Case Study - Viim Kuunga Radio Project - Burkina Faso
"Viim Kuunga", the tale of two families in conflict, is set in a dusty, urban neighbourhood in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Suzanne Fisher, who managed the radio drama project and wrote the storyline, explains more about the project.
Project context
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked fourth last on the 2002 UNDP Human Development Index. The landlocked West African country sitting on the edge of the Sahara has fragile soils and few natural resources. With a population of 11 million, it has a high population density.
The country is home to a rich diversity of cultures and languages with approximately 60 ethnic groups. The Mossi, concentrated around the capital Ouagadougou, are the most dominant ethnic group.
Tackling HIV/AIDS with local radio dramas
Radio Salankoloto is an associative radio station broadcasting out of Ouagadougou which aims to inform and thus improve the lives of radio listeners. We wanted to harnass the power of a local radio station to help combat the growing problem of HIV/AIDS. According to UNAIDS/ WHO statistics, 6.5 percent of the adult population in Burkina Faso were living with HIV in 2001. The British NGO Aids Alliance thinks that 10% is a more realistic estimate, giving it the second highest rate of HIV infection in West Africa after C'ôte D'Ivoire.
Much of the content on Burkinabé health-related radio shows are based on interviews with experts, which are often instructive, yet dull. From the start we wanted to create something educational, entertaining and thought provoking. Radio serial dramas are an ideal "genre" because a drama, if well written, can engage listener's emotions while informing them of new ideas and behaviours to improve their lives and their communities.
Radio dramas are so effective because they show characters undergoing difficult personal choices related to behaviour change - similar to the choices facing audience members. For instance, using condoms requires a partner's cooperation and raises issues that are seldom discussed. A wife might be scared to ask her husband to wear a condom if she thinks this suggests that she does not trust her husband to be disease-free and faithful to her. How does a wife negotiate with her husband, or a girlfriend negotiate with a boyfriend to wear a condom when a woman's right to safe sex is not always recognised? These questions were all addressed in various dialogues.
Project Summary
Radio drama series title:
"Viim Kuunga" - "Viim" means life in Mooré (the language of the Mossi people), and "Kuunga" is the Mooré word for a traditional drum that alerts people during emergencies. The title literally means: "Alert! Save your life!".
Number of episodes:
Thirteen thirty-minute episodes.
Summary:
The radio drama series, produced in Mooré, aims to increase listener's knowledge on how to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS and to encourage the adoption of concrete actions or behaviour changes in order to protect radio listeners and their family against the transmission of STDs and HIV/AIDS. Three prevention strategies are focussed upon: the use of condoms, abstinence before marriage and faithfulness to sexual partners (for instance, faithfulness to one's multiple wives in the case of polygamous marriages).
Communication strategy
Objective of radio programme:
Radio listeners will know and understand measures to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Measurable indicator of the communication objective's impact:
Radio listeners will be able to cite three actions or changes in behaviour that they could practise in order to protect themselves from contracting HIV/AIDs.
Target audience:
The project funder, PROMACO, wanted the radio drama to attract listeners from all age groups. As a result characters were developed to represent all age groups. The central characters are adolescents and adults. The two narrators are elderly.Radio Salankoloto's radio listener clubs
Unlike the commercial radio stations or the national radio station, Radio Salankoloto has listener clubs in Ouagadougou and in many rural villages located outside of the city within the 90 to 100 km radius of its radio transmitter. The listener clubs were set up on the initiative of eager listeners who wanted to provide feedback on the radio station's content.
The listener clubs had previously provided radio journalists with informal feedback on programme content. However, their role became more formalised during the project.
Approximately forty members living in or around Ouagadougou were selected by the President of the listener club to take part in the project. Generally all the members worked in the informal sector. The listener club was split into four focus groups divided by age and sex (young men, older men etc.) in order to facilitate a more frank and open discussion of issues that are rarely discussed openly in front of the opposite sex.
The average age of the young women's and the young man's group was 26. The older men's group had an average age of 45 and the older women's group had an average age of 49 years. 70% of the listener club participants had not attended school.
The listener club was involved at two stages in the production process; during the pre-production process and in order to pre-test the first three radio programmes. A third meeting was held with the club to judge the impact of the radio drama. All three meetings were conducted in Mooré by trained Promaco animators.
Results
Individual interviews were conducted to discuss the key project indicators because we felt that they were more accurate than group discussions. Two thirds of the participants could cite three actions (fidelity, abstinence and condom usage) as three ways to protect themselves from contracting HIV/AIDs. As this was our indicator, we successfully achieved our communication objective.
