FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2004

Egyptian Health Program Generates 8.5 Million Calls from TV Viewers

CAIRO — As part of its national health program in Egypt , the Communication for Healthy Living (CHL) project recently collaborated with a popular television variety show during Ramadan to promote its “Your Health, Your Wealth” campaign and generated 8.5 million calls from viewers.

CHL is part of the Health Communication Partnership (HCP), a global health communication initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Its Sahatek, Sarwetek (Your Health, Your Wealth) campaign is a national multimedia and community-based effort that seeks to empower families to adopt healthy behaviors at every stage of their lives. The campaign slogan taps into a deeply held cultural belief that health is a gift to be cherished and protected.

The variety program, Al Afdal, (The Best), aired every evening at 11 pm during this season's Ramadan. Millions of Egyptians tuned in to watch a regular segment sponsored by CHL where celebrity host Tarek El Allam interacted with newlyweds to present health information. The show's format encouraged viewers to call in for a chance to win prizes and participate in future shows. Over the 30-day period that the show ran, the call tracking system logged 8.5 million calls — and was at maximum capacity on many nights.

Sahatek, Sarwetek was officially launched during a celebration with 150 couples in El Minya in September that was designed to reach newlyweds with specific health messages tied to behaviors that could have a long-lasting impact on the health of their future families.

For the newlywed segment of the Al Afdal show, the crew set up in a different neighborhoods in Cairo, Giza, or Alexandria each evening to throw a party outside the home of a newlywed couple, complete with decorations, a band, wedding cake, and a gift. The host teased the couples and quizzed them on their plans for the health of their future family. He particularly emphasized messages on birth spacing, asking ‘What is the ideal number of years to space your children?” to many of the thirty couples filmed over the course of the series. When one father-in-law boasted that he had eleven children, the audience scolded him good-naturedly. The host closed each newlywed segment by reminding the couple to care for their health, using the campaign slogan, Sahatek, Sarwetek .

HCP is a global communication initiative based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, and Tulane University 's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. In addition to the five core partners, HCP works with leading Southern-based health communication organizations as well as global programming partners from the corporate sector, international media, academic institutions, and faith-based organizations. For more information about HCP, visit www.hcpartnership.org .