Week 4: Development Media International
Welcome to week 4 of GIVE52! This week's organization is a unique one. Working in global health, we often focus on the supply side, but often times a huge issue is that communities and families are unaware of health care services already available to them. Enter Development Media International.
Individuals and communities in developing nations often lack information vital to their health and well-being. Unlike traditional aid organizations, DMI works on the critical but much-neglected “demand side,” disseminating basic, yet crucial, information.
Media health campaigns reach large numbers of people in the developing world, raising awareness about how to identify and protect against potentially dangerous illnesses, and what to do if they occur.
DMI has run campaigns in over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe and is currently running large-scale programs in Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The focus areas of their educational media for vulnerable communities are:
- Nutrition
- Hygiene and Sanitation
- Malaria Prevention
- HIV/AIDS
- Family Planning
- Child Marriage
DMI works with local broadcasters to create informative and engaging programming, reaching wide communities via large-scale media campaigns of 500 to 8,000 broadcasts. They are currently running a major five-year campaign in Burkina Faso - the largest ever randomized controlled trial measuring media impact on health and mortality.
Hope you are as inspired by the work of this awesome and innovative organization as I am. Here's to novel approaches and health for all.
Have a fabulous Monday!
Thanks for all you do,
Jodi
