An experiment in FM radio -
"Ngima Ilawo"
Youth interactive local language radio – informing at risk youth in Kenya’s Nyanza Province about sexual health.
Ngima Ilawo was broadcast 6 evenings every week in Nyanza Province between March and August 2008.
The series consisted of 5 minute “Hot Spots” inserted into a highly popular daily evening radio programme from Monday-Friday, and a 1 hour discussion and call-in show aired on Saturdays summarizing weekly content and answering viewer questions.
The design of Ngima Ilawo was an attempt to meet the challenge of communicating with fragmented radio audiences, who now have literally hundreds of stations to choose from.
By broadcasting regularly, embedded within programmes popular with the target audiences, and building a faithful regular audience over time Ngima Ilawo was able to become a very popular programme, attracting up to 85% of the target, youth audience to listen regularly.
Impact monitoring combined focus group discussions, pre and post surveys and a treatment and control group of listeners, half of whom were asked to listen regularly and keep diaries of the programmes they heard.
Impact evaluation was positive, suggesting the following conclusions:
• Ngima Ilawo - very popular
• Little difference in diary / non-diary listenership
• Base knowledge related mainly to age, also to sex
• Overall significant increases in knowledge across the board
• Most knowledge impact in male circumcision and VCT
Ngima Ilawo makes me happy, you have helped my children, now we are free and we listen together and their lives have changed, no more embarrassments, continue with the program.
Hi Ngima I praise the program for cautioning the youths against bad peers with ill motives on one’s life,congrats.