Educational HIV/AIDS Campaign - Africa and the Caribbean

The campaign incorporated 3 waves of spots, each lasting 2 months, with a break of 2 months between each wave. Specifically, 60-second educational radio spots were broadcast 3 times per day at peak listening hours. The spots carried messages about HIV/AIDS, tailored to suit individual languages and countries to which they are broadcast. The messages educated people about how to protect themselves against HIV (particularly by using condoms), minimise risk, make sensible choices, and tackle misconceptions about the disease. The spots focused on 3 main areas: risk, consistent condom use, and stigma. They used a combination of humour and drama to get the messages across. Broadcasts were in 8 languages: English for Africa; French for Africa; Portuguese for Africa; and Hausa, Swahili, Somali, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, and English for the Caribbean.

Click here to listen to the spots and/or read the transcripts.

A 5-minute special call-in segment was also produced as part of the weekly English-language programme "Postmark Africa."

HIV/AIDS.

Research was carried out in 15 cities across Africa to assess the impact of the project.

This collaboration builds on the Viacom and Kaiser KNOW HIV/AIDS campaign, which launched in the United States in January 2003. The reach of the World Service in Africa and the Caribbean is as high as 30% of the radio audience in certain countries. The BBC reaches 60 million people per week in Africa and the Caribbean.

Organisers note that Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of any region in the world. 29.4 million or 70% of all those with the disease live in sub-Saharan Africa, with more new infections and AIDS deaths in 2002 than any other part of the world. The Caribbean has also been severely impacted and is the second-most affected region.