My Neighborhood's Smoke - Guatemala | Clean Cooking Alliance

My Neighborhood’s Smoke – Guatemala

In Guatemala, the Alliance created a radio “novela,” or soap opera, called “Los Humos de mi Barrio” (“My Neighborhood’s Smoke”). The characters in “My Neighborhood’s Smoke” discussed the negative effects of cooking on a stove without a chimney and the advantages of using an improved cookstove. In the show, a character named Lupita fell in love with Justo, her boss’s son, while she was promoting improved stoves to her family and friends. The radio soap opera was an entertaining and engaging love story that culminated in Lupita and Justo’s wedding.

At the end of the campaign, soap opera listeners were invited to attend live finales, which included Lupita and Justo’s wedding. During these events, local stove manufacturers facilitated cookstove demonstrations and sold their improved stoves. The campaign also utilized social media and stakeholder interviews on local cable and TV stations to spread clean cooking messaging in addition to disseminating flyers and posters. In total, an estimated 250,000 people were reached with cookstove messaging via the various channels, demonstrating how multi-channel approaches can be effectively used to reach large numbers of people with behavior change communication.

Campaign Facts

4,500 radio advertisements and an 8-episode radio soap opera aired on 4 local radio stations, reaching nearly 100,000 listeners.
3,200 posters and 30,000 flyers with information on clean cookstoves were distributed.
Clean cookstove manufacturers demonstrated and sold clean cookstoves at three market events to a total audience of approximately 1,500 people.
Interviews with clean cookstove experts and event attendees aired on two local cable stations, with a total of 540 TV spots aired and at least 50,000 viewers reached.
1,875 people followed the campaign’s Facebook page and paid advertisements generated over 50,000 views.
An estimated 250,000 people were reached with cookstove messaging through the various communications channels.