Recently, ‘Urunana’, a popular health education Rwandan radio soap opera programme received the ‘One World Special Achievement Awards’ for development media.

These awards are one of the foremost awards in United Kingdom that recognise excellence in media coverage in bridging the gaps between society issues across the world. This year, it was the 20th ceremony.

Urunana (meaning hand in hand) was awarded for its continued efforts in educating the public in different aspects of life affecting the community through entertainment.

Health is top on the programme agenda but also girls’ right to education, orphans’ rights to inheritance and youth sexuality are among the issues addressed.

To secure the award, Urunana beat six short-listed projects from around the globe at the ‘One World Media Awards’, held in London.

According to the managing director of the Urunana Development Communications, Narcisse Kalisa, the initiative and format of communication came as a way of reconciliation, healing the Genocide trauma, and also educate the public on how to address day to day problem affecting them.

"It is from this background that we have crosscutting issues within the programme.”

Reaching out

The programme runs across Rwanda and the whole Kinyarwanda/Kirundi-speaking area of the African Great Lakes Region, sensitising people about HIV problem using drama of about 25 main actors.

It is aired live for about 15 minute twice weekly (Tuesday and Wednesday evenings) on BBC Great Lakes Service. On the local radio waves, Radio Rwanda, the programme also runs twice (Saturday and Sunday).

There are also community outreach programmes in rural areas (four times a year) through which the public has a chance to watch live drama, ask questions and also make contributions improvement. A single outreach may pull a crowd up to 10,000.

The brain behind the drama is a uniting body of Rwandan males and females called Urunana Development Communications.

Kalisa said that there was no precedent for this programme, it was a totally new concept here and it took a while for things to fall into place and for people to trust them.

"Now, though, people are addicted to our programme and they can't leave us.”

The programme is now reaching an audience of over 10 million. This represents an incredible figure of over 75 per cent of people within and outside the country is regularly listening to the show programme.

"A significant majority of people have now opened up their minds to discuss issues around sexual and reproductive health, including family planning and safe sex unlike before,” Kalisa said.

"People huddle around the nearest radio sometimes 20 minutes before the start of the programme," Kalisa recounts.

Tackling taboos

He further said that they have made it to the 10th year in service and that the presenters of the show have acquired enough experience to talk about taboos in the community.

"People can laugh at the way the issues are addressed and the language we are using, but we never lose the entertainment aspect, we don't sacrifice the story and the humour, it's about combining that with messages of education to cause a change in people’s lives," Kalisa explained.

Citing an example, Kalisa recalled the story about a student who dropped out of secondary school to marry a shop owner, but then discovers later that she was HIV positive.

"The audiences ware kept on tenterhooks about whether their wedding would go ahead or not,” he said.

Josephine Ingabire, a parent to four children and resident of Kimironko, acknowledge the importance of the programme in charging lives of people in the community.

"It gives parents and guardians courage to discuss with their children and grandchild sensitive human issues they have heard on Urunana programme episodes," she said.

She added that before the programme was initiated, it was taboo for people especially as you know the Rwandan culture of silence, to discuss issues related to sexuality.

Francine Kalitsi, a university student, said the programme is of great importance since it addresses many issues encountered during day to day life.

"I really value the role it has played in educating Rwandans on wide range of health issues as well as addressing marital conflicting issues that were persistently becoming a menace to our communities, she explained”

The scripts

The episodes are written after gathering information from the public about the most pressing issues in the community.

Prosper Karenzi, the primary health coordinator and part of the script writing team, said that comparison is made from these presented issues coming up with the most appropriate topic.

"The topic is then written and edited before being presented to the main characters for a five days rehearsal followed by recording.”

The World Bank report suggested that education at a grassroots level played an important role in slowing down the spread of HIV/Aids in the country.

Figures from the World Bank last year put the prevalence of Aids in Rwanda at about 3 per cent, down from 11 per cent in 2000. It is believed that the programme has played a great role in reducing the prevalence of HIV/Aids in Rwanda since its inauguration.

The soap opera has already won various awards such as The Community service Awards in 2007 issued by the Community Development Initiative.

In June 2008, the organisation won the African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet) Awards.

Urunana was launched in 1999 with funding support from UK’s Department for International Development. Currently, the organisation is receiving funding from the European Union (EU) for the implementation of these forth coming projects.

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