Soul city

24 Soul City Sue Armstrong This typical shack scene appears in one of the Soul City series. Poor communities are a privileged audience of the South African pro;ect. Photo WHO/ Soul City Pro;ect As a physician working in community clinics in South Africa, Garth Japhet was concerned by how few pregnant women made use of antenatal ser- vices, and he set out to discover why. A survey revealed that though the time and effort involved had a deter- rent effect on busy women, most were also unaware of the benefits of professional care in pregnancy. This finding, coupled with the fact that much of his time was spent dealing with emergencies that should never have happened, convinced Japhet there was a pressing need to give people the knowledge to safeguard their own health. He began writing a column on health matters for the newspapers but soon realized this was not the most effective way of reaching the people he most wanted to reach - the poorest and often least educated members of society. While watching an exuberant street carnival in Johannesburg, the idea came to him of using a combination of popular media as a vehicle for health mes- sages. Statistics show that while approximately 55% of South Africans read newspapers, 92% of them have access to radio, and 76% to television. Japhet took his thoughts to Aggrey Klaaste, editor of South Africa's widest circulating daily newspaper, The Sowetan, who was already syndicating his health column. Mr Klaaste believed a multimedia approach could be a winner, and he offered to pay the young doctor's salary for three months while he developed the idea and sought funding. "Attempts to use the mass media for health and development are not new", concedes Japhet. "But there is a difference between merely using the mass media and using them effectively." Audience ratings showed that in South Africa educa- tion programmes on television rarely reached 500 OOO viewers, whereas prime time drama regularly attracted audiences of 11 million and more. It was obvious that the most effective way to deliver health messages would be to incorporate them into a drama series. World Health • SOth Year, No. 6, November-December 1997 The electronic media are good at getting across broad messages; print media are better at providing detail. Rural people are better reached by radio, while urban people watch more television. With funding for a pilot pro- gramme from UNICEF, Japhet started work in 1994 on a soap opera for TV called Soul City. By now he had been joined by Dr Shereen Usdin, another young doctor who was attracted by these innovative ideas for health promotion. Set in a community clinic in a poor, overcrowded township with a cast of eminently recognizable characters, Soul City is the centre- piece of the multimedia programme. Its 13 weekly, half-hour episodes are supported by a series of mini-dramas broadcast on radio in nine different languages, and by booklets covering the main health topics from Soul City which are serialized in the mainstream newspapers and then distributed as booklets free with the papers and in clinics. The advantage of this approach is that the various media complement and reinforce one another, explains Japhet. The electronic media are good at getting across broad mes- sages; print media are better at providing detail. Rural people are better reached by radio, while urban people watch more television. Believing that the vehicle is as important as the messages it con- veys, Japhet and Usdin have hired some of South Africa's best creative talent to put the dramas together. World Health • SOth Year, No. 6, November-December 1997 And to ensure that the messages are right, the story-lines are based on meticulous and widely inclusive research that takes up roughly two- thirds of the production time. Having decided on the topics - mother and child health in the first series ; HIV/AIDS, TB and smoking, and living conditions in the second - the Soul City researchers start with a literature and press review. Then they approach experts in the field to brainstorm about the messages to be communicated. And they then talk to the target audience through personal interviews and focus groups to find out what impact the health issues identified have on their lives. The creative team is also involved in workshops with the different interest groups. And on their own initiative, the scriptwriters spend days visiting townships and clinics to observe what goes on before they put pen to paper. Every script is tested again on expert consultants and representa- tives of the target audience. "This process is often neglected by people working in similar fields because it takes so much effort," says Japhet. "But it's absolutely vital. Without it we wouldn't have a product. We' d maybe have a popular TV series, but we wouldn ' t achieve anything with it." Independent evaluation of the first two series showed that the pro- gramme succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. Soul City 2 was the most popular show for children under 15, and among adults it was rated the first or second most popu- lar TV programme for six of the 13 weeks on air; 78% of survey respon- dents from informal settlements had tuned in to the programme, which reached an estimated 51 % of those with no schooling. There is statistical and anecdotal evidence of increased awareness (predictably, of some issues more than others) and even of some be- haviour change. For example, before Soul City 2 began, just over 60% of the target audience surveyed knew of a sexually transmitted disease (STD) other than AIDS. After the programme, 80% of those who had watched Soul City knew of another STD, while the figure remained at just over 60% for those who had not. Moreover, people volunteered the information that they would be careful to put paraffin out of reach of children and not store it in drinks bottles, that they would be more likely to use condoms during sex, and that they would ask friends not to smoke in front of the children, having picked up these messages The Soul City team meets representatives from other African countries who ore interested in the methods and ideas of the pro;ect. Photo WHO/ Soul City Pro;ect 25 from Soul City. The programme's success has helped in attracting finance. Soul City - which today is a non-profit organization employing 12 staff - does not pay for air time or print space. Indeed, television buys the drama series from the organization. The balance of funds comes from the Government, commercial sponsors, and aid donors - of which the European Union is the biggest. Interest in Soul City has come from all over Africa, and Japhet has recently produced a training docu- ment outlining the principles and processes involved in multimedia "edutainment". At home the team has broadened its scope to create life skills materials, based on the stories from Soul City, for use in secondary schools, and similar materials for adult basic education classes. This is a vital element of the programme, says Japhet. "The evidence that popular media can raise awareness of an issue and lead to a certain amount of behaviour change is very exciting. But it 's what happens on the ground that leads to the biggest shifts in attitude. From the beginning we intended to use what became popular in the media to facilitate initiatives at the grass- roots." • Susan Armstrong is a freelance writer and broadcaster specializing in health and science. For further information Soul City con be contacted at the following address: 7 Seventh Avenue, Lower Houghton, PO Box 175, Bergvlie 2012, South Africa (tel +27 11 728 7440, fox. +27 I I 728 7442, e-mail: soulcity@oztec.co.zo).