Media for Development

Young radio makers in Ethiopia report on HIV/AIDS

Can we actively involve young people in the production of radio programmes on HIV/AIDS? And are these radio programmes interesting enough to attract an audience of their peers?  Can we develop radio formats for youth dialogues, in which young people discuss and try to find solutions for issues that affect them?

UNICEF Ethiopia presented this challenge to RNTC. In response RNTC developed with UNICEF a tailor-made programme on participative radio. The approach was to train young people and radio makers how to produce programmes in which the young people’s voices are heard as they are; programmes with dialogue formats in which young people themselves decide what they want to share and how.

Leap of faith
This was a new and challenging approach in the Ethiopian media context. It required a leap of faith from the programme makers to see the value of listening to the voices and stories of young people, instead of talking about them. And to accept young people with no further professional background as partners in the actual programme production. It also required support of the stations management. Eight stations took up the challenge.

Positive reactions
The response from the participants in the training has been extremely positive and the radio-makers are applying what they learned in the training to great effect. They appreciate the value of participation and many have stated the need for others in their stations to be trained as well. The programmes that were broadcast were received very positively.

Based on this experience UNICEF is hoping to expand the project to more stations and regions and to look into using the same participatory approach to work with video and print media.