In Myanmar, it is widely considered that Facebook is ‘the internet’ with the majority of the population relying on the social media platform to get their information.
A key issue our project aims to address is not the availability of services, but access and knowledge of these services. Traditional methods to disseminate information do not work as well in Myanmar so working with Facebook is a creative way to adapt to the local context using easily accessible technology.
We have developed a Facebook page to educate communities and to address common concerns about health risks. This page is also a tool that our community taskforces can use to support their outreach work. They are able to link communities to the page so they continually receive essential information which can help improve health outcomes.
Happy Baby
The page is called Happy Baby and has been a trusted source of information for parents and pregnant women about vaccinations. Currently the messaging is focussing on Covid-19 prevention measures and how to access support if you become unwell, especially for people who are pregnant. The platform will also be used to promote wider positive health messaging moving forward.
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Connecting to thousands of people
The page has a huge following of 17,000 people. This means there is a high reach for the messages being shared. Many posts have a lot of ‘likes’ ‘comments’ and ‘shares’ (called engagements), showing that the information is valuable to the followers. Not only that but the ‘shares’ show that people want to extend the knowledge to their friends and family. All of these engagements are a great way to increase reach of the Happy Baby page and crucially the reach of the information it is sharing.
Our Myanmar partner Koe Koe Tech have been providing the technical requirements to run the page and creating the animations, videos, quizzes, polls and other features for the page. These form the visual identity of the site which, along with more detailed messaging, ensures eye catching and engaging posts that will be interesting and memorable to audiences.
The weekly posts currently focus on key health issues such as keeping healthy during pregnancy, sickness in pregnancy, covid prevention, covid awareness and good nutrition.
Happy Baby in action
We are excited to show you this page. Below we have included details about one of the posts so you can see the messages, the visuals and the engagement it is achieving.
If you would like to look at the page yourself you can here - Happy Baby.
"Covid - 19 disease and pregnant women - things to know"
The visuals below were part of a post to inform people about important 'things to know' about covid-19 in pregnancy.
There is a lot of misinformation about covid which is leading to fear-mongering. Instead Happy Baby encourages people to make considered and informed decisions promoting messages such as those below.
- Pregnant women are not more likely to be infected than normal people.
- It is not true that there are more chances of miscarriage due to Covid-19
- The most important thing is to be healthy, as healthy mothers give birth to healthy children.
Posts contain various graphics to portray the information alongside the full text within the post. We are aiming to reach people who have a low level of literacy, so posting creative visuals and audio content helps to convey the messages to a wider group.
'Covid-19 and pregnant women'
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'Wash hands properly. Avoid crowded places. Always wear masks and face shields while going out'
'Only if a mother is healthy, her baby will grow healthy'
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