News

PCI-Media Impact Hosts My Community Media Training in Ecuador

Media Coalitions from across Latin America compete for seed funding

December 10, 2007 – PCI-Media Impact, a global not-for-profit producer of innovative TV and radio shows featured in over 25 countries announced the successful completion of a five-day media training that took place in Quito, Ecuador. The trainings, part of PCI-Media Impact’s innovative My Community strategy, were coordinated with the help of ALER (Latin American Association of Radio Education), a Latin America-based NGO that produces socially-responsible radio programs. << read more in full press release >>

Nine coalitions with representatives from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela participated in an intense series of media trainings devoted to r adio production and the principles of Entertainment-Education and social marketing. After the training participating coalitions were asked to design and submit their own proposals for a potential radio serial drama that PCI-Media Impact will fund and produce in 2008.

PCI-Media impact played host to the coalitions, arranging a series of workshops and seminars focused on teaching them how to design, produce and evaluate their own radio serial dramas. Beyond the more technical aspects of radio production, including serial drama methodology, character and message development, the participants were taught how to employ qualitative and quantitative tools to measure a serial drama’s success. Instructors also emphasized the need to identify community needs as part of formative research and the importance of identifying local partners – civic-minded organizations, NGOs or clinics – to help with program promotion, generate community support or assist with program outcomes, such as service-delivery and audience involvement.

PCI-Media Impact Announces
Additions to the Board of Directors
Appointees bring wealth of International media, government and private sector expertise

November 29, 2007 – Fred Cohen, the Chairman of PCI-Media Impact, a global not-for-profit producer of innovative TV and radio shows featured in over 25 countries, today announced that Louise Kantrow, Noble Kumawu and James Makawa have joined its Board of Directors. The appointees bring a vast network of international media, government and private sector expertise to PCI-Media Impact as it prepares to launch more than twenty exciting new shows in the coming year. << read more about these new members in full press release >>

“These are exceptional additions to our Board of Directors,” said PCI-Media Impact Board Chair, Fred Cohen. “Given the ambitious strategic plan we’ve put in place in the last year and the complex decisions we face as an international organization, I’m honored that PCI-Media Impact has brought together such a dedicated and talented team of Directors to meet these challenges.”

Program Impact: Radio Program "Knocked Up" empowers Ecuador's youth

August 8, 2007 – PCI-Media Impact, a global not-for-profit producer of TV and radio shows in over 25 countries, announced today its newest radio show currently on-air in Ecuador. Co-produced through PCI-Media Impact’s innovative My Community initiative with its Quito-based partner, Colectivo Pro Derechos Humanos (PRODH), Domingo 7 (Knocked Up) empowers and informs at-risk Ecuadorian youth. << click here to see full press release>>

A young girl’s struggle to resist social pressures – drugs, gangs and unprotected sex – and the journey she takes to reclaim her life lies at the heart of the weekly radio drama. Maria, faced with an unexpected pregnancy, poverty and loneliness, decides to cultivate self-esteem and move forward with her life. She becomes a role model for others her age facing the same challenges, embodying the every-day hardships that young people living in Mana bí, Ecuador face.

The storyline involves characters that closely resemble the hopes and fears of Manabí’s youth. There’s Maria, 15, distracted, doubtful and pretty, but poor. Pepe, 18 and Gloria, 16, both middle class, the former is an orphan while Gloria, impulsive and tyrannical, gets involved with a gang. Finally, nineteen-year old Mauricio, a romantic at heart, works in a car shop and longs for Maria’s love.

Program Impact: Indigenous Communities to Improve
Child Nutrition
Newest program aims to help Guatemala’s indigenous families achieve food security  

July 25, 2007 – PCI-Media Impact, a global not-for-profit producer of TV and radio shows in over 25 countries, announced today its newest radio show currently on-air in Guatemala. A PCI-Media Impact, Radio Ixil, and Save the Children Guatemala co-production, the soap opera “K'ulb alib' Tz' Ixamal” (Around the Chimney) aims to improve food security and confront child malnutrition among indigenous communities of Guatemala’s Ixil region.
<< click here to see full press release>>

Co-produced through PCI-Media Impact’s innovative My Community initiative, the drama portrays real-life situations encountered by a rural, indigenous Ixil family over the course of an agricultural year. It heralds the fictional family’s strategies to improve food production and security in the midst of draught, overcoming child malnutrition and domestic violence along the way. Members of the community help produce and test the show, which is broadcast in Mayan Kiche and Spanish.

Program Impact: Youth Radio Change Lives
Popular Dramas in Central America Teach Youth
about HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health

March 7, 2007 – PCI-Media Impact, a global not-for-profit producer of TV and radio shows in over 25 countries, celebrates the impressive first-year results of two of its youth radio programs: “Que Ondas con tu Vida” (What’s Up with Your Life?) and “La Ruleta: Donde las Emociones se Funden” (The Roulette – Where Emotions Melt) produced and broadcast in Honduras and Guatemala, respectively.

Co-produced through PCI-Media Impact’s innovative “My Community” program, both dramas tackle critical public health issues that are often seen as taboo – issues such as emergency contraception, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, and reproductive health rights. Each mini-drama was written, acted, and produced by local talent, and broadcast within a weekly live show along with music, interviews, and contests.

<< click here to see full press release>>

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