Zambia – Ministry of Health

Transforming health education through film screenings in Zambia

In many rural areas in Zambia, communities often lack information and understanding around basic health care. One of the many challenges for front-line health workers is providing life-saving health education to this large remote population.

Charles Chipasha, senior health technician with the Ministry of Health,  has found our films to be an invaluable tool. He supervises our community outreach film screenings project in Serenje district, which serves a rural population of more than 80,000 people. Film about topics such as breastfeeding, antenatal care and malaria are shown to communities at remote health posts, using portable projectors and a USB full of films! Often there are more than 100 people attending individuals screenings.

Charles explains, “communities are talking about what they have seen and it is creating a positive impact”. What’s more, there has been an encouraging rise in the number of women coming into facilities to give birth and access antenatal care since the screenings started.

Charles also mentions the popularity of films in local language, “They love that the films are in Bemba and want to watch them over and over again”.  As a result, Charles is recommending that other districts adopt the project so that the benefits of the film screenings can be extended to even more rural communities around Zambia.

With thanks to The Charles Hayward Foundation for supporting this work.