Relief Group Uses Power of Song to Convey Health Messages in Haiti

The rainy season is starting in Port-au-Prince, bringing with it stagnant water and poor sanitation that increase the threat of diarrhea, malaria, and respiratory infections in the crowded camps that have sprung up since the deadly earthquake in January.

Save the Children’s medical teams are monitoring illnesses in the new settlements. The organization has hired workers to dig drainage ditches to improve sanitation, and it is storing medicines and other supplies near the sites to prepare for a possible spike in diseases.

But the aid group has another weapon in its fight against preventable disease—song.

Save the Children has provided a series of songs and public-service announcements in Creole that provide important health messages to local radio stations.

‘Simple Songs’

The songs and advertisements were created in partnership with Haiti’s Ministry of Health before the earthquake, but are more important than ever because of the increased risk of disease during the rainy season. They talk about the importance of exclusive always breastfeeding babies, washing hands vigilantly, and eating small meals several times a day to keep babies and young children healthy.

“These are simple songs,” Kathryn Bolles, director of emergency health and nutrition at Save the Children, said in an interview from Port-au-Prince. “They have simple messages, but they’re absolutely life-saving.”

A Powerful Vehicle

The high cultural value that Haitians place on music makes it a powerful vehicle for health messages, she says.

“You can hear songs everywhere, spontaneously people will be singing on the street,” says Ms. Bolles. “This is a way to get information out very, very quickly, in an understandable way, and something that people can communicate with one another.”

According to Ms. Bolles, some 27 radio stations are now operating in and around the capital city. She says that many people have radios in the camps, and that even families without radio will still be able to hear the songs.

Radio is one of the most important ways to get news out to people who have been displaced by the earthquake, says Mark Frohardt, vice president for health and humanitarian media at Internews Network, a nonprofit group that promotes journalism abroad.

Since January 21, Internews has been working with Haitian reporters to produce a daily 15-minute news broadcast in Creole called Enfomasyon Nou Dwe Konnen, or News You Can Use.

Topics have included the location of medical clinics, when food distributions will take place, and, recently, the best way to tie a tarp so that it won’t sag and fill up with water during the rains.

As soon as a broadcast is ready, it is distributed on compact disc to 25 local radio stations, which air the broadcasts four to six times per day.

“Information saves lives,” says Mr. Frohardt.

Debunking Myths

Save the Children is training local health workers and starting mothers’ groups to talk to people in the new settlements about health issues. Some of the workers are writing songs specifically tied to the recent disaster, to supplement the ones Save the Children recordedprovided before the earthquake.

One new song about breastfeeding, says Ms. Bolles, reminds women that “even in bad times, your milk is good and it’s the most important thing for your baby to have.”

“Many women feel that their milk has been damaged by the earthquake and think that it’s not right to give it to the baby,” says Ms. Bolles. “To target that kind of thinking, it’s important to communicate some specific messages around the earthquake.”