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, 000-250,000 units.
• Collection is about 130,000 units.
• There is a deficit of about 70,000-120,000 units
annually.
• However WHO recommends 10-20 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 38,610 097 according to
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2009.
Potential Blood donors Population 15-64 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
Population in Millions
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Blood Donors
100,000
90,000
80,000
70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Youths
Adults
Youths
Adults
HWWK and Blood donation
HOPE worldwide Kenya (HWWK) is a faithbased - 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 2007.
• 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 2008.
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 7th Memorial Park
No. of units collected in 2010
Months
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Total
Nairobi Nakuru Eldoret Embu
549
132
268
145
817
88
526
498
615
193
206
836
560
93
299
788
98
284
678
96
293
724
222
509
1,162
888
85
504
497
130
0
0
0
0
489
243
0
166
405
7,867
1,052
3,688
5
103
247
206
0
62
152
82
0
49
110
34
151
53
60
155
Total
1,120
2,059
1,976
968
1,271
1,083
1,563
1,975
1,611
344
779
1,229
2,002
813
556
15,978
8
Msa
Kisumu
26
130
126
16
101
16
Output in holiday months 2010
Media Campaign done:
radio adverts and talk
shows
2500
2000
Media
Campaign
done: radio
adverts only
1500
No Media
Campaign
done:
1000
500
0
Months
April
August
December
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