Trust in Hard Places: Communicating with Stigmatized & Disrupted Communities

Armed conflict fractures the systems and relationships that hold communities together. In Sudan, those fractures have deepened into what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, marked by displacement, famine, widespread violence, and trauma. 
In this upheaval, people who may never have crossed paths before are now living side by side, sometimes forging new relationships, sometimes struggling with mistrust, scarcity, and lingering wounds. Yet within such disruption lies an unusual opportunity: when life has already been upended, people may become more open to questioning old norms and engaging in conversations that would have been unthinkable in times of stability. The breaking apart of what once felt fixed can make space for seeing and relating differently. 
 
The WISH2 project is drawing on this openness to advance gender-equitable social and behavior change (SBC) in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Through trauma-aware approaches, recognizing that healing and communication are intertwined, the project supports men and women sharing reproductive decisions, displaced and host communities co-creating solutions, faith and health leaders bridging spirituality and SRHR, and providers and patients meeting one another with compassion. 
 
In this work, communication becomes a pathway and a practice for rebuilding social norms that support dignity, equity, and care. Grounded in community insight and intentional partnership, WISH2 demonstrates how SBC can help people connect in the midst of war, not to return to what was, but to begin imagining new forms of connection, gender equity, and social cohesion that can hold

We once thought that building digital communities only required consistent information delivery. We were wrong. What people needed was empathy and a space to share their stories. 


The Keluarga Berimun project explores this insight through a digital campaign to increase childhood immunization in Depok and Bekasi. Using a multichannel decision-support system, which includes WhatsApp support groups, we aim to help hesitant parents gain confidence in vaccinating their children. But sustaining engagement in digital spaces, especially for behavior change, requires more than just good content.


Our approach centers on transforming the WhatsApp groups into active, supportive communities. At first, members were passive. To bring them to life, we introduced narrative strategies:
Reframing facilitators as companions in parents' journeys, not mere message deliverers.Seeding trust through familiar local figures, Community Health Workers, whose voices and experiences reflect the audience's own.Creating narrative peaks through monthly Q&A sessions with pediatricians, where parents could share concerns and feel heard.

This narrative-driven approach turned information exchange into genuine connection and community participation followed naturally. Over 10 months (November 2024-September 2025), the community recorded 31,402 total interactions, including 15,555 messages initiated by members, and 1,631 unique active participants. Member-led discussions increased steadily, reflecting stronger trust and a growing sense of belonging.


This experience shows that sustainable digital engagement thrives on empathy-driven facilitation and authentic relationships. By combining structured guidance with relatable human presence, Keluarga Berimun turned WhatsApp groups from passive health channels into vibrant, self-sustaining communities of care, proving that when empathy leads, engagement follows.

Annually, 17+ million women give birth without water, putting their lives and those of their newborns at risk. Malawi is among the countries facing this challenge: thousands of babies are born in healthcare facilities with no running water. Our scientific project seeks to address this by disinfecting harvested rainwater using solar UV technology. However, most Malawians don't routinely collect rainwater, meaning this transformative, freely available resource is wasted. For rainwater to be usable after rainfall, it must first be stored, requiring a cultural shift in a society where this is uncommon.
To spark this shift, we developed Madzi ("water" in Chichewa), a music-driven social and behavioural change communication (SBCC) initiative promoting rainwater harvesting and sustainable water use in Malawi. The project bridges science and pop culture through collaboration with Zeze Kingston, the "Major of Malawi," an influential amapiano artist with wide national and diaspora followings. His song Madzi and its groundbreaking animated video (first of its kind in Malawi) introduce audiences to rainwater as a freely accessible, life-enhancing resource, connecting it to safe water practices and sustainability.
By integrating music, storytelling, and animation across social media, radio, clubs, and community networks, the initiative leverages oral traditions and the communicative energy of young people - key drivers of social transformation. Through transmedia storytelling, Madzi connects complex science with everyday life, fostering peer-led dialogue and community ownership. Ultimately, it positions rainwater harvesting as part of cultural identity, collective wellbeing, and water security, demonstrating popular culture's power to shift norms and inspire change.

La participación comunitaria es un factor decisivo para el éxito de los proyectos de desarrollo, especialmente en territorios complejos como el VRAEM (Perú), donde el cultivo de hoja de coca se mantiene pese a los múltiples esfuerzos de diversas instituciones. Esta presentación comparte la experiencia de diseño e implementación de una estrategia de comunicación y diálogo orientada a promover la participación voluntaria de agricultores y agricultoras en el proyecto VRAEM Sostenible, logrando así que reduzcan sus cultivos de hojas de coca por nuevas alternativas, rentables económicamente para ellos y sus familias y sostenibles con su territorio.
La propuesta integra enfoques de cambio de comportamiento, análisis de actores y pedagogía territorial para comprender motivaciones, barreras y percepciones locales. A partir de ello, se construyeron mensajes clave claros, en su idioma (quechua) y se crearon espacios de escucha y co-construcción junto a líderes comunitarios, fortaleciendo la confianza y la apropiación del proyecto.
La experiencia demuestra que una comunicación diseñada desde el territorio -y no solo para visibilidad- respetando a las organizaciones locales, a sus propias formas de tomar decisiones y de comunicar, puede activar la agencia comunitaria, mejorar la toma de decisiones informada y consolidar relaciones de colaboración.