Community Theater and Radio Drama

KEY ELEMENTS:

To expand reach, the drama is designed to be used in multiple ways:

Community Theater Guide for three community performances (FP, MNCH, WASH)
Radio Listening Guide to support community listening groups
15 audio recordings in English and Juba Arabic for broadcasting and off-air community discussion

The Red Boat

The Red Boat, a 15-episode radio drama, is an entertainment-education program that provides individuals with family planning (FP), maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) benefits and information and offers an opportunity to link them to quality health and counseling services.

The radio drama, along with this discussion guide, is part of a package of social and behavior change (SBC) tools developed by Breakthrough ACTION South Sudan to create a more equitable and just South Sudan by providing accurate information, increasing dialogue and transparency, and addressing gender and power dynamics within relationships (household, community and facility levels).

Social and Behavior Change Objectives

Provide accurate health information on family planning, maternal, newborn and child health, and WASH related behaviors.
Facilitate self/collective efficacy of individuals and communities.
Redefine roles and norms around decision-making and participation on key health behaviors.
Strengthen referral and social networks and increase trust in providers by modeling healthy relationships.
Model community reflection and dialogue, identifying harmful gender norms and inequalities
Demonstrate equitable communication and decision-making around health.
Model collaborative health planning between and among households and providers.

How to Use

The Red Boat is the centerpiece of a project connecting with the audience through a set of transitional characters that move through a journey of change. The drama is set within the Yama Samaga household and while each episode builds upon the previous telling a complete story, the episodes can also be used independently in listening groups to address certain topics. The drama is paired with a community theater guide to further expand reach. The Red Boat was designed to be used in three different ways.

Community Theater

As a tool for community mobilization and to increase reach, The Red Boat was adapted for community theater. There are three sets of performances covering FP, MNCH and WASH. Programs can use individual performances to support community programming during mobilization activities or to increase in-depth engagement and discussion with community members.

Community Listening Groups

The drama is broken up into 15 episodes. Each episode has a beginning and end. Community listening groups can listen to all 15 episodes to best connect with the characters and their stories or listen to relevant episodes depending on what your project focuses on. For example, if you are working on a WASH program, you may choose to only listen to episodes 11-15.

Radio Broadcast

Programs may re-broadcast the 15 episodes. Broadcast can be paired with live talk shows or call-in sessions with experts. When broadcasting, all 15 episodes should be used in order to best tell the integrated story.