Media Advocacy: Blood Recruitment Case Study (Kenya) KNBTS and HWWK ADRP Presentation: May 2011 Fridah Mcharo

Overview Background Location Current Situation Recruitment in Kenya Population of Kenya in relation to blood donation Media Advocacy and Blood Donation What is Media Advocacy? Media campaigns on blood donation in Kenya Media campaigns during holiday months Impact of media campaigns on Mobile Donor Sessions during the Holiday Months 2010 Conclusions and Recommendations

Population 38,610,097

Kenya known for athletics

Regional Blood Banks in Kenya

Current Situation NBTS estimates Kenya’s annual need for blood to be 200, ,000 units. Collection is about 130,000 units. There is a deficit of about 70, ,000 units annually. However WHO recommends units of blood per 1000 population which would put Kenya’s need to a minimum of 380,000 units annually.

Population As mentioned earlier Kenyan population was at 38, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Potential Blood donors Population years Secondary School: 1,796,467 Adult:18,888,533 Actual Blood Donors in 2009 Secondary School: 88,590 Adult:35,429

Comparison between Youths and Adult Donors

HWWK and Blood donation HOPE worldwide Kenya (HWWK) is a faith- based - Non Governmental Organization, mandated by Kenya National Blood Transfusion Services (KNBTS) to recruit blood donors from the adult population within the Central Business Districts across the country, and from Faith Based Organizations and Communities.

Media Advocacy and Blood Donation For purposes of this presentation Media Advocacy is defined as “the strategic use of mass media as a resource to advance a social or public policy initiative” (Jernigan and Wright, 1996.)

Types of Media Advocacy strategies Electronic Media Television: Documentaries, Advertisements, TV talk shows Radio:Advertisements, Radio Shows Internet: Social networks including facebook, twitter Print Media Newspapers Magazines

Highlights of Media Advocacy in Kenya. Partnering with corporates to create documentaries. Bloodlink Foundation and Safaricom documentary that won the organizational ADRP award TV Talk shows. Radio Advert. Print Adverts

Radio Adverts

Female Youths

Male Youths

Coastal Population

HWWK and Media Advocacy HWWK together with Internews, KNBTS, CDC and WHO sensitized journalists in Nairobi on blood donation and transfusion needs in Kenya in The journalists in turn advised the blood donor program on the importance of coming up with success stories that are newsworthy.

FBO leaders sensitization HWWK trains FBO leaders and they in turn educate their people on blood donation. Faith Based radio stations made announcements of Blood Drives that were due to occur in their FBOs. This include Hope FM, Radio Iqra and Waumini Radio

Training of Imams in Mombasa

Media Advocacy in Holiday months August 2010 HWWK at Capital FM Radio

December

Fixed Donation site August 7 th Memorial Park

No. of units collected in 2010

Output in holiday months 2010

Conclusion WHO recognizes media advocacy as a prime arena for contesting public policies.

Other Findings Aggressive impactful media advocacy can change behavior of a community. It can influence government policies on health issues. It requires both affirmative and aggressive advocacy. Advocacy campaigns sometimes resemble political campaigns. This requires budgets. Unfortunately, most of the blood safety work in Kenya is funded from external sources.

Recommendations Lobby the Kenya government to increase blood safety funding in its fiscal planning Partnership with private entities to promote blood donation. A win-win situation is created for the firm and blood donor program. Partner with Media houses as part of their CSR to promote blood donor agenda. Special blood donor days can be used as a platform for media advocacy.

Recommendations Cont’d Involve journalists to promote blood donation agenda in both electronic and print media Use of social networks including face book, twitter and others to promote blood donation among the youth

MEDIA IS A CRUCIAL RECRUITMENT TOOL. LET’S STRIVE TO USE IT.

FINALLY, Acknowledge CDC WHO INTERNEWS PSI KNBTS HWWK