The first of December of every year is the World Day Against AIDS. It provides the opportunity to keep awareness high on this illness and to highlight the precious work of young people to help prevent the disease and inform other young people about its dangers.
In the course of its four editions, the jury of the International
Global Junior Challenge competition has selected various projects that aim to prevent HIV infection.
An exemplary case is provided by
Saathi sanga manka kura (Ssmk) - “Chatting with my best friend” – one of the winners of the last edition of the GJC.
The jury awarded the prize with the following motivation:
“It is a pioneering programme of Nepal Radio, made by young people for young people, which circulates knowledge and vital competencies amongst the young with the specific objective of preventing AIDS infection and addressing its most common problems”.
The radio programme, which was started in 2001 by the
Equal Access Nepal NGO with the support of Unicef, is aired weekly on the national network and on 45 local radio stations.
The Project
Information is transportable and relatively cheap, but in many parts of the world, they still are a limited and inaccessible resource. In Nepal, young people are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and they have no adequate information. This radio programme was designed to address this issue. It addresses the young with a very efficient format: an informal chat amongst friends, a man and a woman.
Letters and e-mails addressed to the programme have created a constant flow of communication, overcoming silences and taboos. The objective is to guarantee equal access to information, especially strategic information regarding health and development.
