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 Posted By:   Healthprior21

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Friends’ Circle is one of 25 programmes produced by Radio Bikrampur, which claims an audience of 300,000 and receives some 500 texts from listeners each day. Listeners in a 17 Km radius are eager to receive the SRHR information. In a culture where discussing sex and sexual health remains taboo, the radio show is filling a void of silence. Aimed primarily at young people, it is also listened to by parents and others, opening up avenues of conversation.

One young listener, Shahnaz, explains: “I got to know about such topics like puberty and HIV which I couldn’t talk to anyone else about as these are sensitive issues. I was a bit scared to talk to my parents but now, after listening to the show, the shyness isn’t there anymore.”

The radio show is supported by HASAB, a partner of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Bangladesh. Through the European Commission funded programme ‘Community Action for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Asia’, HASAB has been able to  design the radio programme and its content, provide a two-day workshop for radio jockeys on key issues, and fund the station with half of the production costs for the show.

Lipi, 19, is one of Radio Bikrampur’s young radio jockeys.  She is in her second year of university and got the role after undergoing three interviews.

“I am very passionate about radio,” she says. “I like doing the work because it’s a remote area to some extent and people don’t talk very openly. It’s important for students of class 10 and 11 (age 15 and 16) in particular to know about these issues.”

Early marriage is a hotly discussed topic on the show — hardly surprising when Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. Child marriage puts young girls at increased risk of HIV for a number of reasons including having unprotected sex from an early age, and typically their husband will be an older man who has had more sexual partners.

Also typically, young wives will be cut off from education when they are married, limiting their access to SRHR information despite the fact that they are at great risk of complications during pregnancy and child birth.

“Through the shows girls now know their rights, that they shouldn’t go for early marriage and that they can protest to their parents and say no, it’s not the right age to get married,” Lipi proudly asserts.

The radio station has directly intervened to prevent two early marriages after it became aware of them through the radio show. The station was able to contact the local Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), Chief Executive of the sub-district, who in turn threatened legal action if the marriage took place before the girls were 18.

HASAB hopes not just to continue supporting radio Bikrampur but to replicate the success in other parts of the country. Supporting the radio show is just one initiative under the programme which has reached around 150,000 young people with SRHR information as well as parents, religious leaders, healthcare providers and decision makers.

The work in Bangladesh dovetails with a new ambitious three year programme funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands (BUZA). Its aim is to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people living with and affected by HIV in five countries — Bangladesh, Burundi, Ethiopia, Myanmar and Uganda — and expects to reach over one million young people over the three years.

 

Source - The Daily Star