Chatting with My Best Friend:
Saathi Sanga Manka Kura
Millions of Youth Turn to this Team of Friends
Every week, more than 6 million Nepalese youth turn to their best friends on radio, Saathi Sanga Manka Kura, (“Chatting with My Best Friend”). The seven year old program empowers youth with the knowledge and life skills to deal with the difficult issues they face in their daily lives, with the specific objectives of preventing HIV infection and intravenous drug use. The young hosts’ frank youth-to-youth on-air discussions about the realities and responsibilities of adolescence help young people to rise above daily conflicts, entangled expectations and peer pressure. Teenage listeners - often with no other sources of reliable information- learn life skills for negotiating relationships, continuing their education, HIV/AIDS prevention, STDs, pre-marital pregnancies, trafficking, and grappling with issues related to Nepal’s conflict and peace restoration. - SSMK just lauded by UNICEF with 2008 International Children’s Broadcasting Day Award
- Orlando Bloom played a guest role on the award winning episode while visiting Nepal as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Each of the weekly, one hour broadcasts highlights the story of a teen grappling with a particular issue such as gender or caste discrimination, girls’ education, conflict, studies or careers. Through chatting amongst the hosts, short serial dramas, interviews with experts and discussion regarding the courses of action, listeners gain the knowledge and support to make informed decisions. The program’s relevance and appeal to youth have spawned a network of over 1,000 formally organized listener’s clubs throughout the country. The clubs conduct their own activities, such as HIV/AIDS training and prevention, programs on gender discrimination & caste discrimination in collaboration with local health centers and village development committees, exemplifying how Nepali youth are positively changing their behaviors to live healthier and more productive lives. The Indreni Bal Club from eastern Nepal recently started a campaign where young members start informal conversations in public places like bus stops and public water fountains regarding issues like safe sex and the importance of reproductive health and other topics they learned about from Chatting….. The network of listener clubs has initiated publication on regional bulletins and national level magazines to promote the myriad clubs activities carried out all over the Nepal. For more information on SSMK and to download the program, please visit Equal Access Nepal’s SSMK page at http://www.equalaccess.org.np/sathi-sanga-manka-kura.
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