Church In Action wins award for COVID-19 support efforts

The Church In Action (CIA) website provided accurate and engaging multimedia content in written, video and audio format with helpful tools to take care of yourself and others during the coronavirus pandemic.

In recognition of this, the Association of Christian Media (ACM) announced that the Church in Action campaign had won an ACM award for its response to the pandemic. The ACM acknowledged the campaign’s efforts to produce and distribute content that was. helpful to churches, communities and individuals by providing practical and emotional help in the face of the pandemic. Heartlines developed and managed the campaign on behalf of the South African Council of Churches, with support from the Solidarity Fund.

As information around the coronavirus changed, so did the content provided by CIA.

The audio-visual content such as the Meet Sam campaign was also regularly updated, and encouraged behaviour change, giving practical ways in which to care for your loved ones. As COVID-19 regulations loosened, South Africans had more physical contact with one another; which meant it was increasingly important for everyone to take responsibility for their personal actions.

The site was responsive to the needs of South Africans by giving timely, accurate information using story and the real-life experiences of ordinary people to make the content engaging and demonstrate empathy.

Most of the content was available in South Africa’s 11 official languages and was easy to share with others by mobile and on social media.