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Ku Saurara! (Listen Up!) Project, Phase III
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Ku Saurara! (Listen Up!) Project, Phase III, took place between 2005 and 2007 in 4 states (Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi and Katsina) in northern Nigeria, following the project’s second phase. It was implemented by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (CCP), in collaboration with the African Radio Drama Association (ARDA), Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), Rotary International, Pathfinder International, and a consortium of northern adolescent reproductive health service providers, opinion leaders, and Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs). Funding was provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Phase III continued to build on the previous phases, but with renewed emphasis on training health service providers to be even more welcoming to clients – youth and adults alike. The specific health topics mandated to the project were also expanded by the Packard Foundation, with more emphasis on post-abortion care and safe motherhood than in previous phases of the project. In Phase III, too, Ku Saurara! (KS) served as an IEC coordinating body for Packard, organizing a Materials Harmonization Workshop, responding to partner IEC needs, and producing and distributing materials to partner clinics to encourage consistency among grantees.
OBJECTIVES/STRATEGIES
Objectives of Phase III of Ku Saurara! were to:
- Increase health seeking behaviors among youth through the continuation of the Ku Saurara! (Listen Up!) project; and,
- Increase the overall utilization of Packard-sponsored reproductive health (RH) clinics in four selected states in Northern Nigeria through an interpersonal communication and counseling (IPC/C) quality improvement program.
This Phase also addressed the following Packard Nigeria Logic Model Strategies and corresponding outputs:
- Support and expand FP/RH and post-abortion care (PAC);
- Support youth programs and services;
- Activate demand for FP/RH and PAC among adult and youth populations;
- Support advocacy through grantees and high level meetings; and
- Develop institutional capacity.
RESEARCH
A baseline survey for KS Phase III was conducted in December 2006 in selected local government areas (LGAs) in Bauchi, Kano and Katsina States. Both Listener Club members and non-members were included as participants. Main findings from the survey included:
- Many respondents still believed that a girl should be married prior to the statutory age of 18 years.
- Many of the respondents believed that sexual debut should occur prior to marriage. On average, the perceived ideal interval between sexual debut and marriage was 3.9 years for a boy and 1.4 years for a girl.
- Less than one fifth of never-married respondents have reportedly had sex. The data suggested that sexual debut outside of marriage is rare during adolescence but relatively common during young adulthood.
- Whereas the majority of men reportedly knew of a place to obtain condoms, only two-fifths of the women did. Most of the respondents were not confident that they would be able to obtain a condom should they need one.
- Interpersonal communication around the condom was relatively common, especially among unmarried youth: about three-fifths of sexually experienced unmarried respondents reportedly discussed condoms with someone during the last 12 months. In contrast, personal advocacy in favor of condom use was limited: less than one fifth of the respondents reportedly advised someone to use condoms.
The project also carried out an impact evaluation survey and results will be available soon.
ACTIVITIES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Radio Variety Show
Thirty nine more episodes of the weekly 30-minute KSradio variety show were produced and aired across 7 radio stations in 12 states. A major theme of the new episodes was client empowerment, with the goal of imparting skills to help young clients communicate with their providers more effectively. The show focused on three key client communication skills: asking questions, expressing concerns, and requesting clarification. Other themes included safe motherhood, post abortion care, birth spacing, Friendly Clinic promotion and utilization of project materials by clients and providers. A weekly quiz, where listeners answered knowledge questions and expressed their opinions, formed a feedback loop from the project to the audience.
Listeners’ Clubs
There was additional emphasis in this phase on the participation and monitoring of listeners’ clubs via KS Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs). A discussion guide was developed in Hausa for each thematic area with questions for the groups, and a feedback form to complete and send in at the end of each 10 week series, including room for suggestions from the groups on topics, dramatic stories, and any information they felt they needed but may not have received. Upon receipt of the feedback form from listeners’ clubs, KS staff sent them, in response, a series of incentives – pens, stickers, buttons bearing the KS logo – to reward them for participating, and to encourage further active listening and feedback. The discussion guides will be updated in Phase IV and available online at a later date.
 Akwai Mafita!
This entertainment-education drama was launched in May 2005, but since its release was so near to the end of KS Phase II, the KS team used Phase III to continue to promote the video to its potential. In this phase KS III hosted 12 screenings in the large cinema houses of the four participating states (Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, and Kaduna) with attendance averaging 1000 young people at each event. Facilitated “Akwai Mafita” viewings were part of the programming for no less than 22 World AIDS Day events conducted by participating YSOs on December 1, 2006. Moreover, understanding that young women are often not permitted to attend screenings at the large video houses, KS III made particular effort to see that girls’ groups in schools and through YSOs were also able to have female-only viewings. Each viewing was, ideally, followed by a facilitated discussion based on the accompanying discussion guide.
Materials Development
In December of 2005, KS III led a Materials Harmonization Workshop. Through this highly participatory method, KS III invited Packard Grantees to share their priority issues for technical areas of ARH, SM, BS, and PAC, and to work together to identify gaps in materials as well as existing materials that could be updated or adapted for additional use.
The KS III team then decided on a list of priority items to be produced based on the information gathered from and with partners, and, in order to be in compliance with other similarly-minded efforts happening concurrently, using a Message Harmonization Guide developed by the USAID-funded ENHANSE program. All materials were produced in both Hausa and English. The materials were branded with the KS and Packard Foundation logos, and each layout used KS colors to give them a unified look – a linked package of materials.
Needs Assessments for Clinical Care and Effective Collaboration
KS III conducted a broad needs assessment of 62 partner clinics in 23 local government areas. The sites chosen were assessed in terms of their infrastructural needs, i.e. drug supply, available equipment, access to electricity and clean water. KS asked 227 providers at the sites about their training needs, and the providers self-reported on their comfort level with technical topics as well as their desire for more training. These same providers were assessed specifically in terms of Interpersonal Communication and Counseling (IPC/C), the area where the KS III team aimed to build their capacity as needed.
IPC/C Training for Health Service Providers
 Based on the needs assessments, 10 providers were chosen as Master Trainers, and 93 providers were selected from partner clinics to participate in 6 IPC/C trainings. All providers trained showed marked improvement in knowledge based on a pre- and post-training evaluation, and KS received very positive feedback on the training manual (IPC/C Participants’ Manual and IPC/C Trainer’s Guide) developed by the project. The KS III team followed up the training with monitoring trips to support the providers in the skills they learned as they transfer them back to their work environment.
Stakeholder Capacity Building
KS III took on a new advocacy role with stakeholders in this phase. Rather than conduct advocacy events themselves, the KS team stepped into position as facilitators of state advocacy networks. Having had such success under the previous phases, KS conducted advocacy trainings with local NGOs, particularly YSOs, in each state to share some of their techniques and success stories. KS also guided these important players through the development of an action plan – a total of 8 action plans were developed, 2 per state.
MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
CONTACT INFORMATION
In Kano, Nigeria:
Hadiza Babayaro, Senior Program Officer
kusauraraa@yahoo.com
011.234.(0)802.309.1775
In Baltimore:
Katie Frank
Program Assistant II
kfrank@jhuccp.org
410.659.6300
Ku Saurara! (Listen Up!) Main Page
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© 2005 The Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.