Most individuals in all four groups cited the use of condoms. Faithfulness to a sexual partner was cited on average by 69% of the listener club members. The greatest difference in responses by gender related to the topic of abstinence. Both young women (80%) and older women (70%) cited abstinence as a means of avoiding contracting HIV/AIDS while young men (28%) and older men (37%) often did not. The reasons for this would be interesting to investigate further.
Listener club members also cited other strategies that they felt would diminish the risk. Two other strategies commonly cited were having an HIV test done or avoiding bloody objects or needles. One character in the play decides to have a blood test done to see if he is HIV positive and it is likely this storyline that led people to cite HIV testing.
In conclusion, knowledge on prevention strategies has improved. Monitoring actual behaviour change was beyond the scope of the project.
Other topics were discussed in focus groups. Listeners identified different characters that they liked and disliked. Often the characters chosen related to their own sex, matrimonial status, age etc. This reveals the strength of radio dramas - characters can be created that appeal to each age group and sex.
Radio club members said that their knowledge on negotiation skills had improved because of the radio drama. By hearing different scenes in which characters negotiated condom use, they had developed ideas of their own for negotiating with their sexual partners.
Innovation
The radio drama was innovative in two ways. One of the husbands in the drama marries a second wife, thus introducing the topic of polygamy. The topic elicited much debate with project partners during the early stages of the project. We finally decided that polygamy was so prevalent in Burkina Faso that by ignoring the topic entirely, the radio drama would not seem realistic. More importantly, it attempts to tackle the issue of polygamy and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The message is clear: stay faithful to your wives or wear a condom when having sex with other partners in order to avoid infecting yourself and your wives with HIV/AIDS.
The radio drama was produced in a local language. This may hardly seem innovative, but most radio dramas produced through NGO funding in Burkina Faso are French. However, French speakers are most likely to have received an education and to already know about the risks of HIV/AIDS. Initially there was some resistance to producing the programme in Mooré because it limits the utility of the programme to Mooréphone parts of the country, and possibly because there were concerns about producing a programme that targets one ethnic group to the exclusion of others. However, producing a Mooréphone programme with a local language radio station was crucial to the success of the project. There are plans to translate the radio drama later into other local languages, such as Jula and Fufuldé.
Problems encountered
The greatest problem was the per diem or the daily salary. At first, no per diem had been calculated into the overall budget as the listener group had been meeting for years without ever receiving any financial compensation. However after the second meeting certain club members requested a per diem. Concerns were raised that payments to cover listener club transportation costs were unsustainable long-term and could also change the motivation for attending meetings (ie. in the hope for future financial reward). These concerns were discussed with the listener club and some members of the club agreed. However, it was also felt, that demands on the time of the club members were intensive, and that members should be reimbursed for travel costs etc. We eventually decided to opt for a per diem. This is a complex issue that I feel is often glibly accepted by NGOs in the country. Do per diems affect the dynamic of grassroots projects and change their overall focus to one of economic renumeration? If so, what can be done to address the problem?
Observations
Broadcasting the radio drama to the general public is only the first step. If the resources had been available, the impact could have been heightened through public listening and discussion groups.
Author details
Suzanne Fisher was a technical assistant to Radio Salankoloto from 2001 to 2002. Her placement was financed by the UK-based United Nations Association International Service. She is currently studying for an MA in Radio at Goldsmiths College, University of London and already has an MA in Environment and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She has produced a number of features and news packages for the BBC World Service. suz_fisher@yahoo.co.uk
Project context
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked fourth last on the 2002 UNDP Human Development Index. The landlocked West African country sitting on the edge of the Sahara has fragile soils and few natural resources. With a population of 11 million, it has a high population density.
The country is home to a rich diversity of cultures and languages with approximately 60 ethnic groups. The Mossi, concentrated around the capital Ouagadougou, are the most dominant ethnic group.
Tackling HIV/AIDS with local radio dramas
Radio Salankoloto is an associative radio station broadcasting out of Ouagadougou which aims to inform and thus improve the lives of radio listeners. We wanted to harnass the power of a local radio station to help combat the growing problem of HIV/AIDS. According to UNAIDS/ WHO statistics, 6.5 percent of the adult population in Burkina Faso were living with HIV in 2001. The British NGO Aids Alliance thinks that 10% is a more realistic estimate, giving it the second highest rate of HIV infection in West Africa after C'ôte D'Ivoire.
