CABI and IFDC join forces to get soybean film out to farmers in Northern Ghana
By Duncan Sones – from an article which originally appeared on the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC)Â website Farmers in Northern Ghana are reaping the benefit of village-based film screenings to inform them about agricultural practices. Film screenings are growing in popularity amongst farmers and extension projects, as the technique for sharing information. This is…
Tuning into radio to dispel myths
By Amzath Fassassi – SciDev.Net’s regional coordinator for sub-Saharan Africa French, and the driving force behind Science et DĂ©veloppement. In Africa, many communities are still unaware of the key principles of science, whether they relate to diseases or natural phenomena. Until the beginning of the 1980s, in the slums of my native Benin, I remember that when lightning, hitherto considered…
Health & Wellness: making a drama out of public health
Helping writers provide accurate health information in TV medical dramas delivers entertainment and added benefits of increased health (medical) awareness & wellness to the population. Stephen McGann’s essay (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine) describes the steps taken by the writers, production team and actors of TV medical drama, Call the Midwife, to ensure medical accuracy and authenticity. Though set in the 1950s, he demonstrates that the series has raised health awareness in populations (health promotion): in the UK (diphtheria) and in Bangladesh, by providing advice on how to depict authentic birth scenes and show safe maternal health practices.
No strings attached: public health messages from puppets!
Image:Loren Javier Father Christmas & wife puppets Happy Christmas! One intriguing way of getting health messages across to communities who are illiterate and whose spoken language may not even have words to describe the medical concept, is to entertain them. Travelling theatre groups in Africa sing or act out AIDs prevention…