Projects

Creating a Movie on Health Issues Affecting Girls and Young Women in Zimbabwe

Kaizen produced, promoted, and distributed a feature-length movie focused on complex health issues challenging adolescent girls and young women in Zimbabwe.

The USAID/Zimbabwe My Health, My Life (MHML) Activity began October 1, 2018, as a two-year intervention to circumvent message fatigue around complex health issues challenging adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Zimbabwe. In partnership with USAID’s local implementing partners in Zimbabwe, the DKP Consortium—Impact (Ed) International, Kaizen, and Picture Impact—produced a media initiative with entertaining education tools to drive social and health behavior change among AGYW. The consortium designed, produced, and distributed an “edu-tainment” movie, interactive card game, and audience engagement strategy.

			Highlights		

							Shaina premieres on ZBC earned 546,340 prime-time viewers
The movie appeared on more than 23 Zimbabwean media platforms
Interactive card game “Is It?” reinforces social and health themes
						

The feature-length movie Shaina anchored the communication strategy. Its storyline and characters filled an entertainment void while increasing educational messaging reach and resonance among primary and secondary audiences, AGYW, and adolescent boys and young men. The interactive card game “Is It?” reinforces the social and health themes addressed in the movie through active storytelling that sparks discussions among players. The MHML social engagement used communication channels to engage audiences, leverage participation, and monitor the success of outreach.

Shaina premiered on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. (ZBC) TV (ZTV), Zimbabwe’s only free-to-air network, to ensure the broadest reach across the country. The premiere was met with much enthusiasm from audiences on social media and the press. ZBC promoted the film starting on August 4, 2020, across its website and and clips to increase viewership. Due to high audience demand, DKP quickly provided two additional opportunities to livestream Shaina, and the movie also premiered on YouTube and Facebook. Finally, the DKP Consortium created 1,000 DVDs with accompanying facilitation guides that include language options for Shona, Ndebele, Swahili, and French dubbing as well as English, Shona, Ndebele, Swahili, and French subtitles.