Much of the content on Burkinabé health-related radio shows are based on interviews with experts, which are often instructive, yet dull. From the start we wanted to create something educational, entertaining and thought provoking. Radio serial dramas are an ideal "genre" because a drama, if well written, can engage listener's emotions while informing them of new ideas and behaviours to improve their lives and their communities.
Radio dramas are so effective because they show characters undergoing difficult personal choices related to behaviour change - similar to the choices facing audience members. For instance, using condoms requires a partner's cooperation and raises issues that are seldom discussed. A wife might be scared to ask her husband to wear a condom if she thinks this suggests that she does not trust her husband to be disease-free and faithful to her. How does a wife negotiate with her husband, or a girlfriend negotiate with a boyfriend to wear a condom when a woman's right to safe sex is not always recognised? These questions were all addressed in various dialogues.
Project Summary
Radio drama series title:
"Viim Kuunga" - "Viim" means life in Mooré (the language of the Mossi people), and "Kuunga" is the Mooré word for a traditional drum that alerts people during emergencies. The title literally means: "Alert! Save your life!".
Number of episodes:
Thirteen thirty-minute episodes.
Summary:
The radio drama series, produced in Mooré, aims to increase listener's knowledge on how to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS and to encourage the adoption of concrete actions or behaviour changes in order to protect radio listeners and their family against the transmission of STDs and HIV/AIDS. Three prevention strategies are focussed upon: the use of condoms, abstinence before marriage and faithfulness to sexual partners (for instance, faithfulness to one's multiple wives in the case of polygamous marriages).
Communication strategy
Objective of radio programme:
Radio listeners will know and understand measures to prevent the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Measurable indicator of the communication objective's impact:
Radio listeners will be able to cite three actions or changes in behaviour that they could practise in order to protect themselves from contracting HIV/AIDs.
Target audience:
The project funder, PROMACO, wanted the radio drama to attract listeners from all age groups. As a result characters were developed to represent all age groups. The central characters are adolescents and adults. The two narrators are elderly.Radio Salankoloto's radio listener clubs
Unlike the commercial radio stations or the national radio station, Radio Salankoloto has listener clubs in Ouagadougou and in many rural villages located outside of the city within the 90 to 100 km radius of its radio transmitter. The listener clubs were set up on the initiative of eager listeners who wanted to provide feedback on the radio station's content.
The listener clubs had previously provided radio journalists with informal feedback on programme content. However, their role became more formalised during the project.
Approximately forty members living in or around Ouagadougou were selected by the President of the listener club to take part in the project. Generally all the members worked in the informal sector. The listener club was split into four focus groups divided by age and sex (young men, older men etc.) in order to facilitate a more frank and open discussion of issues that are rarely discussed openly in front of the opposite sex.
The average age of the young women's and the young man's group was 26. The older men's group had an average age of 45 and the older women's group had an average age of 49 years. 70% of the listener club participants had not attended school.
The listener club was involved at two stages in the production process; during the pre-production process and in order to pre-test the first three radio programmes. A third meeting was held with the club to judge the impact of the radio drama. All three meetings were conducted in Mooré by trained Promaco animators.
- PRE-PRODUCTION.
A meeting was held with Radio Salankoloto's listener's club in order to gain an idea of the audience's knowledge and beliefs about HIV/AIDS.
Three of the focus groups (elder and young men and elder women) felt that the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS was minimal. Only the young women's group felt they were at risk of contracting HIV/AID, with all 11 stating that the risks were very high.
The focus groups with elder men and women said that a woman could never ask a man to use a condom. The search for sexual pleasure was the main reason cited for refusing to use a condom.
The discussions also revealed a lack of trust between married women and men. The vast majority of men and women in all four groups said that they did not trust their wives or husbands to be faithful, nor did they trust them to use a condom during extra-marital affairs.
In general, the interviewees showed a good understanding of the clinical signs of HIV/AIDS and were able to explain that the only way to know if someone is HIV positive is to do a blood test. However, certain misconceptions were also held. Some people felt that the lubricant inside the condoms actually contained HIV/AIDS, and thus wearing condoms should be avoided in order to avoid contracting the virus. - PRE-TESTING.
After the story outline had been written and the script developed, a rough recording of the first three programmes of the radio series was produced for a pre-test.
Listeners were asked questions to determine whether they found the play believable and had confidence in it as a source of reliable information, whether they understood the plot and the radio drama's message and whether they found it interesting.
