Announcing the Winners of the 10 Lives, 10 Stories, One Message Competition

 

Written by: Kendra Davis, Program Specialist, Breakthrough ACTION, and Meei Child, Communications Officer, Breakthrough ACTION

Stories have the power to change hearts and minds. In June 2021, Breakthrough ACTION launched the 10 Lives, 10 Stories, One Message competition with one goal in mind—gather 10 firsthand accounts that show how social and behavior change (SBC) approaches have been used by real people and organizations to improve family planning and reproductive health outcomes.

Within a month, Breakthrough ACTION received 35 high-quality submissions. A panel of judges comprising experts from FP2030, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, Save the Children, and USAID had the difficult task of identifying 10 winners.

Breakthrough ACTION is pleased to announce the winners:

First place

• The Grandmother Project in Senegal promoted SBC by working through grandmothers’ matriarchal roles in their families and communities. Grandmothers helped address issues such as gender norms, challenges around female genital cutting/mutilation, and reproductive health barriers.
• ZanaAfrica developed popular and influential comics based on the stories and experiences of adults and adolescents in Kenya to make comprehensive sexual education more accessible.
• Pathfinder International led a national reproductive health rights campaign with the government of Pakistan. As part of this effort, imams worked with men in their communities to shift gender norms and promote couples’ dialogue on family planning, reproductive health, and gender-based violence.
• IntraHealth International worked with village health teams in Uganda to implement an array of SBC interventions to encourage the uptake of family planning among women and couples. A highlighted intervention was an interactive game to encourage male engagement in family planning.
• HealthRight International worked with community-based distributors in Kenya to increase access to long-acting reversible contraception in rural communities and among women with disabilities.

Second place

• The Institute of Reproductive Health at Georgetown University
• GOAL
• Family Planning Association of Malawi
• Abt Associates
• Corus International

The first-place winners have the opportunity to work with a producer to create short videos that bring their stories to life. Second-place winners will work with Breakthrough ACTION to develop their stories into technical briefs that help grow the body of knowledge in the field of SBC.

Work with the winners to produce the videos and briefs is already underway. In November 2021, Breakthrough ACTION will host a virtual premiere of the winning stories. Look for an invitation on Breakthrough ACTION’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages!