Let's Celebrate more 5th Birthdays in Mozambique

I am excited to share a new publication by Girls Not Brides, a global partnership of over 700 organizations committed to ending child marriage, that features Our Negro alongside other powerful media campaigns from around the world that use Entertainment-Education (i.e. the use of radio, television, soap operas, theatre and comic books to affect positive social change) to address the urgent issue of child marriage.

In Mozambique, 50% of girls are married before age 18, and 15% before age 15 with as many as 55% married before age 15 in the northern provinces. Not only do these marriages interrupt childhoods and violate adolescents’ basic rights to life, health, education, and development, they also contribute to lifelong gender inequity and reduce health and life expectations for children, factors associated with early motherhood. Ouro Negro features characters struggling with making better choices around marriage and motherhood that resonate with audience members—young people and their parents and community leaders—and demonstrate motivations for delaying marriage and parenthood.

The study notes that, “a growing body of research shows that Entertainment- Education has the potential to create change for individuals and communities on a range of development outcomes,” and explores the different way that nine different programs, including Ouro Negro, use drama and song transmitted through TV, radio and digital channels to engage and inspire audiences to around ending child marriage. A key benefit touted in the study is how scalable and cost-effective this approach is in reaching a broad audience of the individuals, communities, policy makers, teachers, and other members of the community responsible for influencing one’s decision on a specific issue.  

If you want to learn more about what goes into making an effective Entertainment-Education program with a specific focus on supporting girls by challenging the acceptance of child marriage in Mozambique, stay tuned to this site for more details on a spring webinar hosted by the Center for Media and Health, the organization that authored the study. I will be participating in this dynamic discussion and look forward to sharing the Ouro Negro story with generous Global Giving donors.

• Girls Not Brides Scoping Study (PDF)
  

Ouro Negro was born in 2013 as the flagship program to promote UNICEF’s Facts for Life program in Mozambique. It is now so popular that 70 radio stations across the country are airing the drama and it has become the most reliable popular source of information on safe maternal and child health practices. Having aired over 100 episodes since it went on the air in 2015, Ouro Negro is now Mozambique’s longest running series.  

The drama is set in the fictional town of Jambolane, a traditional African community confronted with the arrival of a foreign mining company. This clash of two worlds becomes the backdrop where tradition and modernity collide. Characters are woven through four major story arcs, focusing on the health practices of different audiences: both rural and urban families, as well as adolescents.

The mainstream success of the drama flies in the face of the notion that education cannot be both popular and entertaining. One actor described its success, saying “people feel they are represented in the drama ... The community says, this is our story. These stories touch the souls and hearts of people. If emotion grows in people, they’ll open their mind.”

The heart of the program is its ability to stimulate listeners to to adopt long-term healthy behaviors out of inner motivations associated with joy, satisfaction and freedom. Whereas a traditional health campaign, for example, might directly communicate, “sleep under a mosquito net or you will get malaria,” to tap into fears, we take an alternative approach. For Ouro Negro, the story will hone in on an ambitious young soccer player and expand to: “All your hard training is lost if you fall ill from Malaria before your next important game. You can prevent illness by sleeping under a mosquito net.” In an environment where listeners face so many threats to their health and wellbeing, they do not need to be soccer players to relate to the urgency and personalization of this storyline.

 We are grateful to our Global Giving donors for recognizing the power of broadcast media and storytelling to positively change communities and work towards our goal of helping many more Mozambican children reach their 5^th birthdays.