Getting the message out: building the capacity of community radio stations in Senegal

25 August 2006

In sub-Saharan Africa, the media has the potential to mobilise communities to respond to HIV on a wide scale, by communicating messages on prevention, care and support for people living with HIV. In recognition of this, Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA (ANCS), the Alliance linking organisation in Senegal, has initiated partnerships with community radio stations. As part of this programme, they facilitated a five-day workshop in July to train 22 journalists and radio presenters from 11 community radio stations.

In partnership with the radio stations, ANCS aims:

  • to enable people who would not normally have access to HIV information to access this information through radio programmes;
  • to support the radio stations to develop programmes on HIV and AIDS that will cover the activities of ANCS’ implementing partners’ activities in each geographical area; and
  • to build the capacity of journalists and community radio presenters to better understand key HIV concepts and provide better and wider communication on HIV and AIDS.

The journalists and presenters were trained in a number of issues, including: basic facts and key issues around HIV and AIDS; sexually transmitted infections; the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, understanding the socio-cultural context; voluntary counselling and testing; monitoring and evaluation, and stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV.

Participants had the opportunity to discuss these subjects in detail, and to consider how they would present information to their listeners. Group work role-plays enabled the participants to practice organising meetings and selecting the themes to address in their radio programmes.

At the end of the workshop the participants encouraged putting in place a community radio station network for ANCS partner organisations in the north and south-east of the country (Saint-Louis and Matam and Ziguinchor-Kolda-Tambacounda respectively) and in Dakar-Thiès.

The journalists and radio presenters were from the following community radio stations:

View a report of the workshop in French