Using Communication for Social Change to Build Social Capital for Bangladeshis Who Are Ultrapoor

This article describes the BRAC Advocacy and Human Rights Unit's (BRAHU) communication for social change programme in Bangladesh. This programme provides information on issues of relevance to ultrapoor people through an approach that focuses on community decision making and actions.


The programme uses three tools to relay information:

• popular theatre An initial performance "uses drama to influence social change through telling the personal stories of community members who are ultrapoor in an engaging and motivational way." Community members are engaged in the production and as active audience participants in order to maximise the educational benefits and empower the community.
• video performances Two video shows supplement the initial theatre production
• audio performances Two audio shows supplement the initial theatre production

Following the theatre performance, BRAHU further engages the community
through two forms of community meeting:

• 2 scheduled meetings, held first one day and then one month after the play
• optional formation of a permanent jogajog, or communication forum. These ongoing forums grew out of spontaneous community movements aimed at continuing the discussions started in the initial scheduled meetings. The authors found that 60% of performances now result in formation of a jogajog.

The authors point out that the BRAHU programme's community-centred approach is consistent with more recent communication for social change theories, which suggest addressing the community as a whole, rather than focusing on individual decision making. The authors cite Roger and Kincaid's convergence model which states that there "is no passive audience and that the two equal psychological realities, or points of view, undergo a process to find mutual understanding through information sharing and discussion". The BRAHU programme, they point out, engages with the community, from the planning and casting of the play, to the active audience participation during the play, and through to the meetings and jogajogs that follow.