Mother and Child Health
The Health Communication Component (HCC) was one of the five components of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Maternal and Child Health Program. It was a six years program for reducing the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in ten focused districts (Mirpur Khas, Umerkot, Matiari, Sanghar, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Ghotki, Larkano, and NaushehroFeroz) of Sindh.
Primed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs (JHCCP), other consortium organizations included Communications Program Pakistan (CCPP), Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN), and Mercy Corps.
The project objectives included:
- Implement a social and behavior change communication (SBCC) package at the community and household level
- Support an enabling environment at community and health facility level
- Advocate for improved investment in health communication
- Build capacity to improve SBCC interventions
Scope of Work:
The HCC component envisioned a Pakistan where individuals, families and communities advocate for their own health, practice positive health behaviors including timely use of Reproductive, Neonatal, Maternal and Child Health (RMNCH) services and engage with a responsive health care system.
The brand narrative of HCC was “Bright Stars Working Together for a Brighter Future” with the Urdu parallel of “Hum Roshan to Kal Roshan”. This narrative was based on the International best practice and established theory of Positive Deviance. The narrative aimed to create an emotional connect with its target audience through a powerful song that can resonate with the audience and inspire them to adopt healthier behavior for improving mother and child health in Pakistan.
Resultantly, the consortium was able to take the renowned singer, actor and model, Mr. Ali Zafar and the equally famous singer hailing from Sindh, Miss Sanam Marvi to do a powerful duet melody reflecting the cultural instruments of both Sindhi speaking and Urdu speaking natives of Sindh.
The song was launched in two stages, firstly as an Audi, followed by a Video that was based on a powerful storytelling approach to address the three delays of safe pregnancy by literal characterization of positive deviants from within the community. Both the renowned singers were also featured in the music video in addition to other leading actors from the media industry of Pakistan.
The video song was aired on multiple entertainments, news, and regional channels of Pakistan on both TV and Radio and also earned a lot of free airtime from music channels owing to its established entertainment value.
Key Activity:
- Creating a brand narrative and emotive brand personality for HCC
- Scripting of the poetic lyrics of the song based on the technical content, messaging, and audience needs
- Recording of songs in three phases, for approval by all stakeholders
- Audio Launch of Song in communities
- Video development of song featuring Ali Zafar and Sanam Marvi
- Media placement of the song in leading channels of Pakistan
Output:
- One audio and video song
- Song-led emotive campaign on TV and Radio across Pakistan