Learning to Live in Barreiro

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) New York, NY – July 9, 2010 - There’s a strange wind blowing through the town of Dulce Brisas [Sweet Breezes]. 

Tired of seeing their friends’ lives ruined by the consequences of unprotected sex, a group of empowered youth has taken charge, implementing youth-focused sexual health services that they promote through community fairs.
 
While this story is set in a fictional town, it closely mirrors intrepid work currently going on in the actual town of Barreiro, Ecuador, a marginalized community on the outskirts of the country’s largest city, Guayaquil. Colectivo para el Desarrollo de Alternativas Humanas (Collective for the Development of Human Options) and Radio Publica del Ecaudor (Ecuadorian Public Radio), with additional support from Radio Libre Babahoyo and PCI-Media Impact are working to empower youth to provide sexual health services and to promote these services themselves.
 
Most of this coalition’s work centers on raising youth awareness about sexual and reproductive rights. But the coalition is also working to strengthen intergenerational-communication about how youths should exercise these rights.   The coalition’s work is empowering its young participants to become agents of change in their own community.  
 
After months of planning, scriptwriting and training both young actors and radio hosts, the radio talk show Doble Via (Two-way Road), featuring the radio drama “Dulce Brisas… Aprendiendo a Vivir” (Sweet Breezes…Learning to Live) will broadcast its first episode today at 4:00pm throughout southern Ecuador. The program will be rebroadcast nationally by Radio Publica del Ecuador in the near future. The program dramatizes the importance of youth empowerment in advancing social change.
 
“A project of this nature refines the participants’ capacities and makes them more aware of the reality around them,” said Project Coordinator, Lia Burbano Mosquera in a recent e-mail. “It develops skills that, directly and indirectly, point to the empowerment of a specific population.” 
 
“Doble Via” is part of PCI-Media Impact’s My Community, a series of message-oriented, locally developed grassroots media programs throughout Latin America. With 25 years of experience in the field, Media Impact has long been at the vanguard of educational media. My Community represents its latest response to a pressing but often overlooked problem in international development: how to engage low-income communities in open discussions about crucial though sometimes controversial issues.
 
Each My Community program covers community-specific issues, such as democratic principles, sexual health and rights, reproductive health, and the mismanagement of solid waste. And each program is above all a grassroots soap opera, developed at every stage by members of the communities themselves.
Previous programs have impacted communities in direct and measurable ways. La Ruleta (The Roulette), developed and broadcast in Guatemala to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS resulted in a 400% increase in visits to “Tan Ux’il” pharmacies; Tan Ux’il was the leader of the local coalition for that program. And in Somoto, Nicaragua, our Camino al Paraíso (The Road to Paradise) inspired Martiza, a local listener, to recruit 30 other residents to develop an ecotourism enterprise.   The programs continue to generate collective action and raise awareness about what people can do to improve their lives, and the lives of their children.
 
To learn more about PCI-Media Impact go to www.pci-mediaimpact.org.

Save Honduras’ first environmental themed radio program, “Agua de Ángel”

In the wake of the Honduran military coup in June, several radio stations and other media outlets have come under attack, which has resulted in the cancellation of many broadcasts, including Media Impact’s radio soap opera about healthy environmental practices.

Now, the show is off the air and PCI-Media Impact is determined to bring it back using GlobalGiving’s Global Open Challenge, an online fundraising platform where individuals and organizations can make contributions to help innovative development projects of their choice.  Media Impact has until Friday, September 18 to raise $4,000 from at least 50 donors to ensure a spot on the GlobalGiving site and support the commercial rebroadcast of Agua de Ángel.

Time is running out; There are 9 days left in the Global Open Challenge and Media Impact only needs $931 from at least 10 donors.

Please help us reach this goal by making a $10 donation today. Support rural Hondurans’ right to clean, safe drinking water!   www.globalgiving.com/3732

via 3blmedia.com

“Magic Touch,” teaches Ecuadorian youth the importance of equal rights

We at 3BL Media have been working with PCI Media Impact for some time now, assisting in part with marketing their Magic Touch(Toque Magico) youth-oriented serial drama across the layered internet. Actually I would say it’s been more enjoyable for me than tedious work at all. Following the weekly misadventures and morality issues of the “Toque Magico” characters has turned itself into a regular American Serial – a roller-coaster of surprises.

So, I think it’s only fair that I introduce PCI-Media’s radio drama to those who might not be all to familiar with it. I hope, that after listening/reading this week’s episode, you’ll want to start from the very beginning of the Toque Magico series. I mean, it’s only fair..

- Terence

PCI Media Impact, a non-profit organization specializing in the use of Entertainment Education to promote social change, premiers their Ecuadorian serial drama, “Toque Magico (Magic Touch)”, every Wednesday on both YouTube and Facebook.

Magic Touch was first broadcast in 2008 to promote youth awareness of gender equality and assist in the cultural elimination of inequity and prevention of violence against women.

This week on Toque Magico:

Chapter XIV: Little toad, big toad…harasser

Educational topic: Sexual Harassment in the School

Mister Master NN encloses Virgi in a time bubble to sexually abuse her. The inspector confesses to the apprentice witch that he has known for a year that her womb was dimmed. He sees her as an easy target that has nothing to lose in maintaining sexual relations with him. Magdalena returns from eternity to stop him from committing the violation. Finally, Virgi escapes and turns in an anonymous letter relaying the abuses that could have been committed by Mister Master NN and is able to put an end to the corruption.

PCI-Media Impact; GlobalGiving Participating in Open Challenge, an online fundraising drive

PCI-Media Impact is participating in GlobalGiving’s Open Challenge, an online fundraising drive, to save one of their most successful social change communications campaigns, which was recently cancelled as a result of the June 28 military coup in Honduras.

Agua de Ángel is a multi-faceted communications campaign developed by PCI-Media Impact and their Honduran partner, Red de Desarrollo Sostenible (Sustainable Development Network, in English), to encourage rural communities to protect and conserve local water supplies, which are increasingly threatened by deforestation, pesticide use, and mismanagement of solid waste.

The focal point of the campaign is an educational radio soap opera by the same name, Agua de Ángel, which broadcast its first five episodes in May and June on a government radio station.  As a result of the military coup, the program has been taken off the air, and the Sustainable Development Network needs additional funding to broadcast on commercial radio.

To learn more about this fundraising effort or how you can contribute please visit the GlobalGiving Open Challenge page.