Daour Wade
Whenever we launch a program anywhere in the world, PMC hires all the writers, producers, actors, and management staff directly from within the country where we’re working. Before the scriptwriting begins, we bring in our expert trainers to teach the writers how to incorporate social and health issues into the development of highly entertaining dramas. During one of these workshops in Papua New Guinea, we had a chance to sit down with one of our writers and trainers, Daour Wade. Daour has over 15 years of experience making films for behavior change in Senegal. He is also an award-winning author; in 2002, he was awarded the Kadima Prize for Literature for his book, The Leftovers of the Sons of Adam.
PMC Writer and Trainer Daour Wade (right) with PMC Producer Joseph Solien in Papua New Guinea
PMC: How did you get involved in social change communications?
Daour Wade: I always loved communication. As a boy, I used to retell stories to adults and organize night shadow shows with characters that I had created. Later my studies led me to communication for rural development, and over a period of twenty years I was engaged in agricultural extension work in Senegal. From village meetings with farmers to training sessions to films, posters, brochures and leaflets, slide shows, and radio broadcasts, my team and I tried to introduce communities to new farming techniques. In the course of my work, I designed the first Senegalese comic book, Beykat (“Farmers”), which highlighted good and bad farming practices and the benefits of adopting positive farming practices. It was printed and distributed in villages with reading skills.
What are some of the most powerful stories or experiences that you’ve had since working with PMC?
During the evaluation stage of Cesiri Tono (“All the Rewards of Courage and Hard Work”), we learned about a local radio commentator who’s life was saved by the broadcast of the program. This was during the North and South armed conflict in Ivory Coast in 2004. Rebels came to the radio station planning to burn it down. Hiding under an office desk, [the commentator] heard the group talking about burning down the station, and just as they were about to set the place aflame, one of them made a remark: “This is the station broadcasting Cesiri Tono – that good radio program.” They decided not to burn down the station on that account and left the building, sparing the commentator’s life.
In Papua New Guinea, a participant in our training workshop found out that his own wife was on family planning for ten years without him knowing about it. He told me how he reacted, and even said he refrained himself from hurting her because of everything he learned during PMC’s training and the storylines he was working to help develop. A female colleague at the workshop helped him understand that the method his wife was using doesn’t have any effect on their child’s health, which he had believed before. At the end, he was very thankful and said how lucky he was to have been chosen as a participant in the training session, as it dramatically changed his interaction with his wife.
Why do you think dramas are so powerful in bringing about change?
Drama focuses on people’s daily lives with their joys and sorrows. There are so many people around the world suffering from conditions they can change. In fact, a great many people may change when they are provided with self-confidence built by self-efficacy — they realize they can in fact change the course of their life. Such self-confidence is built up little by little in dramas as the audience witnesses the obstacles characters are confronted with and learn from how they confront those challenges.
Changing one’s behavior is a matter of taming our fears about being judged by others and speaking out and taking action to do what we think is right, even in the face of opposition. By creating an environment which opens up dialogue between couples, community members, and others, dramas are able to stimulate change by triggering discussions on various issues that broaden the audience’s understanding of their own lives and circumstances and helps them make healthy choices. In that sense, drama is one of the most powerful tools for change.
How do you think PMC’s work has impacted the world?
By breaking the ice between community members, married couples, and peer group members to discuss taboo subjects, PMC’s impact is still evolving. There are more things to come, and I would expect a tsunami of behavior change as a result of people being exposed to PMC’s dramas. Sometimes there’s a time span between action and reaction. PMC’s training sessions around the world can build self-efficacy in community members who, gaining confidence and know how, take the opportunity to engage in changing the way they behave. There is much more to it, for the seed of change once thrown in fertile lands needs great care to grow its leaves, spread its roots deep down in the earth, flourish and bloom, to give a good crop. This is also true of the implementation of the Sabido Methodology, which is a tool to be used in conjunction with other interventions in order to effect long term change.
Please describe some of the work that you have done with PMC.
I have worked as both a trainer and a writer for Population Media Center. I worked as a trainer for PMC’s programs in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast; Niger; Nigeria; and Papua New Guinea. I also work as a writer for PMC’s programs in Senegal.
