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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VILAJ Global - Global Village

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In the town of Leogane, Haiti, in 2011, the foundations VOCES and Proyecto Solidario por la Infancia (Solidarity Project for Children) implemented this ongoing programme aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of the child.

 

Following the 2010 earthquake, these organisations worked through the VILAJ programme (which in Creole means village) to create a permanent space for the centre "The Dream of Childhood", working with a focus on rights and development. The work of this children's centre aims to:

  • Ensure access to quality education through schooling and development of a programme of tutoring.
  • Guarantee the right to access to culture and the right to leisure and play of children and adolescents. The objectives of this guarantee are to foster the development of communication, psychosocial, and artistic skills under the focus of an education for life through culture as an instrument of social transformation.
  • Promote participation and raise public awareness on child rights and other aspects of social relevance, through the creation and operation of a public service programme on community radio with a strong focus on child participation.
Communication Strategies

 In an effort to address the vulnerability of children and adolescents and to eradicate poverty, the centre uses theatre workshops, music, singing, and broadcast of a radio programme, Radio Verbal. Using the bases of culture, art, and creativity, the children participate in discussing issues related to children and adolescents, using as a reference the respect for, promotion of, and dissemination of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Festival celebrations include CRC messages. The Friday radio programme is created by children and youth, guided by a master of ceremonies with children's rights as the theme. 

 

In total, the project is working with 100 children in the community Vient Kout of Leogane. It has extended to agricultural projects for feeding the children. Workshops are organised on infant health and disaster risk and prevention. Its summer programme also includes sports, dance, recitation, arts and crafts, space for free play, and psychosocial activities.

Development Issues

Children, Rights, Education.

Key Points

Structural poverty in Haiti, compounded by the severe destruction caused by the earthquake in January 2010, has resulted in the vulnerability of thousands of children across the country. In this situation, the project has implemented its centre and shelter for the protection of children who do not have guaranteed rights due to the complexity of their family situations. Actors, singers, and artists from Spain visit the centre to train and educate local children and promote art as a sustainable way of life and as psycho-emotional recovery.

Partners

VOCES and Proyecto Solidario por la Infancia

Sources

VOCES website and Proyecto Solidario por la Infancia website, April 16 2015.