professionals during pregnancy and delivery, and safe, effective family planning methods, in order to reduce the incidence of obstetric fistula as well as maternal mortality. In 2004, PMC created a training manual on the Sabido Methodology for Behavior Change Communication for the United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA), which will be published this year. UNFPA has asked PMC to follow up with an “Effective Practices Manual,” showcasing the best examples of programs developed and produced using the Sabido Methodology. In addition, PMC received UNFPA funding in April for a radio serial drama project in the Philippines, which began broadcasting on July 18th. You can read more about in this project, which is the feature story in this newsletter. P hil Thorson has been one of PMC’s most active board members – right up through his 90th birthday – serving as Secretary of the board. Unfortunately, because of health problems, he has decided to retire. Phil will be greatly missed, as he has added tremendously to PMC’s growth and development. Phil has been involved in decisions about various country projects, to which he brought his expertise gained over many years at the International Monetary Fund. And he has been a very important part of PMC’s fund raising work, reaching out to many donors on our behalf. We will greatly miss his participation in board discussions. Our most important partnership is with you, our supporters. With your help, PMC has made great strides toward realizing the dream many of us had at PMC’s founding – to work in many of the fastest growing countries of the world to help them stabilize their populations, while simultaneously improving the health and welfare of the people. The partnership PMC has with you, our donors, allows us to have a positive impact on the quality of life of people in many countries. Everywhere we travel, people thank us for our work, and we, in turn, thank you for providing the opportunity for people worldwide to aspire to happier, healthier and more prosperous lives. Thank you so much for your continued support. Best wishes, William N. Ryerson page 2 PMC Wins Promoting Healthy Lifestyles Anti-Trafficking PMC is working in Jamaica in an in Jamaica “Adolescent Healthy Lifestyles” project as Global Contest! a subcontractor to University Research partnership with the Government of Corporation (URC). URC won the new Jamaica, will assist in mobilizing Population Media Center won third contract from the U.S. Agency for communities, families, schools, health place in an online contest calling for the International Development. The five-year workers, and NGOs to strengthen healthy most innovative programs to combat project—a behavior change initiative valued behaviors among youth throughout the trafficking in persons. The contest was at $10.5 million—is designed to support country. This team will provide technical held by the Ashoka Foundation through the efforts of the Jamaican Ministry of assistance in the areas of healthy behavior its website initiative Changemakers.net. Health to address the challenges the promotion, self-esteem building, life-skills The Ashoka Foundation exists to shape a nation’s youth face in the areas of education, improvement of health services, citizen sector that is entrepreneurial, reproductive health, substance abuse, and policy and advocacy. productive and globally integrated and to crime, gangs and violence. The project will PMC will coordinate and implement develop the profession of social develop programs and activities to increase the media strategy in the project. This will entrepreneurship around the world. knowledge and improve attitudes and skills be centered on a radio serial drama Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka related to healthy lifestyles, to improve the designed to help teens avoid adolescent to build the world's first global online policy environment and to augment the pregnancy and parenthood, and will also "open source" community that competes availability and use of adolescent-friendly address the to develop the best social solutions and health and myriad aims to collaborate to refine, enrich and social problems facing implement those solutions.