University of Texas at El Paso

This paper describes an assessment of the work of non-governmental organisation (NGO) Minga Perú focusing on the Intercultural Radio Educative Project against violence and HIV/AIDS in rural communities and schools and including the participatory health education radio programme, Bienvenida Salud. The organisation has worked since 1998 with the objective of improving the lives of people living in the Peruvian Amazon. The Intercultural Radio Educativa project took place from January 2006 to March 2008 with funding from the United Nations (UN) Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, through the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

As detailed here, Minga Peru supports a combination of programmatic activities, using an on-the-air and on-the-ground communication strategy. Projects include the production and broadcast of Bienvenida Salud; the training of community promotoras (promoters) who organise group listening sessions around Bienvenida Salud; and on-the-ground, environmentally-sustainable, income-generating activities, such as the establishment of fish farms, agro-forestry enterprises, and small animal husbandry projects, as well as training in crocheting and sewing to meet local needs. Bienvenida Salud is radio programme on reproductive health, sexual rights, and gender equality. The theoretical framework that underlies the radio production work is Minga’s “culturally respectful, participatory communication framework”, which emphasises listener participation to incorporate audience-specific content, language, culture, and concerns. The Intercultural Radio Educativa project trained school teachers in 24 rural schools to integrate issues of domestic violence and HIV/AIDS in the secondary school curriculum. The teachers integrated associated projects in all subject areas of five secondary grades. The curriculum was used to reach 283 primary school students and 4,254 secondary school students. Some students were trained as radio correspondents for Bienvenida Salud. Minga Perú also distributed relevant educational material on domestic violence and HIV/AIDS to teachers, including a CD of several episodes of Bienvenida Salud. The programmatic intervention reached an estimated 3,600 families.


The research was carried out through 6 focus groups that included teachers, school officials, Minga Perú staff, members of the HIV-positive persons’ network, promotoras, parents, listeners, and radio correspondents, and in-depth interviews with a social scientist studying gender issues, the Minga Perú database coordinator, and public health officials. Secondary and archival data were provided by Minga Perú, including a student and a teacher survey. The research measured listenership among teachers and students. Of 170 teachers, three-quarters had listened to Bienvenida Salud, and 16% were frequent listeners. Among 235 students, nearly all were familiar with the programme and more than three-quarters claimed to be regular listeners. Listenership among rural students was higher than among urban students, confirming the goal of Minga Perú to reach rural communities.


The research analysed the database of the content of 4,860 letters sent to the programme staff from January 2006 to March 2008. Some of the letters made a direct and explicit reference to issues of violence in the community or domestic sphere, or raised questions or concerns about HIV/AIDS from which programming could be constructed, confirming the “listener as active participant” strategy of Minga Perú. Adult women constitute the highest percentage of letter writers, followed by adult men, and then young men and women. A graph on page 25 shows the quantity per month of letters on HIV/AIDS and letters on violence. The analysis of senders for the same time period shows that slightly more were youth radio correspondent trainees, closely followed by health "promotoras", and listeners.


The research assessed the integration of the topics of violence and of HIV/AIDS in the curriculum. Teachers stated that "[a]ll the teachers in all nine subject areas have tried to insert these issues. Even in mathematics, we discuss statistics and rates of infections; and in history, we deal with the history of the disease", while students stated that the subjects were not addressed in 3 subject areas. Teachers ranked effectiveness of the communication techniques used in their curricular areas. Student-centred classroom dialogue was felt to be most successful, followed by debate, dramatisation, poster making, role playing, checklists, problem solving, and case studies, among others.


Primary and secondary data obtained from students on their learning showed that students learned about their rights as individuals, about different forms of violence, and about taking preventive measures against HIV/AIDS. Students expressed to the researchers a desire for change, including delaying sexual relations, limiting sexual partners, and using condoms in sexual encounters. Focus group discussions indicated that teachers felt increased pride, responsibility, and accountability, and that families experienced varying degrees of empowerment of women and increased discussion of topics of violence and sexuality.

The Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies Social Justice Dialogue and Publication Series, 2008 accessed on April 23 2009.