The overall emphasis of the Beyond Awareness strategy is endorsed in this manual. This involves the understanding that for social change to take place, a carefully planned integrated approach must be taken. If we are to inspire a social movement where people feel passionately about health, human rights and self-empowerment there needs to be an environment that supports this consciousness. There is a need to provide a framework of support for social action, where individuals and communities are in a position to mobilise around issues that affect their lives.
Social action provides opportunities for personal and community enrichment.
The challenge for health workers, health and social planners, activists and teachers, amongst others, is to provide the tools for social action and many of those tools involve media and communication. This manual includes an overview of the issues, along with case-studies and examples that are relevant at national, provincial and local level. We trust that this information will help to enrich understanding of the way forward and contribute to action. It does, however, provide an overview of key principles. The manual includes a number of different ways of accessing content, and readers should not feel that the information has be read from cover to cover.