87-93 publicitydownload.ei-ie.org/docs/irisdocuments/ei campaigns/efaids...start by identifying your...

86 Leadership in the HIV and AIDS Response:A Toolkit for Teachers’ Unions to Promote Health and Improve Education

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© SUTEP-Ariquipa, EI / Peru 2008

87 Part 5: Publicity

Education International / Education Development Center / World Health Organization

Publicity

Publicity is an important tool for raising awareness and influencing individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, and behav-iour. It is also valuable for informing and gaining the support of union members, education sector workers, the local community, parents, and government offi-cials. Publicity can be used to make the work of unions more visible and to raise their profile in the communi-ty. Publicity could include the sharing of research and information on HIV and AIDS training.

In addition to using their usual communication chan-nels, unions can publicise their achievements through television, radio, and newspapers. At the commu-nity level, unions can engage their target audiences through drama or community discussions. It is valu-able to obtain input from people living with and af-fected by HIV and AIDS because they have a personal understanding of the issues.

This section covers two types of publicity: 1) engaging the community through the

interactive method of drama and 2) conducting publicity campaigns.

Engaging the Community Through Drama

Community members, including out-of-school youth, can be reached with a variety of interactive methods such as training activities, drama, and public debates. This section will focus on developing and performing a drama for community members.

Learning by watching and discussing a drama can be more effective than other methods because the audi-ence observes a variety of interactions to relate to.

Creating a Drama Related to HIV and AIDS

& Creating the DramaStart by identifying your target audience, the issues you want to address, and what you hope to achieve through the drama. Next, consider the messages

your target audience could benefit from learning, such as:• Standinguptostigmaanddiscrimination• Theimportanceofteachingyoungpeople

about HIV and AIDS• Therightofeachpersontouniversalaccessto

prevention, treatment, care, and support services• Theimportanceofgettingvoluntary

counselling and testing (VCT) and knowing one’s HIV status

The dramas should last between 10 and 15 minutes each. See the end of this section for sample descriptions of scenes that could be developed from the first two messages above.

Develop a story to convey the message using characters that your audience can relate to and that provide positive role models. The characters could deal with moral dilemmas and difficult choices and end up making appropriate decisions about HIV and AIDS. The audience will be more likely to relate to the characters if they are believable and the dialogue is authentic and colloquial.

In developing the story for the drama, make sure to address the following:• Whatishappening?• Whoisdoingwhat?• Howarethecharactersinteractingwithone

another?• Whenandwhereisthestorytakingplace?

Get input on the story from some members of the target population and others who are working on the issue in the local community. To do so, you could conduct individual interviews or a written survey. Getting this input serves three key purposes: 1) to determine what the audience knows about the issues, 2) to make the drama culturally appropriate and not offensive, and 3) to make the drama entertaining and educational.

Find people to perform the roles and, if possible, rehearse the drama at least once at the site where it will be performed.

& Scheduling and Promoting the EventThe drama could be performed, for example, in a school, market place, or town square at a time

Leadership in the HIV and AIDS Response:A Toolkit for Teachers’ Unions to Promote Health and Improve Education88


when people from the community would be most likely to attend. Promote the event (drama and discussion) through means that you know to be effective in this community (e.g., posters and flyers; radio, TV, and newspaper announcements; and word of mouth). Try to attract a wide range of community members, including women, men, young people, and older people.

& Engaging People in Discussion of the DramaAfter the drama is performed, initiate a discussion to ensure the audience understands the message, to answer any questions from the audience, to encourage discussion about the issues among audience members, and to motivate audience members to take action. Start by asking if anyone in the audience has any questions.

You could pose the following types of questions to your audience to stimulate the discussion:• Whatproblemsandconflictsdidyouobserve?• Whatwerethereasonsbehindtheconflicts?• Howdoyoufeelaboutthesereasonsandhow

the conflicts were resolved?• Howmightyouhavedealtwiththesituationsin

the drama?

Consider asking the main characters to explain briefly how they felt while acting out their roles, what they were trying to accomplish in the drama, and why they behaved as they did. Or you can have audience members ask the characters how they felt, why they behaved as they did, and whether they would do the same thing again.

