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Trans World Radio-n Africa (TWR) has been breaking the
silence about HIV/AIDS over the airwaves since the early
1990's. It all started with a special focus on AIDS through
our developmental programme Africa
Challenge. With the
increasing number of people suffering and dying of AIDS,
Africa Challenge set aside one day of the week to broadcast
AIDS programmes. The response was instant. Letters from
across the continent expressed gratitude and desire for
more information.
The programme looked at the pandemic in a way that challenged
the sufferers, their families and caregivers. The community
too was challenged to get involved in helping the sufferers.
From 1993, Africa Challenge AIDS programmes were
becoming an entity in themselves. A sub-project of Africa
Challenge now popularly known as The
Honey That Kills was born with
special emphasis on the AIDS pandemic in Africa.
The words listeners used to describe the programme were
words like "interesting," "challenging," "beneficial",
"comforting," "educational," "wonderful"
etc. There were questions asked that left no doubt that
the programme had a place in the hearts of many young
and old people in Kenya. This, coupled with the response
from the short wave programmes, led to the introduction
of a regional plan that would see the programme on more
national stations across the continent.
Radio Uganda became the second national station after
Kenya to air the AIDS programme through a special broadcast
called AIDS Challenge. Uganda is one country in Africa
where cases of new infections have gone down due to
the vigorous campaign at all levels. TWR is proud to
be playing a part in that campaign.
In February 2000, the Africa Challenge International
Committee came up with a plan to introduce AIDS programmes
in a number of African countries where Africa Challenge is
already represented. These include Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi,
Swaziland and Cote d'Ivoire. It was then that TWR's
HIV/AIDS programmes were grouped together under the general
heading of AIDS
Challenge.
Languages targeted for 2001- 2003 were Shona in
Zimbabwe, Chichewa in Malawi, Kikuyu in Kenya and French
as a core language for Francophone Africa. 2004 to 2009
will see a focus on languages in West Africa.
Responses to the AIDS programme have been a constant reminder
that the hard work and labour put into these programmes are
not in vain.
Article by Rev. Brent Bartlett
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