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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Media Leaders Commit Resources to Addressing HIV/AIDS in India

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India has the second highest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, after South Africa. According to the National AIDS Control Organization, there were 5.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in India as of 2003.

In an effort to address this problem, American actor Richard Gere and Indian industrialist/socialite Parmeshwar Godrej launched the Heroes Project, a public education initiative to work with Indian media companies and other societal leaders to develop coordinated public HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns. As part of this project, 25 top executives from leading media companies across India met in January 2005 with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence for a Media Leaders Summit on HIV/AIDS to discuss what they can do to address the growing epidemic in India.

According to this Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) news release, "Coming out of the Summit, which was convened by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, and the Heroes Project in partnership with the Kaiser Family Foundation and Avahan Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, were new commitments by the attending media leaders to use their collective communications expertise and resources to reach Indians - especially youth - with information about how to prevent HIV and to help combat AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. All of the attending executives signed a statement of support pledging to work together to expand public knowledge and understanding about HIV/AIDS." An addendum to the news release lists specific statements of commitment by Dainik Jagran, Hindustan Times, MTV, NDTV, Prasar Bharati, SET India, Star TV, SUN TV, The Hindu, and Zee TV.

Drew Altman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the KFF commented, "Through sustained efforts the media can play an important role in breaking the silence and mobilizing society to confront the epidemic. Today's meeting is a show of leadership itself for other nations about what is possible when the public and private sectors join together."

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for the full article on the KFF website.
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KFF website