The African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet) recognized five organizations and one individual, Mr. Warren Feek, Executive Director Communication Initiative, for outstanding efforts to fight HIV and AIDS through communication, during a highly publicized award ceremony held the evening of 4th June 2008 in Kampala - Uganda. The annual awards ceremony, held at the Sheraton Hotel Ballroom, which was filled to capacity that evening, was attended by over 205 people including participants from the global HIV/AIDS implementing partners meeting that took place in Kampala from 3- 7th June 2008 in Kampala - Uganda and other stakeholders from the public, private and civil society sectors in Uganda. The guest of honor at the ceremony was Prof. Alfred Opubor, the Secretary General, West African News Media and Development.

AfriComNet to date has over 801 members from 44 countries, comprised of individuals, associations, governmental and non-governmental organizations, community and faith based organizations and educational institutions.

The vision of AfriComNet is “People in Africa making informed choices and taking action to improve their wellbeing”. Its mission is to “strengthen capacity in and commitment to strategic communication for health and development in Africa”. One of AfriComNet’s strategic objectives is to promote effective Strategic Communication practices. In order to achieve this objective, AfriComNet in 2007 launched the first ever Annual Award for Excellence in Strategic Communication in Africa. This will continue to be an annual network event in recognition of both individuals and organizations that would have made significant contribution to innovating, strengthening and popularizing strategic communication as a necessary tool for health and development.

The annual awards of excellence in HIV/AIDS strategic communication in Africa create a much needed space to share and encourage effective HIV/AIDS communication programming in Africa. The winning communication initiatives, all implemented in Africa, are monitored and evaluated to show that they have affected behavior and contributed to the prevention and mitigation of the HIV epidemic. The annual awards highlight cost effective, high quality, innovative and cutting edge communication strategies, tools and programs that can be easily replicated in Africa. More specifically, the purpose of the AfriComNet annual award is fivefold:

1. To recognize outstanding contributions made by individuals/organizations in strengthening and popularizing strategic communication as a necessary tool for health and development.
2. To encourage innovation and the highest standards of performance in strategic communication as a necessary tool for health and development.
3. To enhance appreciation of strategic communication as a necessary tool for health and development.
4. To attract outstanding individuals and organizations to advance careers in strategic communication.
5. To highlight strategies, programs and tools that advance the state-of-the-art in strategic communication and can be adapted and applied as best practices

The network recognizes awards in five award categories:

- Best mass media strategy, campaign or tool.
- Best community/interpersonal strategy, campaign or tool.
- Best folk media strategy, campaign or tool.
- Best social marketing strategy, campaign or tool.
- Best multi-channel strategy, campaign or tool.

In addition to the above five categories, there is a Chairman’s Award that is specifically given out in recognition of an individual or organization that has excelled or made an outstanding contribution to the prevention or mitigation of HIV/AIDS through communication.

The 2008 annual awards attracted nominations and got winners from both the Anglophone and Francophone countries. The following provides summaries and contact details of the AfriComNet 2008 annual awards winners that were selected by an independent panel of judges, comprised of renowned strategic communication specialists from the Africa region.

1. Mass Media Category Winners

Urunana Radio Soap Opera, Rwanda

Produced by the Urunana Development Communication, Urunana radio soap opera is broadcast on BBC great lakes service and Radio Rwanda with a focus on rural women of reproductive age and youth. Based on formative research and audience surveillance, the radio soap opera utilizes multi-pronged needs based and community participatory entertainment approaches to discuss HIV/AIDS and sexuality issues that would ordinarily be considered taboo by the Rwandan community. Over 960 episodes have been broadcast since 1999 reaching more than 10 million people across the Kinyrwanda –Kirundi area in the great lakes region with messages on HIV/AIDS prevention; care and treatment; stigma and discrimination; voluntary counseling & testing (VCT); prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT); and nutrition for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWA’s).

Due to its success and appeal to the target audience and partners, the Urunana edutainment radio series model has been adopted by other organizations to address other social issues in Rwanda namely: La Benevolencija soap opera with a theme on unity and reconciliation; Population Services International (PSI) Solange radio drama series to address youth and sexuality; Ministry of Justice radio drama series on domestic violence; and Population Media Center (PMC) radio drama on agriculture. Based on the credibility of the Urunana radio soap opera, Urunana Community Development is now one of the national HIV/AIDS Commission (CNLS) mandated organizations to review messages on HIV/AIDS. (For more information about the initiative, please contact Mr. Prudence Uwabakurikiza, email: muprudence@yahoo.fr)

Living and Loving (LiLo) Radio Program, Zambia

Produced by Health Communication Partnership (HCP), Zambia, LiLo radio series is a highly educative, skills building and behavior change radio program that unfolds over 26 episodes, each 30 minutes long and broadcast in eight languages to address HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination as well as to increase uptake of care and treatment services. LiLo radio program began in 2006 and is focused on people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA’s) and their caregivers.

LiLo radio program is produced in a magazine format including interviews, slogans, testimonials, drama, letters, music and local traditional proverbs enabling large scale provision of accurate, consistent and reliable information to PLWA’s and their care givers.

