project
Kwishilya
Making a Difference
Season One: The Proof
Developed in partnership with USAID/Zambia’s Community Radio Program, Kwishilya launched in January 2019 with 156 episodes running through July 2020. The show reached an estimated 659,440 weekly listeners — and the impact was measurable. Listeners were 1.5 times more likely than non-listeners to use family planning. Over 92% of listeners approved of family planning to delay or avoid pregnancy. And in a region where more than 80% of girls do not finish secondary school, listeners were 1.2 times more likely to agree that girls should be encouraged to complete their education, even after childbirth.
Season Two: The Scale
The impact of season one made the case for more. A second run of the show launched in May 2021, extending through October 2022 and expanding to five provinces — Central, Luapula, Muchinga, Northern, and Western — across 50 districts. The characters and familiar storylines, along with all the surrounding ecosystem of activities like call-in radio shows and community events, created deep audience connection while addressing the social issues at the heart of the series.
Why It Works
Kwishilya combined behavior theory with entertainment industry craft to spark conversations that traditional health communications alone cannot start. Agness convinced her husband Bupe to listen together — and the show became the entry point for critical conversations about family planning in their marriage. That’s the PMC methodology at work: stories that don’t lecture, but open doors.
Lives Forever Changed
Funded By
Erik E. and Edith H. Bergstrom Foundation
See our work in action
Explore other projects where PMC’s methodology met massive audiences — and changed the conversation.
