This series was encouraged by the success of the "edutainment" series in South Africa called Soul City. In Series One of Love Patrol, the action takes place in a police station in an urban centre somewhere in the Pacific. Mark is a detective. He desperately wants his wife to have a child, but he is also caught up with Rita, a singer in a bar. A gang of boys are slipping into houses to steal money; they rob a Minister's house. The search for the boys takes us into the settlements, "the other side of Paradise" where unemployment is rampant. HIV does not become a major focus until episode 6. The central reason for this was to hook people who may be deterred by the HIV focus. Stories collected from around the Pacific through workshops and from the nurses and peer educators at Wan Smolbag's reproductive health clinic informed the series. As of this writing, Smolbag is editing the second series, filmed in 2008, with a commitment to a third series being filmed in 2009.

In order to increase the reach and effect of Love Patrol, Wan Smolbag worked with a behavioural specialist to produce a teacher's guide for series which was then pretested with teachers in rural and urban schools in Vanuatu, Fiji, and Solomons. The DVD of Love Patrol (Series 1) has been distributed widely to schools and communities in approximately 20 Pacific countries, with accompanying student and teacher workbooks. The user's guide encourages principles of critical thinking and interactive classroom practices. The guide, therefore, reinforces information in the series and raises discussion on issues including sexual health, youth crime, violence, relationships, and gender issues. Click here to download the guide in PDF format.

Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS, Gender Equity.

An evaluation survey and report was carried out in 2008 on the impact of Love Patrol in Fiji, Solomons, and Vanuatu; see the "Related Summaries" link below to access a summary and the full document. "Both the qualitative and quantitative components of the research undertaken suggested changes in knowledge and attitudes once participants had viewed the series. The research also draws out participants' intent to change risky behaviour. Love Patrol has been a huge success. People have been exposed to issues that are rarely talked about in the Pacific. The use of the soap format has brought 'tabu' topics into people's living rooms and raised discussion about HIV amongst ordinary people in many Pacific countries." One viewer explains, "It raises issues that are hard for people to talk about, but when it comes out on TV, no one blames anyone for raising those issues and it becomes a way to begin talking about important issues." Another noted that Love Patrol and the teacher support materials "help us to think and be creative on how to attract learners' attention and involvement."

Wan Smolbag Theatre is an NGO based in Vanuatu but operating all over the South Pacific. Launched as a group of 15 voluntary actors in 1989, Wan Smolbag has, as of 2009, a staff of around 100 full- and part-time staff and over 200 volunteers.

The development of the Love Patrol series was encouraged by the success of the edutainment series in South Africa called "Soul City".