The Communication Initiative
Development action with informed and engaged societies
The Communication Initiative

After nearly 28 years, The Communication Initiative (The CI) Global is entering a new chapter. 

Following a period of transition, the global website has been transferred to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in South Africa, where it will be administered by the Social and Behaviour Change Communication Division. Wits' commitment to social change and justice makes it a trusted steward for The CI's legacy and future. 

On the transfer, co-founder Victoria Martin expressed her pleasure to see this work continue under Wits' leadership, knowing that co-founder Warren Feek (1953–2024) would have felt deep pride in The CI Global's Africa-led direction. 

As Wits, we honour the team and partners who sustained The CI for decades and look forward building from that strong base. This includes co-founders Warren Feek (1953-2024) and Victoria Martin as well as La Iniciativa de Comunicación (CILA), which continues independently at lainiciativadecomunicacion.com with links to The CI Global site. We are also eager to forge new partnerships and entertain new ideas as we consider how best to contribute to social and behaviour change in our rapidly evolving environment.

If you are joining the International Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) Summit in Panama, please join Wits and CILA on Monday, 22 June, to share your thoughts and suggestion for the relaunch of the Communication Initiative. We will be in Pacifica 5 from 12-1:25 for the Refuel, Reflect, and Renew Lunch Series: The Communication Initiative: celebrating a driving force for Communication for Social Change and the way forward. We will reflect on the legacy of Warren Feek and family in creating the Communication Initiative, consider the contributions of CI over the years and then turn our attention towards the future in this dynamic session. 

If you are unable to join us in Panama, we still want to hear from you. Please contribute your thoughts by following this link: https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026 or reaching out to ci_surveys@commint.com. 

You can also follow the QR Code:

 https://redcap.link/CommunicationInitiative2026

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Fanlight Productions: Social Issue Films

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Fanlight Productions is a distributor of film and video works that address cross-cultural social issues including healthcare, mental health, professional ethics, gender and family issues.

Founded by independent filmmakers more than twenty years ago, Fanlight Productions work to create a select collection of cross-cultural educational programmes which are independent in their vision, emotionally and intellectually engaging in their approach, and accurate and up-to-date in their content.

Most of the films represent the personal vision of independent filmmakers; others have been created by broadcast producers and by organisations with similar fields of interest.

Listed below are two examples of films distributed by Fanlight Productions:
  1. Worlds Apart: A Four-Part Series on Cross-Cultural Healthcare
    by Maren Grainger-Monsen, MD, and Julia Haslett
    Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics
    This film series examines the role sociocultural barriers play in patient-provider communication and in the provision of healthcare services for culturally and ethnically diverse patients. The series follows patients and families faced with critical medical decisions, as they navigate their way through the health care system in the United States. Filmed in patients' homes, neighbourhoods and places of worship, as well as hospital wards and community clinics, "Worlds Apart" aims to provide a balanced look at both the patients' cultures and the culture of medicine (full series: 47 minutes, 2003).
  2. Community Voices: Exploring Cross-Cultural Care through Cancer
    by Jennie Greene & Kim Newell
    Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention
    Community Voices uses cancer as a lens to explore the many ways that differences in culture, race and ethnicity affect health and the delivery of healthcare services in the United States. The film explores six theme issues: language, interpretation and communication styles; the meanings of illness; patterns of help seeking; social and historical context; core cultural issues; and building bridges (69 minutes, 2001).

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