| Location: |
Mchinji District (Malawi) |
| Focus: |
Maternal and child health |
| Target(s): |
1) Pregnant women and new mothers, 2) Husbands |
| Active learners: |
3000 |
| Passive learners: |
15,000 (estimate) |
| Collaborative partnership: |
1) women’s community network (12,000 women); 2) health research and development project; 3) community radio; 4) district health authorities |
| Media: |
Radio, distributed CD |
| Learning materials: |
30-minute weekly radio programme broadcast twice and shared on CD |
| Learner support: |
weekly discussions (30 minutes) among 200+ community-based maternal and child health groups |
In Mchinji District, Malawi, community groups, media and health authorities are working together on a learning programme about maternal and child health called Phukusi la Moyo (Bag of Life). The name comes from a local traditional Chewa proverb: Phukusi la moyo umasunga wekha (everyone should jealously protect their own bag of life). This proverb teaches that everyone is responsible for their own lives and health and should have a full bag of skills, knowledge and experiences, which they can use when needed. The hope is that the radio programmes will be a source from which people living in Mchinji can draw to fill their bags of life and safeguard mother and child health.
Phukusi la Moyo is a collaboration between communities in Mchinji, MaiMwana Trust (a community-based maternal and child health non-governmental organisation), Mchinji District Health Office, Mudzi Wathu Community Radio Station, Story Workshop (an educational media production group) and COL.
The foundation of the programme is the MaiMwana network of 200 women’s groups established in 2004 to reduce maternal and child mortality. Towards the end of a five-year cycle, the groups identified mass media as a communication strategy and, when the stars aligned and made a radio programme a reality, they played a key role in designing it. Now they listen each week and discuss the programme content including how to organise based on what they’ve heard and learned.
As can be seen with Phukusi la Moyo, community media can effectively meet the information and communication needs of a particular group of people through specific types of programming, for example pregnant women and new mothers learning about maternal and child health. To do this, these same stakeholders must be involved in making decisions about needs and priorities, about formats and content, and about ongoing evaluation and design.
Phukusi la Moyo was designed in a five-day workshop sponsored by COL and run by Story Workshop in April 2009 that brought together representatives of the women’s network, local health authorities and producers from the local community radio. Together they decided on key messages, a suitable radio format and a plan for 13 episodes. They established a core group, including designated representatives of the women’s network as well as the health authorities, to manage the programme on an ongoing basis.
A follow-up series of workshops, involving nearly 600 women from 200 groups, helped to popularise the strategy and create a system for learner support and feedback. MaiMwana’s face-to-face network reaches thousands of pregnant women, new mothers and their families in over 350 villages, and indirectly reaching nearly a quarter of the district’s population of 380,000.
Phukusi la Moyo partners:
- MaiMwana Trust
- Mudzi Wathu Community Radio
- Mchinji District Hospital & Health Office
- Story Workshop