By Lindsey Wahlstrom | Communications Manager
2012 has been a busy start to the year for the Media Impact team!
Callaloo is now on the air in 10 countries, with as many as 40 episodes (depending on the station) having aired thus far. Negotiations are continuing to get Callaloo on-air in Trinidad, Belize, Barbados, Bahamas and St. Maarten by the end of the summer. The letters of agreement with the partner stations in these additional locations will ensure that Callaloo is on-air 3 to 5 times per week, and will guarantee each station hosts radio call-in shows to promote dialogue about the issues in each episode of the drama.
The My Island - My Community Team met in New York City from April 2nd to 6th. Our Caribbean team members joined the New York City-based team for a week to revise the program's twelve month work plan to achieve the program goals and commitments. This meeting was highly successful and provided an opportunity to refine our approaches to ensuring a high quality and impactful program as well as strengthen the team overall. The meeting allowed for the team to review preliminary results from the baseline survey and draft a plan to roll out of radio call-in shows and campaigns.
The preliminary results from the Knowledge Attitude and Behavior (KAB) Baseline Survey, conducted in St. Lucia, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, indicate that listenership to Callaloo is 9% overall, a promising start since the radio show had only been on-air for a few months. The My Island team created a revised marketing plan to continue to increase listenership over the coming months based on the successes from our first marketing and promotions campaign.
The team is presently focused on development of scriptwriter guides to focus storylines and messages based on the KAB survey results. For example, 89% of respondents have heard of climate change and of these, nearly all believe the climate is changing now; however, only 17% have done something to protect themselves from impacts of climate change. Therefore the program will thread storylines highlighting the impacts of climate change on individuals and actions that they can do to protect themselves – overall demonstrating how easy it is to take action. In relation to HIV/AIDS, the results indicate that only about one-third of sexually-active respondents report having talked about condoms or family-planning with their partner. Therefore storylines in the drama will role-model such conversations.
Your support enables us to strengthen our efforts to deliver an impactful program that will help the more than 6 million residents of the Caribbean prepare for, and adapt to, the changes brought by climate change. Thank you for partnering with us in this important work!
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