CARE Malawi Debuts Its First Video!
When illuminAid goes out to complete a project, we only get the chance to work with members of the local community for a few days. But what happens after we leave? The impact of video education and ICT4D (information and communication technologies for development) remains positive and impactful far past the end of our workshop. We love hearing back from partners that we have worked with in the past who are still implementing technology to educate and promote positive behavior change.
Recently, we reconnected with the CARE Malawi staff that participated in one of illuminAid’s video education workshops in 2018. They updated us on the work they have been doing since we last worked with them. This specific project was aimed to improve the dissemination of curriculum on infant and child nutrition. illuminAid provided the know-how and the tools in order to produce and edit video, and those trained in the workshop created an informational video and took it out into the community.
At these community screenings, videos were shown using the mobile projector and speakers provided by illuminAid which made it easy to present in almost any setting. The short informational films featured local residents speaking the native tongue. The fact that the whole video was made in the village and starred residents of the community really resonated with the audience during the screenings. It kept them engaged and viewers mentioned that they enjoyed the video and learned something new that they would like to implement into their lives. Video education gave CARE Malawi a way to deliver their message in a simple and effective way that was easy to understand and replicate by their target audiences.
In a report summarizing the video screenings, Noriah Katungwe, a CARE staff member and chief video editor, reported positive findings:
“A Malawian proverb says, ‘what the eyes have seen, the heart does not forget’, meaning that as they learn through videos, the likelihood of forgetting is low compared to verbal learning only. People will usually want to try out what they have seen rather than just what they have heard.”
The video screening was successful in providing information to multiple generations, drawing attention from age groups ranging from under 18 to 80 years old. One goal of the video was to educate the local male population and encourage them to play a larger role in childcare, and feedback from the men who attended was encouraging:
“...video attracted the engagement of men who usually opt to watch fiction videos for entertainment. They would now engage more in nutrition through the videos. As one man said, that sometimes he thought his wife was lying about six food groups but the video had enlightened him.”
We are excited to see video education being used to improve the lives of populations around the globe! Check out the video of a local video screening from Malawi to see the vision of illuminAid in action!
