Evaluating Impact of Humanitarian "Edutainment" in the Great Lakes Area

Radio La Benevolencija is a Dutch NGO that uses entertainment education programming, events, and grassroots activities to encourage people to become active bystanders against incitement to hate violence. Currently operating in Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Benevolencija requested a Capstone team to devise an easy applicable evaluation model that the organization could use to continuously assess its impact. The Capstone team piloted an innovative evaluation survey methodology, one that had never before been employed in Africa. This methodology relied on a prerecorded audio survey form, played on portable CD players to a random sample that measured respondents' understanding of and assimilation to La Benevolencija's messages on a range of interim impact indicators. After conducting field work in Rwanda in January 2010, the Capstone team reported its findings and detailed how to employ this pioneering data collection model in existing and future Benevolencija projects.