Peru - Con el viento a favor

Since 2002, in alliance with PCI-Media Impact, Calandria Association of Social Communicators (www.calandria.org.pe), an organization that uses communication socially, politically, and economically in an effort to impact Peru 's development, has developed three radio Entertainment- Education projects, Loma Luna (Moon Hill) in 2004-05 and Empezando A Vivir (Beginning to Live)’ in 2005-06. A third series debuting in 2007 was entitled Con el Viento a Favor (With the Wind in my Sails).

These productions have included music, serial dramas, and a live call-in session between listeners and guest experts who addressed sexual and reproductive health and other issues. In some cities ‘Empezando A Vivir’ was not only produced with messaging that promotes intergenerational dialogue but even utilized intergenerational production teams.

Unique about the radio drama Con el Viento a Favor (With the Wind in my Sails) is its placement within a locally produced and broadcast live magazine show. The project broadcast unique magazine shows from six different locations. Each show included its own staff of writers, announcers, experts and local content. The design of the project allowed for each of the six regional shows to create their own content according to the specific characteristics and needs of the region following a format provided by PCI-Media Impact. Each show shares the radio drama, produced by Calandria in Lima, and acts to pull the six unique magazine shows together into a network.

The issues that the show promoted included intergenerational dialogue, youth sexual health, family planning, and STD/HIV/AIDS prevention, encouraging positive behavior changes. The project also trained young people in radio production.

An innovative Spanish language website providing audio samples, photos, and evaluation research on all three shows was created to support the broadcasts by each local station. Visit it by going to www.enbuenaonda.net.

Social and Economic Reality in Peru

• In Peru, approximately one out of three people is a teenager.
• One of the main issues of concern to the youth population in Peru is teen pregnancy –13% of female teenagers between 15 and 19 years old, has been pregnant at least once.
• The majority of the teen pregnancies happen among uneducated women, who are also vulnerable to sexual harassment, misinformation, early marriages, and domestic violence.
• Maternal death caused by unsafe abortions is common among young women.
• Only 8.8% of adolescent women are currently using some method of family planning.
• More than 3% of the overall HIV infections happen in teenagers between 15 and 19 years old, and 17% happen in young people between 20 and 24 years old.
• More than 51% of teenager women in Peru lack information about STD, including HIV/AIDS.  Source: ENDES:2001

Broadcast Details

Broadcast Period: April 2007 – July 2007
Target Audience: Youth and young adults.
Broadcast Reach: Six radio stations in six different cities throughout Peru. Radio Uno in Tacna, Radio Yavari in Arequipam, Radio Pachamama in Puno,
Radio San Francisco in Cajamarca, Radio Universitaria in Lambayeque, Radio Citivalu in Piura.

The Magazine Show

Each one of the six radio stations created their own magazine, including the radio drama Con el Viento a Favor.

The titles of these magazine shows are as follows:

• Radio Uno in Tacna: Hablando sin Paltas (Talking without reserves)
• Radio Yavari in Arequipa: Hablando piedras…. (Speaking out rocks)
• Radio Pachamama in Puno: Atrevete, no te chupes (Dare, don’t hold back)
• Radio San Francisco in Cajamarca: Relajados (Relaxed)
• Radio Universitaria in Lambayeque: Sin Roche (Without Shame)
• Radio Citivalu in Piura: Corre la cortina (Open the curtain).

The Serial Drama

Number of drama episodes and duration: Radio drama: 15 episodes of 10 min. each

Plot: The Flores family appears perfect. They have a tidy house, a hard working father (Eduardo), a devoted mother, and kids (Angel and Mariana) with good grades at school. However, Eduardo is macho, authoritarian, racist, and is having love affairs outside his marriage. His wife turns a blind eye on this to avoid a scandal. Angel has serious issues with his sexuality, and Mariana falls easily into a harmful relationship. In the end, Eduardo is jailed for using funds inappropriately at work, which puts the family in crisis. In contrast to the Flores, the Medina family seems more chaotic. They argue constantly and openly. However, they are a loving and communicative family that successfully deals with several issues, including the fact that their uncle, a young musician and DJ, is HIV positive.

Main Characters Profile
Eduardo Flores: A very stern father, racist and macho, who not only imposes his authoritarian rules in his household, but also cheats on his wife.
Teresa: Loyal wife of Eduardo and the perfect housewife. She turns a blind eye on his cheating to avoid a scandal.
Mariana and Angel: Teenage children of the Flores family. Although they get good grades in school, they both experience issues with their sexuality and engage in unhealthy relationships.
Andres Medina: A mechanic married to Sylvia. He is a hard worker and often helps with the housework. Has a loving relationship with his wife and children.
Sylvia: A tailor married to Andres. She works from home and is good listener and support for her children.
Jairo, Claudia and Mayra: Teenager children of the Medina family. They help their parents with the work in the house. Although sometimes they fight, they love each other and always manage to face life with humor. They trust their parents and talk to them about the issues in their daily lives.

