The Yellow Card movie has now spread across much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is being translated into a host of new languages with the hopes of achieving widespread marketability. A series of evaluations of access to the movie and its impact on audiences has been undertaken. This summary is drawn from a city in the original market in Zimbabwe and was carried out in 2001.

Media for Development Trust (MFD) has taken the opportunity to assess the success of Yellow Card and its ability to communicate with youth. MFD was concerned that the film's message be accessible to all segments of the population, in particular Zimbabwe's youth; since Chitungwiza has no cinema, it was thought that the youth of Chitungwiza - a city of high-density neighbourhoods and low-income households located just outside of Harare - might have had more difficulty accessing the film.

The surveys were carried out during the month of June 2001 in various areas within the city of Chitungwiza. An initial test survey was slightly altered to improve comprehensibility. The researchers travelled the various neighbourhoods finding respondents to fill in the surveys. The researchers occasionally left questionnaires with people who requested for more time with respondents for a period of a few days. Surveys were also left with groups of students at schools in Chitungwiza, but some were just filled in the streets. Some surveys were given to different churches for the youth to fill in, and some were also given to video rental stores so that they could give them out to their clients when they rented tapes.

There were limited criteria for respondents, and a few adults were also included in the survey for comparative purposes, though the number was insufficient for any analysis on age difference and attitudes on the film. The survey was carried out in a time span of 20 days. In responding to the questions on the survey, the respondents were also made aware that they were free to use the back side of the questionnaire if they felt they had more to say (though very few did so).

Yellow Card was seen and enjoyed by a large number of Chitungwiza's youth. The film was seen by 74% of the 614 young people surveyed. While the intention was to survey youth between the ages of 15 and 24, over three-fourths of those surveyed were 18 years old and younger. Both males and females were surveyed, but gender had no effect on viewers' access to the film, as an equal proportion of males (74%) and females (75%) had seen the film. Overall, 57% of those who have seen the film have seen it multiple times.

The importance of television is clearly demonstrated by the fact that about three-fourths (75%) of those who have seen the film - 76% of those who have seen it once, 79% of those who have seen it twice, and 74% of those who have seen it more than 3 times - watched it when it was aired on ZBC over Easter weekend (April 14 2001). Of those who have seen the film only once (N=117) 76% have only seen the film because it was aired on ZBC. If ZBC had not aired the film, the percent of youth that have seen the film would be around 51% instead of 74%.

Because MFD wanted to assess ways to improve access the survey also attempted to elicit answers from respondents as to how to improve access of these types of film for low-income youth. While 30% suggested the obvious answer of lowering ticket prices, others suggested building cinemas in the townships (25%) or more important to the authors, putting the films on TV (14%). Another 13% also suggested the use of mobile cinemas. The authors note that given the lack of cinemas outside of Harare, the high cost of tickets is compounded by transport costs, making it a luxury. Thus, TV appears to be the most realistic means of increasing viewership for Zimbabwean films.

While large majorities of respondents found the film very entertaining, many also found the film to be quite educational. 79% rated the film "Very Educational", 18% as "Somewhat Educational"; only 3% said the film was "Not Very Educational". There was a wide range of answers to the question, "What did you learn from the film?" The largest, at 23%, was not to have sex before marriage. This was followed by respondents who said that youth should abstain from sex, especially while in school (19%), that "sex has negative consequences" (17%), that one should not rush life (including into sex) (12%), and that one should be faithful (11%). Only 4% reported that they learned that they should use protection.

The survey suggests that Yellow Card has been successful in reaching a large segment of Zimbabwe's youth. The results show that township youth - both males and females - have accessed the film, either on television, on video, or at the cinema. However, the results also suggest that television, given its pervasiveness in Chitungwiza, is the ideal medium through which to reach low-income youth.

Stephen Mueller, "Yellow Card & Chitungwiza's Youth: A Study of the Film's Accessibility and Impact" (July 2001). Produced for Media for Development Trust, Zimbabwe. Also see: Debra Buenting, "Yellow Card Project Presentation and Evaluation".