Popular Publishing for Environmental and Health Education : Evaluation of "Action Magazine"

"Action Magazine" is a non-governmental donor-funded project based in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The project produces a magazine for schools targeted at the top primary level (but distributed more widely in primary grades and secondary forms) using a "popular publishing" format to present health and environmental science material in a manner which is attractive and accessible to children.

As well as copies being distributed to every school in Zimbabwe, since 1988, the distribution has been broadened initially to Botswana and Zambia and more recently to Lesotho and Swaziland, together with a pilot project in Namibia.

This book reports on an evaluation of the project, which examined the use of "Action Magazine" in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

Issues included children's visual literacy and appreciation of the health education messages, as well as the wider impact of health and environmental science information on schools, children and the wider community.

The potential of the medium for supporting the most remote and disadvantaged rural communities is reported and discussed.