ethiopia: Radio Drama Changes Lives in Ethiopia

Yeken Kignit (“Looking Over One’s Daily Life”) and Dhimbiba (“Getting the Best Out of Life”), two new social content soap operas, are changing behaviour in Ethiopia. New evidence indicates that more than a third (35 percent) of new family planning clients in Ethiopia have heard one of the radio soap operas. Nearly six percent of the new clients said they visited the clinic as a result of listening to one of the dramas. Since the programs began broadcasting in June 2002, 7,500 letters from enthusiastic listeners have arrived at Population Media Centre’s (PMC) Ethiopia office, the U.S.-based organisation behind the dramas.