Flipping the Script: Bold New Voices in Sexual & Reproductive Health

In Malawi, young people still struggle to access reliable sexual and reproductive health services. Stockouts, long distances, and stigma play a role, but so does a persistent belief that youth should only receive information, not help shape the systems around them.
A recent experience in rural Lilongwe challenged that idea. During a group listening session of a popular youth radio talk show and drama called Zathu Pa Wailesi (Our Program on Radio), participants raised concerns about the nearby Youth Friendly Health Corner at Nyanja health centre that had quietly closed after repeated contraceptive shortages. One Chiyamiko Mbetewa, a young woman and a member of a Youth Advisory Committee, who had recently taken part in leadership, communication, and advocacy training decided not to wait for adults to step in. She gathered her peers, met with health workers to understand what had happened, and then spoke with community leaders to make the case for reopening the facility. Within weeks, services resumed. The clinic was back up and running.
Beyond the reopening itself, this experience shifted perceptions of who holds legitimate influence within community accountability processes. Adults now recognise the value of youth-led engagement, and peers saw a practical example of how communication competencies can translate into systemic change.
For SBCC practitioners, the lesson is clear. When youth gain the skills, confidence, and platforms to participate meaningfully, their influence moves beyond individual behaviour change. They can identify barriers, negotiate solutions, and contribute to stronger and more responsive community health systems.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} C'est la vie! is a pan-African Social and Behavior Change (SBC) initiative that redefines how young people in West Africa access, understand, and act upon information related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Anchored in a multimedia edutainment ecosystem-TV, radio, digital platforms-and strengthened by community mobilization, the program is built to both inform and transform. Through a participatory and experiment-driven research approach (BETA Program), implemented with UCLA, C'est la vie! systematically tests the effectiveness of messengers, content formats, and digital channels. 
Results from early digital experiments show that messenger type matters: peer role models increase knowledge and intentions to use contraception, while influencers expand reach and normalize conversations on sensitive issues. Beyond digital engagement, the program invests in youth-driven innovation: young creators produce online content (82+ episodes, TikToks, Reels), lead debates, and mobilize communities. Behavioral outcomes include increases in contraceptive use, uptake of digital counseling services, and significant shifts in gender norms. 
The program's reach-40+ million viewers, 200M digital views-and its community backbone (Ratanga Clubs, CSO partnerships, community centers) demonstrate the power of combining narrative change with accessible digital environments. C'est la vie! shows that transforming SRHR behaviors requires changing the stories, spaces for dialogue, and relationships that shape daily life. 

Usually, traditional SBCC and health messaging use storytelling where a "good citizen" or expert becomes the role model. In Sweety's Hotline, we flipped the script: a sex worker herself is the message agent- flirty, funny, and impossible to ignore- who then models responsible behaviour by insisting on condom use.
Sweety's Hotline reimagined how SBCC reaches migrant populations by turning convention on its head. Instead of clinical or fear-based messaging and/or preachy instructional messaging, the initiative used playful, seductive, and hyper-local language to talk about safer sex. Messages were delivered through IVRS calls and reinforced via classified ads, restroom stickers, red-light districts, and nightlife hotspots- embedding the intervention in the real worlds of our audiences.
Designed through on-ground insights, every touchpoint mapped actual behaviour patterns, making the experience immediate, relevant, and easy to share. What began as a "phone line" quickly became a social object: callers replayed Sweety's messages, discussed them with peers, and carried the conversation into worksites and living spaces.
Over 147 days, the hotline received more than 200,000 calls, signalling strong engagement and organic virality. This 10-minute story shares how centring a stigmatized voice, embracing humour, and localizing channels can transform a simple IEC tool into a community-owned, disruptive SBCC intervention, and what that means for future programmes trying to talk about taboo topics.

In Garun Malam, a remote town in Kano, Nigeria, a teenage girl whispered, " I faint during my period due to immense pain". Her quiet confession shattered the silence around women's pain and mirrored mine. I sat beside her, and as she spoke, our shared pain overflowed. We cried and held each other; two strangers bound by invisible kinship. That moment redefined what communication meant to me: it was no longer about message delivery, but about being human enough to listen first.
Living with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and dysmenorrhea, I spent over a decade searching for a diagnosis, enduring severe pain that was repeatedly dismissed as "normal," even by educated people around me. That experience revealed how lack of empathy, not lack of information, perpetuates silence and how Social and Behavior Change communication (SBCC) should begin with emotional understanding.
Within the multi-state MH-NOW Project, this realization shaped a new integrated approach in Kano "empathy-based storytelling", as an SBCC methodology to build emotional connection, cultural resonance, and stronger community engagement around menstrual health. This approach is named "kuka ya kare " which means "your pain has come to an end" a message of hope.
Grounded in local realities, the approach uses real, emotion-driven stories from girls, parents, and community influencers to evoke empathy, challenge stigma, & promote reflection.
Between June and September, girls reached through this model rose from 868 to over 15,000 (+1,600%), alongside increases in peer educators (173 to 390; +125%) and girl-led sessions (20 to 993; +4,800%).