Brief report on the HIV/AIDS and Community Radio Stakeholders Meeting

The Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF SA) organised an HIV/AIDS and Community Radio stakeholders meeting that took place on the August 15 2003 from 08.00 AM to 16.00 PM at the Hilton Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg. This report discusses the pilot project that was developed by OSF SA Media programme, this pilot programme will provide support to a sample of community radios in South Africa to produce and broadcast quality radio programmes that address HIV/AIDS issues.

The aim of the meeting was to introduce the project to stakeholders working in the field of HIV/AIDS communication, and to explore possibilities of co-operation and support. The objectives for the meeting are:

• Presentation to stakeholders of the OSF SA pilot project
• Presentations by organisations on their experiences in HIV/AIDS communication
• Lessons learned from similar projects in the Southern Africa Region and explore possible collaboration
• Comments, contributions and discussion

The report states that the overall aim of the pilot project is to utilise a sample of community radio stations in the country, as a vehicle whereby community residents can listen to quality and relevant radio programmes that address HIV/AIDS issues in a comprehensive and ongoing way, touching on all the areas that the epidemic is affecting. The selection of the communities to become partners in the pilot project will be partly determined by the kind of services that are available in these communities such as VCT, support groups, legal support, treatment, etc. Key to the productions is the content and creative formats that would be utilise so that the potential listeners will tune to listen to the programme.