Below is an article on PMC’s work. It appeared in the winter 2008 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

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Population Media Center 2008 Smart Soaps (PDF, 172 KB)

From the website of the Population Reference Bureau:

When were you born? How many brothers and sisters did you have? Where did your ancestors live? How long will you live?

The answers to such questions are the core of demography. While many people think of demography as a kind of dry social accounting—or as a key variable for marketing campaigns—demographer Joe McFalls claims that people develop a fascination with demography when they learn how it relates to their own lives and backgrounds. “Indeed,” he says, “if people are not interested in demographic phenomena, they are not interested in themselves.”

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Lively Introduction (PDF, 557 KB)

Ode Magazine
Issue 32

By Kim Ridley

Steamy tales of sex, betrayal and suspense can carry important social messages
Young and poor, Fikirte is in many ways Ethiopia’s Everywoman. Her life takes a turn for the worse when she meets Damtew, who is so obsessed with revenge against Fikirte’s innocent grandfather that he kills him and then begins to prey on her. He swindles Fikirte and seduces her half-sister, giving her HIV. He spreads vicious rumors to turn Fikirte’s family against her and to crush her dreams of finishing school. Still not satisfied, Damtew tries to murder Fikirte—twice.
Does Fikirte’s life sound like a soap opera? It is. The saga of Fikirte, Damtew, and the other captivating characters of Yeken Kignit (“Looking Over One’s Daily Life”) kept millions of Ethiopians glued to their radios for two and a half years. It also persuaded some of them to change their lives.
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Published in 2005, this 74-page guide is designed to be used by journalists and media personnel to plan and execute the production and broadcast of Sabido-style entertainment-education serial dramas for HIV/AIDS prevention, especially among women and girls. This is part of UNFPA’s strategy to reinforce the capacities of journalists at the country level to prepare them to be informed agents of gender- and culturally-sensitive HIV prevention programs.
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