Media Support Partnership (MSP)- Mozambique, Botswana, Madagascar

One of MSP's projects, funded by the Danish government (DANIDA), involves young people making a weekly radio programme on HIV/AIDS and related social issues called "Meu Quarto".

Another, funded by the European Commission and in partnership with CARE International, GOAL and local NGOs, will work with Mozambican radio broadcasters to produce programmes on HIV/AIDS with a specific appeal to young people. This programme will extend along the Macala corridor into Malawi, broadcasting in the Macua language.

Since 2001, Media Support Solutions (MSS), the partner organisation of the MSP, has been working in Botswana in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on an attempt to influence sexual behaviour through a radio soap opera called Makgabaneng. Based on social research, the script portrays the dilemmas of young people growing up in societies where as many as one third of people are HIV positive.

MSS has also been training local NGO staff in radio production techniques for Projet Radio in southern Madagascar since 2001. A number of NGOs and local radio stations have come together in a Partnership for Communications and Information for Development under the leadership of the UK based NGO, the Andrew Lees Trust.

The organisations vary from the World Food Programme to local NGOs set up to protect the forest, promote improved farming methods, protect rare animals and fisheries, promote basic education and raise awareness on HIV/AIDS. "These radio programmes help the NGOs in their education work, and reach a far wider audience than they could hope to reach in face to face

HIV/AIDS, Youth