The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative
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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Good Shepherd/Lost Sheep Awards

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The Good Shepherd/Lost Sheep Awards are part of the larger Condoms4Life campaign developed and implemented by the Catholics for a Free Choice. Catholics for Free Choice (CFFC) works to shape and advance sexual and reproductive ethics that are based on "justice, reflect a commitment to women's well being and respect and affirm the moral capacity of women and men to make sound decisions about their lives." The Condoms4Life campaign is a global education and advocacy effort to raise public awareness about the effects of the bishops' ban on condoms. According to CFFC, the ban is particularly harmful because an estimated 26.7 percent of the centres dedicated to treating HIV/AIDS in the world are Catholic-affiliated, yet those who seek services from a Catholic provider are unlikely to receive adequate information about or access to condoms.

The Good Shepherd award recognises the contribution made by prominent Catholic bishops and associated organisations who have supported efforts to change Catholic prohibitions against condoms and encouraged their use as vitally important tools in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "Condoms4Life issues these awards to encourage those bishops who demonstrate sanity, compassion and justice when confronted with HIV/AIDS." The Lost Sheep award identifies and publicly chastises figures within the Church who have acted to prevent acceptance of condoms and who have waged campaigns of disinformation that the CFCC suggests are "harmful to those at risk of HIV and AIDS."
Communication Strategies
The awards themselves are primarily symbolic, the Good Shepherds receive a small token sculpture recognising their efforts. In defiance of those identified as Lost Sheep, CFFC contributes small monetary sums to NGOs, networks or community groups that actively promote condom usage in the offending bishop's constituency or that disseminate knowledge and encourage dialogue in support of the global opposition to the Vatican's position.

The recognition and press coverage associated with being a named recipient is also part of the Good Shepherds' communication strategy. The award aims to recognise and spread the word about the efforts of groups and individuals who are working to stem the tide of AIDS, and expose the disinformation being distributed by the Church itself. The campaign is part of the advocacy work of the CFFC in its drive to have the Vatican change the prohibition against condoms and to cease their support for various publications that have questioned the science, safety and effectiveness of condoms. The 2004 awards were issued in conjunction with the 17th World AIDS on December 1 2004 as part of the ongoing Condoms4Life campaign.
Development Issues
HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Rights, Family Planning.
Key Points
Examples from 2004: Good Shepherds
  • The Commission for Health of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) received an award for undertaking the development of a first policy on HIV/AIDS prevention.
  • Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium spoke on Dutch public television and presented an articulate position on AIDS prevention that accepts the church's stance on abstinence but recognises that if sexual relations are going to occur, condoms should be used.
  • Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg, South Africa, who continued his leadership on this issue in an address to Boston College, where he said that, "the church ministers in the real world, the church should give people [all] the options, one of which is to use a condom, not as a contraceptive, but to prevent transmission of a death-dealing virus."
  • CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) for continuing its work to provide a comprehensive and compassionate prevention strategy through its services.
Examples from 2004: Lost Sheep
  • Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council on the Family who has misrepresented scientific research and circulated misleading information to promote his views on the ethics of condom use.
  • The Croatian Catholic bishops for opposing a safe-sex programme in the public school system because of the usage of condoms as part of the prevention strategy.
  • Bishop Valter Zupan of the Croatian bishops who has also circulated false information such as claims that the HIV virus can pass through "pores" in condoms and that their use actually "increases the risk of HIV infection."
  • Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, the Archbishop of Kampala, for supporting the choice of a Catholic Ugandan woman who chose to sleep unprotected with her infected husband rather than using condoms.
The recipients of the monetary awards for the Lost Sheep in 2004 were grants in the names of Bishop Zupan and Cardinal Wamala to educational programmes in Croatia and Uganda that incorporate condoms into HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. Grants in the name of the Vatican and Cardinal Trujillo were given to the Frontiers Prevention Programme (FPP) of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Partners

Catholics for Free Choice (CFFC).

Sources

Press Release, "Condoms4Life Issues Good Shepherd Awards to Catholic Bishops from Four Countries on World AIDS Day" (November 30 2004).