Population Media Center, Inc.

Who am I? A professional with experience in the field.

I have been an admirer of Population Media Center for 17 years. PMC is one of the most successful nonprofits focused on a human-rights approach to family planning, reproductive health and justice.

The staff thoroughly research each country where the soap operas are produced. They carefully craft the soap operas to achieve social change with stories that are compelling. The result is that knowledge is acquired and actions are taken that save lives and prevent unwanted pregnancies. The measured changes in behavior are cost-efficient and can be replicated.

The organization I work for, Population Communication, focuses activities in many of the same countries as PMC. My experience in each of these countries is that PMC provides a more effective approach is getting results than any other competing NGOs.

One of the PMC activities I most admire are the population/family planning stories Joe Bish culls from the news and reposts daily.

Recently, the very impressive PMC book, "Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot," has provided a focal point for creating visual awareness of the links between population, resources and the environment. Bill Ryerson's introduction articulates an overview of the opportunities to address the exponential population growth, the current unsustainable development, the depletion of resources. As Bill states in the book, "This is a wake-up call. The photographs are emotionally jarring and the reality of this moment calls for us to think, to care and to act."

I have the great pleasure to acknowledge the outstanding service the Population Media Center provides for all of the countries where they focus their activities.

I have been a supporter of PMC since its founding 17 years ago. The single most effective way to save the planet
is to reduce the number of people on it. And PMC, through the Sabido methodology that helps people make enlightened reproduction choices, is one of the most effective organizations at accomplishing this goal.

I follow the work of PMC closely because it represents a powerful force for good. This troubled world needs all the help it can get to fix it's many problem issues; clean water, clean air; the rapid disappearance of all those things that make life sustainable on this earth. These issues are driven in large part by overpopulation. As I read of the work of PMC there is a great emphasis on population size and the empowerment of women. There is a very finite limit to how many humans can inhabit the earth in some state of sustainable existence. The empowerment of women, while taking nothing from men, can bring some balance to decision making and help enormously, since the healthy and safe raising of children is of profound importance to most women. Limiting family size offers the best way to give each child a strong start. In today's world however, women lack the physical power to force their views on others. In most cases diplomacy, tact and kindness work better and those are the areas in which females must work.

A further PMC focus is to encourage the recognition of the need to reduce the number of humans to a level which can be supported by the natural resources of the earth. Seems obvious but there is little evidence that the exploding population on our planet is being addressed effectively by governments around the world. PMC is doing all it can to draw attention to this issue by using entertainment programming that attracts an huge audience while at the same time modeling the issues of women's empowerment and desired family size. I give PMC 5 stars for stepping into an area that is critical in so many ways and yet so seldom recognized.

PMC is my favorite non-profit. Here is why:

Each day, roughly 25,000 girls are forced into marriages around the world. Tragically, even more are raped.

PMC has a proven track record of changing social values and behaviors around the treatment of young girls. This is really hard to do.

No other organization that I know of does this on such a large scale, so cost effectively.

If you are concerned about human trafficking, sex slavery, the abuse of girls, unwanted children, or teen pregnancy, this is an organization to support.

Since the late 1960s, I have regarded overpopulation as the Mother of All Social Problems: causing some and aggravating others. Overbreeding has seemed like an intractable problem, so deeply enmeshed in religious, cultural, and economic factors. However, the Population Media Center has proven itself exceptional in this regard. Working with carefully thought-out and tested psychological and communications theories, PMC has proven it's possible to change deeply established patterns. Evaluation research has shown how effective PMC's use of the Sabido methodology has been in fostering smaller families, improved status for women and girls, safe sex, and other related issues--and an economic analysis shows it is remarkably inexpensive per changed behavior. Other organizations and individuals are addressing these problems, but none is more impactful than the Population Media Center.

I've followed PMC closely for more than a decade and I don't think there is any other organization that has such impact through such an innovative approach. PMC develops awareness of the issues around family planning among many social groups that traditionally don't have access to them.
Congratulations, PMC!
Cynthia McClintock

PMC addresses my major humanitarian long-range concerns in a decidedly practical manner. That is, it works. And it uses strategies to measure and improve success. I've found no other organization that gives me a greater sense of philanthropic bang for the buck.

Results, results and results! One PMC project in northern Nigeria (not an easy place to work!) generated new family planning users at only 88 cents per new user! Most cost-effective behavior change model in the world.

PMC did phenomenal work in Burundi reaching 6 of 8M people through a radio serial with sub text of family planning, treatment for STI, prenatal care etc... They were also very protective of their fellows during a time of political turmoil in 2015.

PMC has been doing amazing work to leverage popular media in the service of public health, working in farflung places where the need is the greatest. i have been specifically exposed to their work in burundi, where we work with another nonprofit there. the collaboration between international and in-country staff is strong and multi-faceted. the tailoring of messages to different regions brings global-level marketing sophistication to the needs of the people and their public health. the burundi outfit is locally such a star that it becomes a magnet that attracts the interest of other international NGOs to work in burundi. PMC has developed these superb local collaborations with a strong, media-based population approach that is based on global level knowledge in public health, persuasive speech, marketing, all in service of positive change. GREAT value for your donation dollar!

Population Media Center is my favorite population NGO. Using local play writers and actors, PMS uses education soaps with good role models and bad role models to modify behavior. They teach male responsibility, the benefits of girls education, choosing ones family size instead of leaving it to fate, communications between couples, conserving resources, and safe sex to prevent HIV/AIDS and other STDs. The serial programs are very popular and the results that are measured show that these programs are successful at reducing or increasing the targeted behavior - to great benefit for the members of the audience.