The radio program will encourage care for AIDS victims and orphans.
Trans World Radio is developing a new radio series about HIV/AIDS for the Dhuluo- and Luo-speaking
peoples.
“The Living Secrets of HIV/AIDS,” or “Malingling Mag Ayaki,” will be aired twice weekly. 104 fifteen-minute segments will cover topics like dealing with HIV/AIDS on a daily basis, secrets of dealing with HIV in the family, safer ways of disclosing your HIV status, abstinence, integration of orphans into families, health care for AIDS patients at home, and encouraging people to adopt AIDS orphans.
Trans World Radio has been addressing HIV/AIDS since the early 1990s, but only in English and Swahili, which have a broader listening audience than local dialects. Sponsorship raised by TWR’s partner in The Netherlands made possible the development of the new show, in the Luo and Dhuluo languages.
Luo is spoken in Nyanza province, which is the Kenyan province most affected by HIV/AIDS. Kenya has 1.1 million AIDS orphans, and 6.1% of its adults are HIV positive, according to UNAIDS.
As a result of a rise in prostitution, 33% of 15- to 19-year-old girls near the city of Kisumu are HIV-positive, according to a recent study by the National AIDS STD Control Programme (NASCOP).
A regular listener from Zimbabwe explained why he appreciates the daily HIV/AIDS program that Trans World Radio airs in his area, called “Saving a Generation.”
“Undoubtedly HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Most people here in Africa (south of the Sahara) are affected in one way or the other. If one is not infected, then one is definitely affected. I lost my only brother and his wife to the disease a few years ago.”