Encourage everyone to contribute to the discussion. Leave enough time for people to think of a response. If a few people are dominating you could say, “Thanks for your ideas, and now let’s give others a chance to speak.” If any participants make discriminatory remarks, address their comments and explain that it would be helpful to explore other ways of looking at the situation since stigmatising causes fear and pain and is not useful in changing behaviour.

End the event with clear advice on how audience members can take action on the issue in the community.

Sample Scenarios for a Drama Piece

Note that all of the characters in both scenes can be played by males or females. The names are just examples.

& Standing Up Against Stigma and DiscriminationThe Characters: Grace is known in the town to be HIV positive. Ben is a good friend of Grace’s. Joseph and Yasmina are among the main people in the town who are against including people living with HIV and AIDS in any aspect of the community.

The Scene: Grace and Ben are shopping at the market in the centre of town. Joseph and Yasmina spot them and make derogatory remarks to Grace, including that Grace should not get near food that other people will eat because she could spread HIV through the food. Ben stands up for Grace and explains to Joseph and Yasmina that HIV is not spread through food. Almost not believing Ben and continuing to give Grace dirty looks, in a disrespectful way Joseph and Yasmina ask how HIV is spread. Ben explains briefly and clearly how HIV is spread and that there is no reason to fear people who are HIV positive or treat them negatively. They should be welcomed to join in all the daily activities of life like everyone else. Joseph and Yasmina ask more challenging questions but eventually seem to accept what Ben is saying.

& The Importance of Teaching Young People About HIV and AIDS

The Characters: Two parents of school-aged children; one parent is an influential figure in the community. Two teachers in the local schools who have been trying to get education on HIV and AIDS into their schools.

The Scene: The parents have come to meet with the teachers to try to convince them that HIV and AIDS education should not be taught in school, and that anything about sex should be taught at home by parents. They say that their religion and culture forbid such education and that their children will not have sex until they are married. The parents and teachers hold a lively discussion, but the teachers make a more convincing argument, and the parents come to accept that HIV and AIDS education is a valuable topic to be


taught in the schools. (Refer to the Advocacy section for specific arguments to use.)

For more information on using drama and community mobilisation to provide information about health issues and stimulate discussion and action, see Feel! Think! Act!: A guide to interactive drama for sexual and reproductive health with young people at http://www.aidsalliance.org/graphics/secretariat/publications/drama%20guide.pdf. This guide can be adapted for drama with adults too and for other health topics.

Key Elements of Publicity Campaigns

Publicity messages must be communicated clearly and regularly to have a significant impact. An effective publicity campaign generally conveys a single message through various media. Listed below are types of content that can be included in publicity related to HIV and AIDS and the union’s research, training, policy development, and advocacy work; key slogans and messages; publicity that is useful in schools and in the community; and events at which publicity on these topics can be disseminated effectively.

Types of Content• HowtopreventHIV• WheretogetVCT,treatment,care,and

support services• Fightingstigmaanddiscrimination• Findingsfromtheunion’sresearch• Incorporatingeducationonsexualand

reproductive health and HIV and AIDS in the school curriculum

• Unionpolicydevelopmentandadvocacyefforts

• TrainingavailableandotherHIV-andAIDS-related events

Suggestions for Key Slogans/Messages• “Qualityeducationisthebestsocialvaccine

against HIV and AIDS”.• “EveryoneneedseducationaboutHIVand

AIDS”.• “JointhecampaigntogetHIVandAIDS

education in schools”.• “Spreadtheword,notthevirus”.

• “TeachersandstudentsforHIVandAIDSeducation in schools”.

• “EveryonelivingwithHIVandAIDSdeservestreatment, care, and support”.

