The Tisankhenji radio drama revolves around Alinafe Magombo, a thirteen year old girl. Alinafe is a girl with big dreams and goals. She plans for her life and lives towards achieving her goals. She is hardworking, disciplined, and responsible and like any normal thirteen-year-old, Alinafe goes through life’s challenges and problems, and learns through her mistakes. The radio programmes follows her and her friends as they play, laugh, and learn through everyday situations.


According to the organisers, the process of developing the Alinafe story in each phase of Tisankhenji involves thorough social research and continuous interaction with the intended audience to ensure that the story taps into girls’ emotional needs and reflects their day-to-day dilemmas. The research aims to further ensure that the programme is child friendly and evokes the desired emotional and behavioural responses from audiences.

The Tisankhenji radio programme consists of two components - a radio drama which runs for 15 minutes followed by a magazine programme called Tikhoza. The magazine programme discusses issues and values dealt with in the radio drama. This involves interacting with the audience, playing back the pre-recorded programme and discussing the varying themes and learning points, such as self esteem, the importance of goals, and the importance of role-modeling. According to the producers, using both radio drama and a magazine programme aims to allow the producers to guide their listeners’ learning while at the same time giving listeners space to voice their views, reflect on the on issues, and talk about them.

HIV/AIDS, Gender, Youth

This programme began through a collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to scale up the use of UNICEF's collection of “Sara” materials for the Sara Communication Initiative in Malawi, and evolved into the "home-grown" concept of Tisankhenji which is broadcast in Chichewa. The Tisankhenji characters and storylines were based on the Sara productions.



Nanzikambe Arts works in Malawi and uses theatre for education, development, and social change. According to the organisers, Nanzikambe Arts is dedicated to creating theatrical forms of expression rooted in African culture and to developing an aesthetic that draws on traditional and local culture. The organisation also aims to use theatre to expose injustice, advancing among other things human rights, justice, equality, and the realisation of human potential through the arts. They also work to connect artists and audiences from diverse backgrounds, reaching across racial, ethnic, and geographical divides. Their work is based on the idea that storytelling and theatrical experiences can be transformative.