Where We Work
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Nigeria
Population Media Center has now been working in Nigeria for three years, working to change the attitudes and behaviors that lead to population growth, the subjugation of women and girls, and a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In July 2007, PMC launched its second social content radio serial drama in northern Nigeria, Ruwan Dare (“Midnight Rain”). Ruwan Dare is focused on promoting reproductive health, enhancing knowledge and use of family planning services, and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
To monitor the effects of the program on listeners, PMC-Nigeria has established 11 clinic research sites where exit interviews are being conducted to find out what is motivating clients to seek reproductive health and family planning services. Monitoring interviews conducted at reproductive health and family planning clinics with 220 clients in October-December 2007 showed that 55% of the clients reported that it was Ruwan Dare that had motivated their visit to the clinic. A second round of monitoring from the same group of clinics was conducted from January – March of this year, and it showed that 66% of clients reported that the program motivated them to seek family planning and reproductive health services. This increase of 11 percentage points provides additional evidence that midway through the course of its two year broadcast, Ruwan Dare is
demonstrating a measurable impact on the lives of listeners in northern Nigeria.
PMC also established Ruwan Dare Listeners’ Clubs with male and female audience members to provide ongoing feedback to the creative team. The feedback from the listening clubs helps the writers and producers to better understand the impact of the program on listeners and how they are identifying with different characters. Listener feedback helps to maintain the drama’s usefulness, appropriateness, and realism.
Ruwan Dare will continue to air for another year on four radio stations in northern Nigeria: FRCN (Kaduna), Companion FM (Katsina), Rima Radio (Sokoto), and Freedom Radio (Kano).
Ruwan Dare is made possible with continued support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Conservation, Food and Health Foundation and new support from an individual contributor.
