[High-pitched shrill music]
[Family Planning Communication]
[Mass Media and Field Work]
[Ancient ruins]
[Narrator:] Once upon atime, family planning
was accomplished bywar, pestilence, famine.
Iran was no exception,but that was long ago.
[Truck engine]
[Indiscriminate chatter]
Today Iran is developing fast.
At the same time, itspopulation is growing,
its growth rate one ofthe highest in the world.
[Children laughing]
But Iran is a landwithout water,
which simply cannot sustain apopulation multiplying at such
a speed.
[Music]
[Traffic sounds]
Here a newrealization that there
can be no successfulnational development
plan without theindividual family plan.
Within its own frameworkfor development,
Iran has set up a specialdepartment and unit
to promote the concept andacceptance of family planning.
[Indiscriminate chatter]
The ancient capitalof Iran is Esfahan,
in the heart of the country, thesetting for a family planning
communication projectwith lessons for everyone.
The province of Esfahanis typical of this country
of more than 50,000villages, where nearly all
of Iran's multiplying populationlives, works, and is born.
[Vehicle approaching]
Stage one, get servicesout to the people.
[Aid workers in a vehicle]
[Vehicle stops, brakes squeak]
Make it possible for familyplanning advice and facilities
to be available in the ruralareas as well as in the cities.
[Footsteps]
Establish healthcenters and clinics
out there in thecountryside, where
advice and instruction on familyplanning method and procedure,
a supply of contraceptives,and clinical assistance
can be made available forthe entire rural population.
Stage two, communication.
[Clinic workerdiscussing services]
[Narrator:] The EsfahanCommunication Project
recorded a more than 60 percentincrease in family planning
acceptance.
[Clinic workerdiscussing services]
[Narrator:] What overcametraditional fear and prejudice?
What got these womenhere in the first place?
Let's ask them.
[Clinic patient]
[Interpreter:] I heardabout it on the radio
[Clinic patient 2]
[Interpreter:] A healthworker called on me.
[Clinic patient 3]
[Interpreter:] A friend told me.
[Clinic patient 4]
[Interpreter:] Saw somethingabout it in the newspaper.
[Clinic patient 5]
[Interpreter:] There wasa talk on the radio.
[Clinic patient 6]
[Interpreter:] Saw aposter in the street.
[Public address systembroadcasting a message]
[Narrator:] Here was asuccessful mass media campaign.
[Public address systembroadcasting a message]
Successful because itwas founded on research
into the attitudes andbeliefs of the community.
[Public address systembroadcasting a message]
Its messages were developedon the basis of this research.
[Street traffic sounds]
[Men looking ata message board]
Its materials pre-testedbefore being finally used.
[Message board pamphlet]
The first threemonths of the campaign
were devoted to anextensive radio campaign.
[Announcer speaking Farsi]
[Narrator:] The familyplanning slogan
that two children are betterand contraceptive methods safe
went out over the aireight or more times a day.
[Announcer speaking Farsi]
[Broadcasts over radio]
[Narrator:] 1,500women who had recently
had babies received anenvelope containing information
on family planning, invitingthem with their friends
to a clinic.
[Printer thrashing]
Thousands of advertisementswere printed and placed
in newspapers.
[Paper rustle]
Short films were madeand shown in cinemas.
Banners and postersdisplayed in the streets.
[Engine rumble and traffic sounds]
Step by step, the momentumof this mass media campaign
was sustained.
[Public address system]
[Sketches related tofamily planning]
[Public address system]
[Field worker indiscriminate chatter]
[Narrator:] Constantinteraction feedback
between communicatorsand field workers.
[Field worker]
[Narrator:] Essential to success,the simultaneous training
of more field workersfrom amongst the people
themselves, likegranny midwives,
ladies who had more pregnanciesin the past than they
now to be desirableor even necessary
for another generation.
[Man arrives on bicycleto a meeting]
[Clicking]
[Village leaderspeaking to the group]
[Narrator:] Villageleaders can be family
planning field workers too.
[Village leaderspeaking to the group]
[Narrator:] Once they acceptnew attitudes and ways of life,
then they in turn caninfluence the entire community.
[Village leaderspeaking to the group]
[Narrator:] Health, agricultural,educational extension workers
in development projects all canand should be family planning
communicators.
[Teacher:] [?]
[Narrator:] In adultliteracy classes,
as you learn to readand write, so too you
can learn the needfor smaller families.
[Teacher:] [?]
[Women listening]
[Teacher:] [?]
[Field worker reviewingrecruitment list]
[Narrator:] In this campaignin Esfahan, a payment of money
is made to everyone who canintroduce a new acceptor.
[Speaker 1:] [?]
[Footsteps]
[Narrator:] No chargeto the acceptor.
A gynecologistsupervises the training
of doctors paid according tothe prescription or service they
provide, contractsnegotiated with doctors
to provide familyplanning services.
But constant reinforcementover a long period
is still and always will benecessary to ensure that once
an acceptor always an acceptor.
Extension personnel,field workers,
must go on knockingat those doors,
keeping in touch, maintainingcontact face-to-face.
[Printer thrashing]
[Announcer speaking Farsi]
[Public address system]
[Printer thrashing]
[Narrator:] Reinforcementand expansion.
[Stamp thudding]
As televisionarrives on the scene
to join with radio as anotherarm of the mass media,
so another channel opens up forfamily planning communication
and feedback.
[Television male host]
[Television female guest]
[Viewers watching a televison]
[Narrator:] Thefield workers make
the program director aware ofthe thinking in the community.
[Television female guest:] [?]
[Viewer:] [?]
[Narrator:] The director inturn informs the broadcasters.
[Television female guest:] [?]
[Vehicle engine roars]
[Music]
[Narrator:] There are manythings to learn from Esfahan.
[Music]
The use of commercial channelsto reach remote villages
with contraceptive supplies.
[Music]
[Clinic worker and patient]
The use of mobileunits to provide
a contraceptive service, whetherit be a uterine insertion
or a vasectomy.
[Music]
[Doctor discussing vasectomy]
[Vehicle rumble]
[Family planning center]
The coordination of healthservices with family planning.
Contracting withqualified doctors.
[Doctor:] [?]
[Music]
[Narrator:] Selecting andtraining field workers
and using local people topromote family planning.
[Music]
[Village leaderspeaking to the group]
[Radio announcer:] [?]
[Narrator:] But the need tointegrate field work and field
workers with yourmass media campaign
is the great lesson of Esfahan.
Two children are better andcontraceptive methods safe.
[Radio announcer:] [?]
[Narrator:] But by itselfthe message isn't enough.
[Radio announcer:] [?]
[High-pitched shrill music]
[Written and directed by: Peter Hopkinson] [Photographed by Lewis McLeod]
[Edited by: John Hackney] [Dubbing mixer: Richard King]
[Sound recording and production management: World Wide Pictures]
[A UNESCO film]
[Produced by: Peter Hopkinson Associates 1974]
[Fade to black]
[BEEPING]