Radio club members said they believed that the characters in the radio drama could provide good advice and that they had confidence in the sources of information used to develop the radio drama. All four groups said that the radio drama was interesting because it talked about their reality, their communities and their problems. They also said that the drama series characters reminded them of people they know in their everyday lives. They did make suggestions on how to improve the characterization of certain people in the drama (for instance, one character was seen as too evil). Their comments were used to adapt the script. - EVALUATION
A third and final meeting was held to judge the impact of the radio drama series after all thirteen episodes had been listened to by the listener club (see results section below). As with the two earlier meetings, members were separated into focus groups; the same participants were in the same focus groups during all three meetings.
Results
Individual interviews were conducted to discuss the key project indicators because we felt that they were more accurate than group discussions. Two thirds of the participants could cite three actions (fidelity, abstinence and condom usage) as three ways to protect themselves from contracting HIV/AIDs. As this was our indicator, we successfully achieved our communication objective.
Most individuals in all four groups cited the use of condoms. Faithfulness to a sexual partner was cited on average by 69% of the listener club members. The greatest difference in responses by gender related to the topic of abstinence. Both young women (80%) and older women (70%) cited abstinence as a means of avoiding contracting HIV/AIDS while young men (28%) and older men (37%) often did not. The reasons for this would be interesting to investigate further.
Listener club members also cited other strategies that they felt would diminish the risk. Two other strategies commonly cited were having an HIV test done or avoiding bloody objects or needles. One character in the play decides to have a blood test done to see if he is HIV positive and it is likely this storyline that led people to cite HIV testing.
In conclusion, knowledge on prevention strategies has improved. Monitoring actual behaviour change was beyond the scope of the project.
Other topics were discussed in focus groups. Listeners identified different characters that they liked and disliked. Often the characters chosen related to their own sex, matrimonial status, age etc. This reveals the strength of radio dramas - characters can be created that appeal to each age group and sex.
Radio club members said that their knowledge on negotiation skills had improved because of the radio drama. By hearing different scenes in which characters negotiated condom use, they had developed ideas of their own for negotiating with their sexual partners.
Innovation
The radio drama was innovative in two ways. One of the husbands in the drama marries a second wife, thus introducing the topic of polygamy. The topic elicited much debate with project partners during the early stages of the project. We finally decided that polygamy was so prevalent in Burkina Faso that by ignoring the topic entirely, the radio drama would not seem realistic. More importantly, it attempts to tackle the issue of polygamy and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The message is clear: stay faithful to your wives or wear a condom when having sex with other partners in order to avoid infecting yourself and your wives with HIV/AIDS.
The radio drama was produced in a local language. This may hardly seem innovative, but most radio dramas produced through NGO funding in Burkina Faso are French. However, French speakers are most likely to have received an education and to already know about the risks of HIV/AIDS. Initially there was some resistance to producing the programme in Mooré because it limits the utility of the programme to Mooréphone parts of the country, and possibly because there were concerns about producing a programme that targets one ethnic group to the exclusion of others. However, producing a Mooréphone programme with a local language radio station was crucial to the success of the project. There are plans to translate the radio drama later into other local languages, such as Jula and Fufuldé.
Problems encountered
The greatest problem was the per diem or the daily salary. At first, no per diem had been calculated into the overall budget as the listener group had been meeting for years without ever receiving any financial compensation. However after the second meeting certain club members requested a per diem. Concerns were raised that payments to cover listener club transportation costs were unsustainable long-term and could also change the motivation for attending meetings (ie. in the hope for future financial reward). These concerns were discussed with the listener club and some members of the club agreed. However, it was also felt, that demands on the time of the club members were intensive, and that members should be reimbursed for travel costs etc. We eventually decided to opt for a per diem. This is a complex issue that I feel is often glibly accepted by NGOs in the country. Do per diems affect the dynamic of grassroots projects and change their overall focus to one of economic renumeration? If so, what can be done to address the problem?
Observations
Broadcasting the radio drama to the general public is only the first step. If the resources had been available, the impact could have been heightened through public listening and discussion groups.
Author details
Suzanne Fisher was a technical assistant to Radio Salankoloto from 2001 to 2002. Her placement was financed by the UK-based United Nations Association International Service. She is currently studying for an MA in Radio at Goldsmiths College, University of London and already has an MA in Environment and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She has produced a number of features and news packages for the BBC World Service. suz_fisher@yahoo.co.uk
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