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Polio Storyline: New Home New Life (NHNL) Radio Soap

Country

Afghanistan

Programme Summary

New Home New Life (NHNL) [or, "Navey Kor Nave Juand"] is a radio soap opera created by the Afghan Educational Programme (AEP) of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service Trust (WST) in an effort to teach Afghan people how to survive in a society where public infrastructure and normal processes of health, education, and justice have been destroyed by civil war. From September 8-21 2009, BBC WST wove polio eradication messages into the programme, broadcast thrice weekly, in an effort to reach people in conflict zones with information about immunisation.

Communication Strategies

Polio-related themes were integrated into the NHNL drama, which intermingles tales of love, comedy, and human suffering in a format designed to communicate educational messages so that the whole village community can participate in development. Here is a synopsis of one scene in the polio storyline, which focuses on: timely acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) reporting, endorsement from doctors, raising risk perception and emphasising the importance of preventive action among families, and highlighting the mutually supportive role of health centres and polio campaigns:

Two characters see a child who has suffered from limpness in the limb being carried to the clinic by her father. One of the characters expresses his sadness and his hope that she will get treated in the clinic. After a check-up, the doctor confirms that she has suffered from polio. Gulalai, the health worker, talks about difficulties the child and her family will face. The doctor agrees, emphasising the importance of polio vaccination - adding that parents should not neglect their children in this regard. The doctor asks Gulalai to inform women in the village about the importance of polio vaccine and to encourage them to get their children immunised. When Zarmina, an old woman, is informed about the importance of polio vaccine, she carries the information to her daughter Fatima and explains the risk children face if they do not receive polio drops. She urges Fatima to take her son Omid to the clinic to get him immunised with the polio vaccine. Worried, Fatima rushes to Gulalai, who checks her records and discovers that Omid was immunised recently during a polio campaign - assuring the relieved Fatima that she will inform her in time for the next polio campaign round.

Other topics explored in the storyline include the expected behaviour of families and caregivers of children during polio campaigns, vaccination at border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan, and routine immunisation.

In addition, polio is the focus of a 12-minute feature broadcast as part of NHNL's "Health and Life" supplementary programme series. The programme is designed to provide parents with factual information as a guide to saving their children from suffering from polio, using practical examples and experiences. Specific questions explored include: What is polio and how does it affect a child? What are the signs and symptoms of polio in children? What role can family members play in preventing polio? An NHNL writer and producer interviewed two doctors to gather the information included in the feature programme.

Development Issues

Immunisation and Vaccines.

Key Points

The BBC Pashto (and Dari) service of NHNL reportedly enjoys "a vast listenership" in the high-risk areas of the south and the east on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Partners

BBC World Service Trust

Contact

Savita Naqvi
Head of Programme Communication
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Afghanistan Country Office

United Nations Office Complex in Afghanistan (UNOCA)
Jalalabad Road

Kabul
Afghanistan
Tel: +93 7 90507000 Ext 450
Fax: 873 761 924 996

Source

Email from Savita Varde-Naqvi to The Communication Initiative on September 22 2009; and BBC WST website, accessed September 28 2009.


Placed on the Communication Initiative site September 28 2009
Last Updated October 05 2009



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