Case Study: Makgabaneng in
From 2001 until 2007 Media Support worked in Botswana in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on an innovative approach for influencing individuals and communities to change HIV/AIDS-related behaviours. Radio listeners are inspired by characters who feature in an educational but also highly entertaining soap opera Makgabaneng, which means ‘a rocky place’ in the Setswana language. Interpersonal reinforcement is provided by community-based activities in which listeners discuss the stories they have heard on the radio and gain support to adopt safer behaviours. These two components are at the heart of the MARCH (Modeling And Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS) behaviour change strategy.
Based on social research findings, the serial drama portrays the dilemmas of people growing up in communities where as many as one third of people over 15 are HIV positive – one of the highest incidences of HIV in the world. (Media Support were also consultants to a similar CDC-funded project in Zimbabwe.) In Botswana, the challenge was particularly hard as people had become so used to hearing - and dismissing - advice on HIV/AIDS that it had become known as the "Radio Disease". So the drama initially told the stories of a group of realistic characters living in typical Botswanan settings (village, cattle post and town) with HIV/AIDS being introduced as a topic only very gradually.
After being on air for eighteen months, half of all 15–30 year-olds in Botswana listened regularly. Results also indicate that regular listeners are much more likely to be tolerant of mixing with those who are HIV positive than non-listeners. There is also some evidence that regular listeners are more willing to be tested for HIV – a major objective of the soap opera.
