A Discussion with Maria das Graças Silva, Coordinator of the Communications Department, Pastoral da Criança, Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
With: Maria das Graças Silva Berkley Center Profile
June 12, 2014
Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice
Project, student Adam Barton interviewed Maria das Graças Silva, the coordinator
of the Communications Department at Pastoral da Criança’s national headquarters
in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. In this interview, Silva reflects on her journey at Pastoral
da Criança and the communications initiatives of the organization.
Tell me about the communications
system here at Pastoral.
We at the national headquarters define weekly themes that relate to children, pregnant women, and families, which are then discussed through our four major communications avenues: our weekly radio talk show, our website, our Facebook, and our monthly journal.
These information sources are all available to our leaders in their communities, but the Pastoral Journal is the most important portion of our communications efforts in terms of leader continuing education and community news dissemination.
Because the journal should arrive to all of our leaders on a monthly basis no matter their location or resources, it is the fastest and most direct way that we have to systematically communicate with our volunteers. Thus, we make use of this structure in order to both promote continuous training and motivate our volunteers, focusing on passing along new information while also calling attention to improvements in individual communities.
The other major effort in our communication system is the weekly radio show. Thanks to the support of nearly two thousand radio stations around the nation that broadcast our program for free, we are able to reach the vast majority of the families that we follow. Perhaps the most meaningful part of this broadcast system, though, is its ability to reach those families that we do not serve, thus multiplying our impact immensely.
As an example, this week our theme is antibiotics. Through all of our communication instruments, then, we are able to reach out to those outside of the Pastoral network to spread the message of our campaign about the importance of detecting and treating infections, as well as the right of a Brazilian citizen to receive the first dose of antibiotic before leaving the clinic.
What would you define as the goal of the communications department here at Pastoral?
We have two main goals. The first is to make sure that the leaders are informed and prepared with as much new information as possible to bring to the families that they follow. Our second goal is to make families outside of our network see Pastoral as a source of valid and reliable information.
How does the communications department collaborate with other Pastoral sectors in the creation of weekly themes and educational materials?
Pastoral health professionals involve themselves directly in the production of themes for our media outlets. First, a theme is defined by us here in communications, and the person who is responsible for the weekly media drafts a proposal outlining an issue in maternal and early childhood health that could be covered within that theme. That proposal is then presented to the health professionals in the national headquarters, who proceed to discuss issues of relevance, recommend interviewees, and give feedback before anything officially enters our media streams.
Can you talk to me about Pastoral’s external communications processes?
Thinking about external communications, we have two forms. The first is based on the public demand for general Pastoral media. For a long time, one could not think of Pastoral without thinking of Dr. Zilda [Arns Neumann]—her figure was directly connected to Pastoral’s identity given how much she appeared in public media outlets. Today, Sister Vera [Lucia Altoé] and Dr. Nelson [Arns Neumann] have taken on much of this media presence in order to elaborate the Pastoral mission, to increase awareness of our work, and to promote the formation of external partnerships.
Apart from this large demand from broadcasters who want to publicize our work, we also have outlets to engage Brazilians about general health information. This has taken the form of nutritionists or dentists on our team acting as the reference point in the media to teach the general public about breastfeeding, vaccinations, our training systems, or whatever it may be.
We at the national headquarters define weekly themes that relate to children, pregnant women, and families, which are then discussed through our four major communications avenues: our weekly radio talk show, our website, our Facebook, and our monthly journal.
These information sources are all available to our leaders in their communities, but the Pastoral Journal is the most important portion of our communications efforts in terms of leader continuing education and community news dissemination.
Because the journal should arrive to all of our leaders on a monthly basis no matter their location or resources, it is the fastest and most direct way that we have to systematically communicate with our volunteers. Thus, we make use of this structure in order to both promote continuous training and motivate our volunteers, focusing on passing along new information while also calling attention to improvements in individual communities.
The other major effort in our communication system is the weekly radio show. Thanks to the support of nearly two thousand radio stations around the nation that broadcast our program for free, we are able to reach the vast majority of the families that we follow. Perhaps the most meaningful part of this broadcast system, though, is its ability to reach those families that we do not serve, thus multiplying our impact immensely.
As an example, this week our theme is antibiotics. Through all of our communication instruments, then, we are able to reach out to those outside of the Pastoral network to spread the message of our campaign about the importance of detecting and treating infections, as well as the right of a Brazilian citizen to receive the first dose of antibiotic before leaving the clinic.
What would you define as the goal of the communications department here at Pastoral?
We have two main goals. The first is to make sure that the leaders are informed and prepared with as much new information as possible to bring to the families that they follow. Our second goal is to make families outside of our network see Pastoral as a source of valid and reliable information.
How does the communications department collaborate with other Pastoral sectors in the creation of weekly themes and educational materials?
Pastoral health professionals involve themselves directly in the production of themes for our media outlets. First, a theme is defined by us here in communications, and the person who is responsible for the weekly media drafts a proposal outlining an issue in maternal and early childhood health that could be covered within that theme. That proposal is then presented to the health professionals in the national headquarters, who proceed to discuss issues of relevance, recommend interviewees, and give feedback before anything officially enters our media streams.
Can you talk to me about Pastoral’s external communications processes?
Thinking about external communications, we have two forms. The first is based on the public demand for general Pastoral media. For a long time, one could not think of Pastoral without thinking of Dr. Zilda [Arns Neumann]—her figure was directly connected to Pastoral’s identity given how much she appeared in public media outlets. Today, Sister Vera [Lucia Altoé] and Dr. Nelson [Arns Neumann] have taken on much of this media presence in order to elaborate the Pastoral mission, to increase awareness of our work, and to promote the formation of external partnerships.
Apart from this large demand from broadcasters who want to publicize our work, we also have outlets to engage Brazilians about general health information. This has taken the form of nutritionists or dentists on our team acting as the reference point in the media to teach the general public about breastfeeding, vaccinations, our training systems, or whatever it may be.
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