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In Ethiopia, HIV thrives in a climate where people living with HIV or AIDS (PLHA) face blame, discrimination and stigma. Effective HIV and AIDS care and prevention depends on changing deep-seated social norms within societies. Instead of socially isolating people with HIV, effective strategies allow their voices to be heard within their communities and beyond.
Betengna, a new radio diaries program in Ethiopia, is a captivating and practical way of addressing the issues of stigmatization and marginalization that many PLHA face, and in dealing with the generally low perception of the severity and individual and communal susceptibility to HIV and AIDS in Ethiopia. The radio program is a series of self-narrated stories of the everyday lives and experiences of PLHA.
Betengna - which refers to a welcomed guest who often visits one’s home - presents a unique insight into what it really means to be HIV positive in Ethiopia. The program showcases the diaries of ordinary people living with HIV who share their everyday experiences and challenges of living with HIV. The radio diaries were produced in collaboration with three local popular radio stations and nine radio diarists who were willing and able to talk about their lives honestly, openly and with clarity and real emotion. The initiative trained and supported three radio producers to work with PLHAs to create their own personal weekly radio diaries. The objectives of the program are to:
1. Develop regular weekly radio diaries for national broadcast highlighting
the everyday experiences of PLHA, and discussing the personal implications of
living in a community affected by AIDS;
2. Develop and guide the skills of a small group of HIV+ "diarists"
to talk clearly, powerfully and analytically about their situation; and of radio
producers and their broadcasters to produce effective programming that responds
to the priority health issues in their communities;
3. Decrease the stigma and discrimination that HIV positive people face in Ethiopia
by exposing the human face of living with the disease and providing a platform
for creating discussion on these issues among the general public;
4. Influence the social norm towards a greater tolerance of and support for
people's access to information, services and care relating to HIV/AIDS; and,
5. Increase public awareness and utilization of VCT, PMTCT and ART services.
The initiative is running in three phases
Phase I involved preliminary background documentation and research, identification
of potential diarists, and planning for the broadcasts.
Phase II consists of an ongoing process of training the diarists and radio producers
and establishing listening groups.
Phase III involves recording and broadcast of the programs and ongoing monitoring
and evaluation. Specific activities include:
1. Training of eight radio producers at a Radio Diaries Design workshop and
training of nine HIV+ diarists;
2. Training of three radio broadcasters and three HIV+ diarists;
3. Development and dissemination of promotional materials, i.e. posters, flyers,
stickers, press kits;
4. Development of an electronic press kit for use by the media in reporting
on issues faced by HIV+;
5. Production and weekly broadcasts of the diaries on FM 97.1 Addis, Debub Radio
(Awassa) and Radio Fana;
6. Setting up and conducting listening groups with existing community groups
such as Idirs, HIV+ groups, youth involved in HIV/AIDS work, health professionals,
workers; and,
7. Documentation detailing the process and the impact of the diaries on listeners,
diarists and the radio producers.
The initiative is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in collaboration with the National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) and funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . It is managed by the national AIDS Resource Center (ARC) in Addis Ababa and builds on similar projects run by CCP in Nigeria and Malawi. Internews Network’s Local Voices project – which trains and mentors Ethiopian journalists and talks show hosts to improve their reporting on AIDS – also provides intensive coaching on all aspects of radio programming.
Betengna airs on
For more information contact:
Contact:
Sofnias Nega
AIDS Resource Center
Bole Road, Dembel Building, 9th Floor
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: 251-11-5503584
Sofniasn@etharc.org
www.etharc.org
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