12 March 2008
As part of efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Ghana, 10 radio stations in the country, one from each region, have been selected to undertake behaviour change communication on HIV/AIDS prevention, using radio soap opera.
The Ghana Aids Commission under the National Innovation Programme is funding the project, being implemented by the Centre for Development Communication (CEDCOM), a development communication consortium with its headquarters in Tamale.
Speaking to GNA in Tamale, Mr Gariba Ibrahim, Team Leader of CEDCOM, said the project would involve the broadcasting of a soap opera dubbed 'Dudu' in six local dialects, Twi, Ewe, Dagbani, Gruni, Dagaari and Ga-Dangbe.
He said the drama was developed based on a research CEDCOM and the 10 partner radio stations undertook to identify the high-risk behaviours of their audience.
Mr Gariba said some of the high-risked behaviours that the drama would seek to address would be frequent change of partners, unfaithfulness of partners and low condom usage.
The rest are high incidence of unprotected sex, love being a major motivation of the rampant change of partners, high incidence of alcohol intake before sex and familiarity of a person as safe enough for sexual encounter.
Mr Gariba said under the project, personnel of the radio stations had been trained on how to use radio to promote behavioural change of their audience.
He said since the project was the first of its kind in the country, it would be on pilot basis with limited number of episodes but would be intensified after a successful evaluation.
Mr Gariba said HIV/AIDS was still a very big issue because statistics showed an increase of the prevalence rate from 2.9 per cent in 2001 to 3.6 per cent in 2003, then declined to 2.7 per cent in 2005 but rose to 3.2 in 2006.
He therefore called for concerted efforts by stakeholders, including the media to extend their campaign from awareness creation to behaviour change to ensure that people changed their high-risk behaviours.
Mr Gariba appealed to the media to consider programmes on HIV/AIDS as more of social responsibility than a commercial venture.
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I have worked with people living with HIV for 28 years in the US. I am glad to see this happen. We have to fight the stigma so we can stop HIV from speading and to support people who are already positive to live healthy productive lives.