Institutional Review of Educational Radio Dramas: Case Study 9: Rwanda (Urunana)

Case Study 9: Rwanda - Urunana (Hand in Hand)

Health Unlimited (HU) began preparing Urunana in 1997 as part of its Well Woman Media Project. This 15-minute drama is broadcast twice a week on the two most popular radio stations in Rwanda, with an additional summary version on Sundays. Each episode has three to four storylines. Urunana is set in a fictional village and features about eight different households, including several widows (implied survivors of the 1994 genocide). Humor is provided by the foolish but scheming Bushombe, and role models are characters like Sesilia, a widow who sets up her own business. Other characters include Odeta, whose dilemma is whether or not to sleep with her boyfriend, and the womanizing Stéphane, who gets gonorrhea. One of the characters is HIV+ and the soap follows him and his wife through community discrimination to community support, as well as discouraging myths and enlightening the audience about living positively with HIV.

The soap is followed by Umahoza, a 15-minute magazine program broadcast on Radio Rwanda. It includes interviews from the field, occasional guest experts, and representatives from the target population, who expand on the issues raised in the preceding episode. The challenge is to make this piece just as interesting, relevant and entertaining as the soap, so that listeners don't turn off the radio to save batteries.

Management and Staffing: The project is fully managed by a local Rwandan team, though HU is responsible for quality control. Until recently, the Project Manager in Kigali was an expatriate, but HU appointed a Rwandan in 2001. Her team is composed of about 12 permanent staff and up to 20 part-time actors. Key staff positions are the Executive Producer, Script Editor, two researchers, Studio Manager, two writers (one for storylines, the other for scripts), and the Umahoza producer/presenter. Most staff members have been trained from scratch in production, editing, writing, and digital editing, by international experts. Many also needed basic training in typing, computers and accounting. Staff shortages have been a problem, partly due to holidays, illness and other commitments, and partly because qualified new or temporary staff is not available. The project is overstretched in terms of the goals it has set, although it has never yet missed the deadline for an episode. Umahoza is produced and presented by one person, who follows the same schedule and issues as the soap.

Writing and Production Process: The soap goes through a full production cycle every six weeks, during which six episodes are prepared, recorded and broadcast. Episodes are based on a rolling six-month storyline.

• Week 1:

Researchers brief the script editor on issues to be addressed and script editor gives possible storylines to the full team, who discuss potential problems and angles for the episode synopsis.

• Week 2:

Script editor storylines the six episodes. Storylines are translated into English and e-mailed to London for feedback.

• Week 3:

Writers work on the scripts.

• Week 4:

Executive Producer and writers edit the scripts.

• Week 5:

The six episodes are recorded.

• Week 6:

The six episodes are edited digitally in-house, sent by DHL to the BBC World Service in London and sent back to Radio Rwanda for broadcast.

Formative Research and Monitoring: An initial needs assessment provided information about the potential audience, including average educational levels, household size, monthly income, listening patterns (50% of females sampled do not listen to radio at all), how people think diseases are transmitted, where people go for health advice, and knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission. The results helped inform the long-term storyline planning of the soap. HIV/AIDS storylines are based on rolling audience research in the field and medical advice from the Ministry of Health and NGO experts. The writers and the presenter visit clinics, meet with technical experts, and use written resources such as Where There Is No Doctor (Harford, 2002).

A stakeholder group meets quarterly to provide input to issues addressed in the storylines, and impart technical know-how. For example, if there is a storyline on domestic violence, a legal advisor will explain the options for a woman who is regularly beaten by her husband.

HU has two staff researchers, one who meets with audience groups and one who links with advisors and technical experts in Kigali. Four volunteer audience groups, three rural and one urban, interview community members each month, using a standard questionnaire. Results are fed into the six-week planning process. The audience also provides feedback through letters to Umahoza.

Other Supporting Activities: In addition to the soap opera, the HU team in Kigali occasionally makes audio materials for other clients, such as PSI, John Hopkins, UNFPA and CARE, to generate income and runs health education media training workshops. Some outsiders have attended HU trainings; one participant is now a writer for a drama serial about HIV/AIDS on Radio Rwanda called Kazungu. Training externals is an effective way of scaling up the project's impact and for skills and know-how to be shared across the IEC sector in one country.

Urunana actors have presented live shows around the country. This creates goodwill, increases listener numbers and brings messages to those without access to radios. Storylines and key messages of Urunana have been incorporated into Rwanda's educational curriculum and the government has used Urunana to reflect current issues, such as raising awareness of the commune elections and the positive impact of voting for commune leaders.

Sustainability: HU has funding guaranteed until 2005 from its British donors and is likely to continue with donor support for the foreseeable future because of Rwanda's very poor commercial base. The strong link with London is loosening gradually; appointing a Rwandan Project manager is a first step toward greater autonomy. The project could generate income by doing more training and radio/audio programs for other local agencies, but this would generate only a relatively small financial return, and the project staff is already over-stretched.