Let’s Take Care of Our Mother Earth

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) September 9, 2010 – New York, NY – Salud Sin Limites Peru, the Municipality of Secclla, PCI-Media Impact and dozens of Peruvian school children have joined forces to talk trash to the community.

 Using the stories from Pachamamanchikta Waqaychasun (Let’s Take Care of Our Mother Earth), the first Quechua radio drama created and produced entirely in Secclla, a small rural town in one of the poorest regions of Peru, the coalition aims to improve solid waste management in the town and surrounding areas.

 In Secclla, 66% of the population has unreliable access to potable water, 71% are without drainage or latrine system and 63% of the population younger than five suffer from some level of malnutrition, often caused by contamination from solid and medical waste.

 The new radio drama, along with a radio magazine show and My Community Action Campaign, is raising awareness about the importance of protecting and caring for the environment and mobilizing children, adolescents and adults throughout the community who want to improve solid waste management in their community.

The program also promotes  a newly implemented system of solid waste collection and established a mini-landfill to dispose of medical waste, which will ultimately reduce the incidence of parasitic infections and other diseases caused by poor trash disposal.

 Since its start, a team of teenagers have learned to produce and host the radio magazine show.  Three local high schools hosted workshops about waste segregation and use of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle).  "For us it is a thrill; I am happy to be able to participate," said Ruth, 15, one of the young students responsible for producing and hosting the radio shows.

 “Let’s Take Care of Our Mother Earth” is part of PCI-Media Impact’s My Community, a series of message-oriented, locally developed pro-social communications programs. With 25 years of experience in the field, PCI-Media Impact has long been at the vanguard of Education-Entertainment.  

My Community represents its response to a pressing but often overlooked problem in international development: how to engage low-income communities in open discussions about crucial though sometimes controversial issues. Each My Community program covers community-specific issues, such as democratic principles, sexual health and rights, and the mismanagement of solid waste.  Every program incorporates a radio drama, developed at every stage by members of the communities themselves.

 To learn more about PCI-Media Impact go to www.pci-mediaimpact.org.

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