Spotlight Story

Timasukirane Drama and Talk Show

Malawi is a country highly affected by HIV and AIDS, but despite intense and frequent awareness campaigns for behavioural change, there is huge gap between what people know about HIV and what they are doing. It is evident that knowledge about the causes and effects of infection and prevention measures alone are not enough to result in behaviour change. Timasukirane aims to target this issue especially in the lives of young people, who are at risk of infection.
Timasukirane is a one year project funded by CORDAID and is based around a radio drama and a radio talk show. Both have provided a platform for the youth of Malawi to express their views, feelings, attitudes and opinions about the issues of sex, sexuality, HIV and AIDS.
Six radio listener clubs comprising of 25 members each were established with the help of district youth office. The clubs are; Tingathe in Mwanza distirct, YOCAFO Mzimba district, Moyo wanga in Lilongwe city, Mikombe in Thyolo district, Tsogololathu in Machinga district and New Generation in Salima district.
The above mentioned clubs listen to Timasukirane talk show which is aired on MBC Radio 2 every Tuesday 7:40 pm and Timasukirane drama which is aired on MBC Radio 1 every Sunday 7:30 pm.
The above clubs are also expected to identify issues in Story Workshop radio productions (Timasukirane radio drama and Timasukirane talk show) and relate them to their own community situations on the basis of HIV/ Aids and Youth.

Timasukirane Pilot Year Ends with Success

The first year of the Timasukirane youth targeted project came to a close on 31 December 2007 but the two radio programs, Timasukirane Talk Show and Timasukirane Radio Soap, continued broadcasting up to the last week of April 2008. Overall there was tremendous response from the audience towards the two programs.

The program priority was to set the agenda for families to engage in dialogue on issues of HIV/Aids. The design of the program content and the explicit language used sparked a lot of debate in Malawi. We had achieved what we wanted because most of the arguments were based on the culture of silence. some people who listened to the programs complained that the content was very explicit and the timing of the programs, 18:40 on Thursday and 18:40 on Sunday, was such that parents were uncomfortable to listen to the programs together with their children. This is what we wanted to happen. Parents to listen to the programs together with their children and discuss the issues addressed. Many parents and youths however appreciated the programs because of the issues that were addressed.

We received more than 2000 Feedback letters during the 52 broadcasts.
We are still discussing with our financing partner, National Aids Commission (NAC), for more resources to continue with the project. We intend to include a Television Soap that will target the urban audience, print materials and some supporting outreach activities in the next three years.