Month: June 2021

The third film, The Music Catches Me and We Rise Again, is a field-based account of Positive Deviance as it was used in Northern Uganda to address the successful reintegration of formerly abducted child soldiers and vulnerable mothers after over 20 years of civil conflict. Upon escaping or being rescued from abduction, girls who had been victims of the treacherous acts of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) were faced with an unwelcome return into their former communities. In order to survive, many girls resorted to transactional sex. But amongst them there were outliers who did not. They are the Positive Deviants. In this film, girls and their mentors share the everyday practices and behaviors that helped them defeat the odds. 

The first film, Reflections on Positive Deviance by Monique Sternin, offers a first-hand account of the philosophical and practical groundings of the Positive Deviance approach. Monique Sternin, co-pioneer of the PD approach and director of the Positive Deviance Initiative @ Tufts University offers her insights on topics such as underscoring the wisdom of ordinary people, the discovery of already existing solutions, the emphasis on practice, community ownership, the role of the facilitator, and relationship-building. 

Taru was a entertainment-education radio soap opera named after its key female protagonist and aired from February 2002 to February 2003. The weekly broadcast of the radio serial also included promotion of on-the-ground reproductive health clinics in 25,000 villages. Although serial dramas are not new to India’s airwaves, the close partnership with a service provider that serves as a model in health care delivery in the storyline, provided a new framework for behaviors and actions promoted through the drama

This short film details the remarkable story of 17-year old Vandana in Village Kamtaul of India’s Bihar State, who after listening to Taru, an entertainment-education radio soap opera, models her life after the serial’s main protagonist.   Vandana speaks on behalf of young unmarried women in India’s Bihar villages, serving as an activist for gender equality

This short film details the effects of listening to Taru, an entertainment-education radio soap opera, in Village Abirpur of India’s Bihar State, including the starting of a village school for underprivileged children, empowerment of young girls who now wish to delay marriage, finish their education, and work hand-in-hand with their male counterparts to bring about positive changes in their community.