Con el Viento a Favor
by the numbers

Focus groups: 10
Radio stations broadcasting: 6
Cities of production: 6
Average number of calls during each program: 9
People interviewed in focal groups: 94
Trained people: 103
Shows broadcasted: 153
Number of visits to the website: 1,536
Minutes of broadcasting: 8,640
Estimated Audience: nearly 200,000

Project Impact

MONITORING: The following mechanisms were applied by the members of the project in charge of the monitoring phases:

• Traveled to each one of the cities in order to get first hand information about its development in the sites.
• Participated in the production and coordination meetings of each one of the groups.
• Observed the broadcast of the radio programs.
  Revised the register of the forms for monitoring the participation form the audience in the program.
• Met with the local partners.

“Now I know that HIV is not the same as AIDS. AIDS is the advanced HIV, the disease with fever. HIV is the virus that can be transmitted but is not contagious.” Adolescent female listener from Puno.

EVALUATION: The evaluation team performed the following activities at the end of the program:

• Visited the radio stations on the day of the last day of broadcasting the program.
• Focal groups with listeners of the program (10 focal groups with a total of 94 participants).
• Interviews with each one of the production teams (including the member from the local partner involved in the project).
• Increased demand for services – referral to local partners
• Interview to the director or leader of the radio station.
• Interviews with the staff of the local partner.
• Collection of monitoring tools implemented during the program.
• Registered the experiences in a video documentary.

“The program helped me to differentiate between HIV and AIDS, because we always confuse those two. We say ‘he is AIDSY, don’t hang out with him because he is AIDSY.’ It was very helpful for me when the guy in the radio drama talked and defined what exactly is HIV and AIDS.” Adolescent female listener from Lambayeque.

Results:

1. EE methodology and capacity built in stations- some of the stations will keep the magazine show (including the hosts) as part of their regular programming
2. Solid partnerships between radio stations and service providers
3. Increased number of services provided at the local offices of INNPARES: 19% increase in Puno, 3% in Piura and 2% in Lambayeque
4. “Hablando sin Paltas” produced by Radio Uno was the most listened program Sundays at 10:00 (source: CPI – Peruvian Markets Research)
5. Listeners of the program, and even members of the production team, reported that throughout the program they had access to new information and achieved a wider knowledge on the issues addressed.
6. The information that the listeners reported as new was the one related to HIV/AIDS, including its diagnosis, treatment, and transmission, among others.
7. Sensitized audiences about the topics addressed in the program.
   Closer relationship between different generations.

Additional Quotes from Listeners:

“One thing I learned through the program is that to identify AIDS it is needed to have two tests. The ELISA test, and an other one. I had no idea of this, but I learned it when a young woman called to the program.” Adolescent male listener from Tacna.

“Discrimination will always be there even if you are HIV positive or not, or if you are black or not. But the radio program made people conscious that anyone with HIV can have a normal life, with a partner, a job, an active sexual life, like any other human being. The only difference is that s/he has to learn to life with the virus. That’s all. But I think that it is what the radio program wanted to transmit.” Adolescent male listener from Arequipa.

“Where my grandma lives, there is 50-year-old man who is HIV positive. In the town meetings, they make the man sit far from everyone and when he wants to say something they tell him to be quiet and someone else starts talking. They have never given that man an opportunity. One day, my grandma told the people that they should give him a chance to talk in the meetings. However, the people responded to my grandma saying that there is no point in letting him talk because he is about to die.” Adolescent female listener from Lambayeque.

“What I can say is that in Arequipa we are the only radio station with this kind of program where we deal with real life situations putting it in a format that helps the audience to get the messages.” Tania Camargo, producer for Radio Yavari, Arequipa.

“Some women have called the program to say that no one has ever talked to them about sexuality before. They say that by hearing the program they know better how to talk to their teenage children and avoid making the mistakes their parents made with them.” Alex Ballon, conductor of Radio Yavari, Arequipa.

“A couple in their 20s came to the institute because they heard in the program that each case varies in terms of the best contraception method to be used. We gave them advice and orientation, and they could choose the method they wanted to use.” Betsy Cabrera, practitioner at INPPARES, Arequipa.

Local Partnerships
INPPARES (Member affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation):
A cooperation agreement was formalized with INPPARES, so its staff will cooperate with the program in the cities where it is being transmitted.

Capacity Building and Participation
We ensure the program sustainability by increasing broadcasting skills sets within the community. Over 100 youth were trained in Entertainment Education methodology and sexual/ reproductive health and rights.
In addition, each community had the opportunity of identifying and communicating their own needs, which create credibility among listeners.

• Email, mail address and phone line are provided for listeners to request and suggest new content, ask questions and make comments.
• Interviews at TV and radio stations with the radio drama participants.
• School visits by the actors of the radio drama.

Cost – Effectiveness
To ensure program sustainability the project requires cost-sharing. PCI - Media Impact provided 61% of the project’s cost and our partners provided the remaining 39%, often through in-kind contributions, volunteers, and sponsorship. Some of the local inputs are:

• Training/capacity building
• Refreshments
• Production Equipment
• Infrastructure (offices rent, radio studio)

Related Links:

Peru: PCI youth radio show tackles tough issues

<< Back to News