Rx for Survival
Inspiring Action
Every day, 30,000 children worldwide under the age of five die from largely preventable causes. That's a statistic public health pioneer
Dr. Jim Yong Kim, co-founder of Partners In Health, is determined to change. In 2005, Kim's work was featured as part of Rx for Survival-A Global Health Challenge, an ambitious multimedia initiative co-produced by the WGBH/Nova Science Unit and Vulcan Productions that included a six-hour TV series, a Web site, media partnerships (Time, NPR), and a national outreach campaign, Rx for Child Survival, that continues into 2006. "Global health is one of the central moral issues of our time," says Kim, director of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Rx for Survival made the challenges of global health real for millions of Americans, and the outreach campaign gives them a way to make a difference." In partnership with CARE, Save the Children, UNICEF, and the Global Health Council, Rx for Child Survival is heightening awareness and support for child survival initiatives. "WGBH is helping level the playing field," Kim says, "on behalf of the world's most vulnerable children."
Cape Coverage
WGBH's Cape and Islands NPR® Stations extended their reach from Woods Hole to Provincetown in 2005 with the addition of a new signal, WZAI 94.3 Brewster. Vivian Cook was in her home when she heard Voices of Katrina, poignant firsthand accounts from Louisiana hurricane evacuees relocating to Bourne; the vignettes inspired her "to take practical action and help those who'd made the long journey from the Gulf to the Cape."
Listening Live
For classical music lover Peter Southwell-Sander of Boston, attending a live performance by Triple Helix in a cozy WGBH radio studio "provides a much more intimate musical experience than one would get in a large concert hall." WGBH Radio hosted 125 such live, in-studio performances this year, and recorded another 140 for later broadcast. When WGBH opens its new studios in Brighton in late 2006, the larger and more accessible space will allow for new opportunities to invite the public in.
Talking Pictures
When retiree Chet Avery took his granddaughter to "see" The Chronicles of Narnia at a Virginia multiplex, it marked a family milestone: Although Avery is blind, he now can enjoy movies with young Kate, "because WGBH's MoPix technology enables me to." For 36 million Americans with hearing or vision loss, WGBH's pioneering captioning and descriptive narration services are a bridge to inclusion.
Literary Lions
Literacy improved this year among at-risk Native American children in nearly a dozen New Mexico tribal centers, with help from WGBH's Between the Lions American Indian Head Start Literacy outreach collaboration. "My kindergarteners are more prepared for early reading, letter recognition, and book-handling skills," reports a Taos Pueblo teacher. "It's made a real difference."