Types of PublicityFor the school environment

• Postersorflyersthroughouttheschoolandunion offices

• Handoutsorpamphletsinteachers’mailboxes and available throughout the school and union offices

• Articlesintheunionnewspaperornewsletter• Schoolcirculars• Calendars• Banners

For the community outside the school• Radioandtelevisionspotsandcall-in

programmes• Newspaperarticlesandopenletters• Billboardmessages• Noticeboardsinreligiousandculturalcentres• Dramaperformancesforthecommunitywith

discussion of the issues• Pins,pens,pencils,keychains,mugs,T-shirts,

caps

Types of Events at Which to Have Publicity• WorldAIDSDay• WorldTeachers’Day• GlobalActionWeekinApril• Workers’MemorialDaycandlelightvigilson

28 April• HumanRightsDay• Nationalindependenceday• Unioncongressesandannualgeneral

meetings• UnionHIVandAIDSevents• Carnivals• Culturalevents• Sportingevents• After-schoolclubs• Seminars,debates,conferences,workshops,

plays, theatre



Note that distributing publicity materials can be an on-going process as well as focused on specific events. For example, you may have a radio spot that is aired twice a week for six months, and pamphlets that are always available in staff rooms.

Action Plan Outline for Publicity

Use the table below to prepare an action plan for your union’s publicity activities. For each event you want to conduct, fill in the name and date of the event, the audience it will reach, the type(s) of publicity to be used, the key issues to be addressed, the facilitators, and the key slogans/messages you want to convey. Below is an example to help develop your ideas.

Event and Date Audience Types of

PublicityKey Issues to Be Addressed Facilitators Key Slogans/

Messages

World AIDS Day General public, union members, teachers, parents, government

Posters, pamphlets, pins, speakers, radio spots, drama performances

Getting education on sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS education in the school curriculum

Union leadership, teachers, school administrators

“Quality education is the best social vaccine against HIV and AIDS”.

“Join the campaign to get HIV and AIDS education in schools”.


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Evaluation Tools for Publicity Activities

The evaluation tools for publicity are designed to monitor your publicity activities. By documenting the types of messages, types of publicity, when and for how long each was delivered, and how many people were reached by each message, you may identify additional messages that need to be disseminated or messages that did not reach the expected audience and need to be disseminated in a different way. This documentation of publicity activities can then be used to conduct an outcome evaluation of all your publicity efforts. The outcomes to be assessed will be based on the messages disseminated and the people who received the messages.

Your process measures for the publicity working area include documenting all the activities you have conducted for publicity. This includes:

1. Message content (e.g., how to prevent HIV; where to get HIV voluntary testing and counselling [VCT], treatment, care, and support services; how to fight stigma and discrimination)

2. Key slogans/messages (e.g., “Quality education is the best social vaccine against HIV and AIDS”.)

3. Type of publicity (e.g., drama performance, broadcasting messages on local radio and television, publicising through fliers)

4. Type of event, if relevant (e.g., World AIDS Day, World Teachers’ Day, union HIV and AIDS events, carnivals, sporting events)

5. When the message was delivered (e.g., time of day, day of week, time of year)

6. Number of people who received your message (e.g., the number of people present at the drama, the number of teachers who were mailed the fliers, the number of people who received your promotional mug). If you conduct a mass publicity effort like radio/television/newspaper/billboard messages, you might want to survey a sample of your

community, by telephone, print, e-mail, or door-to-door, to ask whether they have seen or heard your message

7. Amount of time the message was communicated (e.g., the number of minutes your message was broadcast each day, the number of hours your drama was performed, the number of days your billboard was up)

To conduct an outcome evaluation for your publicity effort, you need to identify the specific piece of information you want people to know (e.g., condoms are effective in protecting yourself from HIV), skill you want them to learn (e.g., the best way to negotiate safer sex is to have a conversation about it), attitude you want to influence (e.g., people living with HIV deserve to be treated with as much respect as anyone else), or behaviour you want to change (e.g., go for HIV testing). Then measure that specific outcome before delivering your message and again after your message has had a chance to have an impact (e.g., of the people sampled, how many list condoms as an effective way to protect themselves from HIV?). You may want to enlist the help of an evaluator to create a controlled study or establish a control group so that you can verify that the change in your outcome measure was due to your publicity effort.


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