LiLo radio program reaches 60 % of the Zambia population through two national broadcasting networks and an additional 20% through 12 community radio stations. Furthermore, PLWA radio listening groups of 10 -15 people exist in 22 districts of the country. (For more information about the initiative, please contact Ms. Josephine Nyambe, email: josephinen@hcp.org.zm)

2. Community/Interpersonal Category Winner

Wellness Champion Program, Standard Bank Group Africa

Standard Bank Group Africa launched a comprehensive workplace HIV/AIDS program in 2002 in South Africa that has been rolled out to 15 other African countries, reaching approximately 40,000 employees and their immediate family members. Started in the groups South Africa’s operations, the holistic workplace health and wellness program is an educative, awareness creation and disease management program with special emphasis on HIV/AIDS.

Key to the implementation and awareness of the program are the bank’s over 715 peer volunteer ‘wellness champions’ who communicate the bank’s policy and employee benefits; initiate education and awareness campaigns; refer infected and affected colleagues to appropriate services; and provide regular feedback about the program’s effectiveness.

All the wellness champions undergo a training of trainer HIV/AIDS focused course, based on the award winning ‘Bridges of Hope (BoH)’ equipping them with broad life skills to address issues around HIV prevention, care, treatment and social support including positive living.

The bank has an inbuilt volunteer incentive program as an integral component of the wellness champions program. A wellness champion who facilitates or co-facilitates at minimum 5 BoH training sessions at the workplace or community and submits satisfactory reports gets BoH certified. To-date, the bank has 320 Standard Bank wellness champions certified in 11 countries. Furthermore, BoH is an accredited course by the Sector Education and Training Authority in South Africa (SETA), which enables wellness champions to gain credits towards degrees or other formal qualification. Standard Bank now has 125 wellness champions who have received SETA accreditation. (For more information about the initiative, please contact Ms. Beauty Zondi, email: beauty.zondi@standardbank.co.za)

3. Social Marketing Category Winner

The Good Life Campaign, Uganda

Produced by the Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG), Uganda, the Good Life Campaign focuses on priority health concerns in Uganda, specifically HIV/AIDS prevention and palliative care, family planning and child survival, The campaign targets the entire family with a focus on young couples, care givers of children under 5 years of age, pregnant women, and PLWA. The Good Life Campaign is a unique integrated marketing approach that provides strong continual links between products, practices and services while sustaining mutually beneficial private/public partnerships.

The campaign utilizes an interactive multi-channel game show that aired weekly on television and radio and was performed nationwide through community road shows. Its entertainment–educative format broke message fatigue with each game episode aimed to increase knowledge, facilitate couple communication, and promote positive health behaviors, including correct and consistent use of socially marketed products namely non-prescriptive FP methods, insecticide treated nets, water treatment tablets, and oral dehydration salts (ORS).

Launched in October 2007, the campaign aired 24 episodes on two national television stations; 24 radio episodes in 5 languages on 12 local FM stations; and conducted 120 roads shows reaching approximately 9 million Ugandans through the three communication channels. (For more information about the initiative, please contact Mr. David Ochieng, email dochieng@uhmg.org)

4. Multi-channel Category Winner

Sports for Life, Cote d’Ivoire

Sports for Life (SFL) program is implemented by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP), Cote d’Ivoire, in collaboration with the Office of social and Academic Mobilization (DMOSS) and the Abidjan city government. SFL was launched in 2006 after the Cote d’Ivoire soccer team qualified for the World Cup. It capitalizes on the national pride and power of sports generated by the World Cup to build life skills and promote healthy behaviors among youth aged 10 -15 years. This was in view of the documented evidence that youth 15 -24 are particularly at risk of HIV/AIDS in Cote d’Ivoire.

The evidence-driven SFL model utilizes a multi-channel approach with five core components: group activities using a participatory life skills curriculum; individual extra-curricular activities; community outreach activities; entertainment-education and promotion of celebrity ambassadors through mass media; and heavily publicized youth tournaments sponsored by the private sector.

To date, JHU/CCP has trained 129 trainers from partner organizations in the SFL approach, who have implemented the program with 1,581 youth from soccer centers and community teams. SFL has reached 7,500 youth and adults through community outreach events and over 24,000 youth and adults through SFL tournaments. A SFL mass media campaign conducted during the Africa Cup of Nations Tournament of 2008 is estimated to have reached 5 million viewers nationally with 600 attending community events, and up to 1,000 receiving voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services. (For more information about the initiative, please contact Mr. Gbane Ousmane, email: ogbane2002@yahoo.fr)

5. Chairman’s Award

Mr. Warremn Feek, Executive Director Communication Initiative (CI)

In 2008, the AfriComNet Chairman’s Award was presented to Mr. Warren Feek, Executive Director of Communication Initiative (CI). The award was in recognition of his exemplary and visionary leadership to the Communication Initiative (CI). CI is a partnership of organizations seeking to support the enhanced impact of communication interventions on development issues. (More information about Mr. Warren Feek and the Communication Initiative is available at www.comminit.com)

The 2008 annual award was supported by the Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies (ROADS) Project with funding from the United States President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief and the United States Agency for International Development for East Africa.

For additional information about AfriComNet, please contact:

Dr. Lorna Tumwebaze,
Executive Director
AfriComNet Secretariat
Plot 77 Luthuli Avenue, Bugolobi
P.O. Box 3495
Kampala, Uganda
Tel: 256 414 250183/237222/250192/223837
Fax: 256 414 221340
Email: infodesk@africomnet.org
Website: www.africomnet.org