|
||
|
|
Entertainment Education Programs
Ukraine: Night Saxophone and Life Story
Ukraine's first family planning communication program has broken barriers against public and private discussion about modern contraception. With technical assistance from JHU/PCS, funding from USAID, and committed support from local professionals, Ukrainians designed and implemented the country's first formal family planning communication program. Working with JHU/PCS, a private Ukrainian research company conducted the first qualitative research on family planning. Ukrainian media specialists and health professionals developed the first locally produced family planning client materials--brochures for women and adolescents and two entertaining and educational videos, encouraging sexual responsibility and promoting the benefits of contraception. Evidence from qualitative research suggests these materials have changed attitudes, prompted information seeking about contraception, and enhanced family communication about sexuality.
The JHU/PCS-supported program and materials brought family planning issues into the public arena for the first time. Local partners arranged for 30 separate television broadcasts of the videos on 4 different channels, for a total of almost 10 hours of free air time. In Odessa, group discussions and referrals for family planning clinics followed the broadcast of the videos. Attendance at the clinics increased after the videos were shown on television. "After having seen the film, Night Saxophone, the majority of my classmates and friends have changed their convictions." "I learned everything that was of interest for me about contraception, however these are only general questions. I have still to talk with the doctor. Could I talk with you, if possible?" "I love my Mom very much, and we could talk about anything; but this - no way! I'm extremely grateful to you for lending me the video cassettes, so I could watch the video at home together with Mom. I wanted to know her reaction. After having seen this film, the forbidden area in our relations disappeared." JHU/PCS produced and distributed a total of 250 videos and 60,000 brochures for the program. Since this initial production and distribution, the Ministry of Health and USAID/West NIS have requested an additional 600 videos, 80,000 brochures (funded by AVSC), 1,350 issues of Population Reports, and 3,350 laminated cue cards. Community educational activities are extremely cost-effective and relatively easy to carry out on the oblast level. Given high quality materials and technical assistance, local counterparts have willingly worked very hard to distribute materials to clinics and health professionals throughout the oblasts, to train other professionals to conduct educational programs with women and adolescents, and to develop innovative and creative channels for reaching audiences. Working on the community level is an effective approach in Ukraine and should be adopted in any forthcoming programs. |
|
|
Materials produced included two 20-minute videos, Night
Saxophone and Life Story, two users’ guides
to accompany the videos, and two all-method brochures, one
designed for adolescents and the other for adult married and
unmarried women. The videos combined educational messages
about contraception and sexual responsibility with entertaining
dramas to capture and hold the interest of the audience. All
of the materials were produced in Ukraine.
In
addition, according to focus group discussions in Lviv, the
videos changed attitudes about sexual responsibility, increased
information seeking about contraception and promoted discussion
within families. The following comments are about the video,
Night Saxophone: 
© 2005 The Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.