Reuters News Service

This article describes an hour-long Nepali radio show, "Chatting with My Best Friend", which attempts to spread awareness on safe sex and protection against HIV/AIDS for young people, who are vulnerable to the disease. The radio show, which was available in only a few towns in 2001, is now broadcast over 35 "popular" FM stations, including the state-run Radio Nepal."


The programme is created by San Francisco [California, United States]-based aid group, Equal Access, which produces it with United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) support. Because many of the 70,000 Nepali people with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) fear stigmatistion, the radio programme hopes to impart to youth skills such as dealing with emotions and stress, as well as support for "communicating issues that can't be discussed with parents", despite social taboos. Hosts of the programme chat about how the behaviours of injecting of drugs and unsafe sex can cause HIV; and they seek to promote the use of condoms.


Hosts indicate that the programme receives about 1,500 letters from listeners seeking remedies for their problems, but the programme does not offer clear-cut solutions; rather, it offers ways to communicate about the problems.