#6la urban
Going beyond just awareness and attitudes to support good early nutrition.
In partnership with Save the Children and funding from LIFT, Bridge put together a localised nutrition campaign expanding on the previous success of the #6la brand
The campaign targeted pregnant and lactating migrant women aligned with a pilot cash transfer program in Shwe Pyi Thar township. Our aim was to change behaviours of mothers and their “village of supporters” in respect to nutrition and exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months, and build a network of support and troubleshooting help. It became also a story of adaptive management and resilience as the 3 years of the project traversed the pandemic and later political crises.
With
Save the Children
Objective
Improve the nutritional status of young women and their babies by encouraging their supporters and them to take up better nutrition and hygiene behaviours.
Demographic
Mostly-migrant women 16-40 living in peri-urban Yangon, and their families and friends.
Types of work
Research & Evaluation, Strategy, Behaviour Change, Branding, Storytelling, Design, Illustration, Social Media, Service design.
Themes
Health & Nutrition, WASH, Gender Equality, Safe Migration.
Context
Shwe Pyi Thar is a peri-urban township in Yangon, characterised by large migrant communities and casual labourers living in temporary accommodation and working in the industrial zone. Pressures to meet production quotas, work excessive hours and remit money, alongside little access to places to cook, breastfeed or shop (among other factors) have led to undernutrition and malnutrition among young women and babies.
Research
We began with a literature review and arranged 20 semi-structured interviews with pregnant and lactating mothers in Shwe Pyi Shar. We wanted to better understand breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes and practices, identify determinants (barriers and enablers) of exclusive breastfeeding and sources of breastfeeding and nutrition information.
Strategy
We were surprised that knowledge of best practices was high. But this knowledge was not enough to affect behaviours, and moments of doubt were enough to break positive habits like exclusive breastfeeding.
Younger, less educated, lower socio-economic status women were much more influenced by their environment and social norms. Key influencers were grandmothers and midwifes, more than famous faces, NGOs or doctors.
Faced with persistent perceptions around good infant nutrition and challenging practical behaviours throughout the first six months, lactating women and their ‘village’ were not confident in exclusive breastfeeding being nutritionally enough for their babies, especially at moments like illness or changing of milk consistency.
Creative
Our approach was to develop a grandmother / midwife fluent device, that could tie together print, in-person and online interventions. As pandemic restrictions set in and in-person activations became impossible, we adapted this approach to set up IVR check-ins, and the pilot of a helpline and outreach number to tackle these moments of doubt and build a supportive norm.
Our character needed to be embody the values of the brand, and meet target audience requirements.
Two personalities reached the prototype testing phase and were discussed with lead mothers in another round of FGDs.
Aunty Chit Pu was ultimately selected and put to work across campaign materials…
…Campaign films…
…Print materials for offline…
…In recordings of her own experiences…
…Through social media including Facebook and Signal…
…and giving audio advice through Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
Helpline
Our longtime friends and collaborators at Healthy and Happy Families established and oversaw a pilot helpline and conducted outreach, using trained lactation and nutrition experts, and with a referral mechanism. This model piloted an important approach for townships like Shwe Pyi Thar where — despite the proven benefits of higher midwife coverage — just three midwives must do their best to cover a population of over 350,000.
"In my spare time, I use Facebook to read articles I can apply to my motherhood. There is a Facebook page named 6la (six months), and I read the articles with the character 'Ma Chit Pu'. Reading these articles teaches me how to have nutritious meals as a lactating mother, and I apply this knowledge daily."
-Aye Chan, Mother in Shwe Pyi Thar
Results
1 in 5
Unaided recall
3 in 5
Aided recall
1 in 3
Key message recall
2.6m+
People reached
160k+
Engaged users
1,800+
Consultations through the helpline
7,700+
Supporter & Mum Ma Chit Pu print materials taken
Legacy
This is one of a series of projects commissioned with the #6la brand, which we first developed in 2018, and has also been localised to different populations in Myanmar’s major cities, Rakhine, Shan State, and is coming soon to other regions.
