Contents Love Patrol – the Pacific’S Own HIV Prevention TV Series
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Secretariat of the Pacific Community ISSN 1018-2152 no 32 – November 2007 Peer educators – Safe Festival Campaign during Hibiscus Festival Contents Love Patrol – the Pacific’s own HIV prevention TV series ........2 CEDAW works for HIV prevention too .............................................20 Doctors and journalists forge new partnerships ..........................5 Female condoms – empowering Pacific women Universal access to HIV treatment achieved to protect themselves ..........................................................................22 in Pacific small island countries ......................................................8 ICAAP: Speaking out against HIV discrimination at sea .......23 UNESCO Global Network of Young Media Producers ICAAP: In the face of gender inequality, married women on HIV reaches new territories in Melanesia.......................10 are among most vulnerable to HIV ...........................................24 Update on second-generation surveillance surveys .................12 ICAAP: Stigma lessons arriving from the Pacific ........................26 OSSHHM news ...................................................................................................12 ICAAP: Prioritising male sexual health in the Asia Pacific ...27 Peer education: Still an effective IAS: Talk with us, not about us ..............................................................28 behaviour change tool in Fiji .........................................................15 Confused? Bored? Not any more! .......................................................30 Together We Can .............................................................................................16 Review of HIV/AIDS Media Guide ......................................................31 Male sexual health and HIV in the Pacific – The Pleasure Project .....................................................................................33 first Pacific consultation .....................................................................18 Drumming for HIV .........................................................................................34 Update on the National Council of Churches and Pacific Regional Strategy on HIV/AIDS news ..............................35 Faafafine Workshop on HIV and AIDS ...................................19 UNFPA provides free condoms to NGOs .........................................36 Media Love Patrol – the Pacific’s own HIV prevention TV series Robyn Drysdale, Behaviour Change Communication Specialist, HIV & STI Section, SPC Jo Dorras, Scriptwriter and Co-founder, Wan Smolbag Theatre, Vanuatu Tamara Kwarteng, Team Leader, Pacific Regional HIV/AIDS Project prevention that has recently arrived on our shores. The idea is to have a popular TV series made by and for Pacific people that will draw viewers into the story and keep them entertained while providing important information on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The stories raise topics that stimulate dialogue in the community and encourage individuals to examine and change their behaviours. During a random street poll in the streets of Port Vila, Vanuatu, a number of people empathised with Elizabeth, including one interviewee who said Elizabeth played a part that showed the life of many women in Vanuatu today: ‘It is good for men to see ‘Love Patrol’ in action “Love Patrol” so that they can see the pain that women go through when their husbands cheat on n the amber colours of the Christian girl, she MUST go back to them all the time.’ I afternoon, scenes – ugly ones her husband … – flash in front of Elizabeth. What Unlike one-off productions, the if? she keeps pondering. Nasty Elizabeth is one of the main series allows viewers to identify memories of the past months characters in ‘Love Patrol’, the more closely with characters and haunt her to the depths of her Pacific’s own 10-part TV series, themes across time and opens being, and her stomach tightens as which premiered in Vanuatu and the way for the material on HIV she thinks the worst. Her husband’s Fiji in April and is already proving and other development issues to extramarital affairs have left her immensely popular with TV become part of the conversational on the darkest side of midnight. viewers in both countries. fabric of a community. Tapping Not only is she pregnant, she is into these advantages, ‘Love Patrol’ also possibly infected with HIV. Her ‘Love Patrol’ is the product of portrays strong characters with mother thinks that she is a good an innovative approach to HIV whom the audience can identify. Pacific AIDS Alert 2 Bulletin n° 32 – 2007 Media Many of the respondents to the ‘Soul City’ – poll stated that ‘Love Patrol’ lessons learnt from South Africa mirrored ‘real life and real people’ Soul City Institute is a dynamic and innovative multimedia health and showed ‘what is actually promotion and social change project. Through drama and happening in Vanuatu today’. entertainment, Soul City reaches more than 16 million South A police officer said that he felt Africans. Its two main brands are ‘Soul City’, targeted at adults, and that the depiction of the police ‘Soul Buddyz’, targeted at 8–12-year-olds and the adults in their lives. The second big programme in which Soul City Institute is involved in ‘Love Patrol’ was indicative of is a regional programme – a partnership with local organisations the police in Vanuatu and ‘police in eight southern African countries. As well as South Africa, ‘Soul officers should watch it so they City’ has also been broadcast in many other parts of Africa and can learn from it’. in Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. It examines many health and development issues, imparting information and Another respondent said the series impacting on social norms, attitudes and practice. It is aimed at raised issues that were hard for individuals, communities and the sociopolitical environment. Through its multimedia and advocacy strategies, Soul City Institute aims to people to talk about, but ‘when it create an enabling environment that empowers audiences to make comes out on TV, we don’t blame healthy choices, both as individuals and as communities. For more anyone for raising those issues information, go to http://www.soulcity.org.za/. and it becomes an avenue to begin talking about important issues’. This approach to HIV prevention As a result, the Pacific Regional characters, storylines and scenes is called ‘edutainment’ and has HIV/AIDS Project (PRHP), that were relevant to the region. been developed over the last the HIV & STI Section of few years in a growing number the Secretariat of the Pacific In addition to being screened of countries around the world. Community (SPC) and the well- on TV, all episodes will be Its positive impacts have been known Vanuatu theatre company distributed widely on DVD documented in detail; the most Wan Smolbag thought the time across the region along with well-known example is the ‘Soul was ripe for the Pacific to have back-up print materials. Initially City’ TV series in South Africa. its own TV soap opera, with they will be an important source Reaching out to youth Across the Pacific, and especially in Melanesia, many young people drop out of or never attend school. At the same time, some countries, such as Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, have very high rates of STIs and are extremely vulnerable to an HIV epidemic. Kiribati is already facing a high per capita infection rate and is dealing with the issue of rapid urban migration and a high number of youth at risk. The challenge is to find a form of educational material to which the younger generation can relate. Many people in this age group are unable to read or have little access to books, whereas DVD players are ubiquitous even in quite remote areas – as is a love of watching DVDs. It is not only early school leavers or those who never go to school who are at risk. School teachers, parents and traditional authorities often find it hard to talk to youth, at school or outside it, about issues related to sexuality. If an HIV epidemic is to be averted, there is a need to find a way to make it easier for parents, teachers and youth to discuss these issues without fear or shame. Edutainment, in particular TV soaps that are culturally relevant to viewers, can open the door to such discussions. Pacific AIDS Alert 3 Bulletin n° 32 – 2007 Media all these places it has been met with a great deal of enthusiasm. Vanuatu’s random street poll showed that over 85 per cent of people were watching every episode (even the repeats). ‘Love Patrol’ started on Fiji One TV on 15 October. You can follow the lives and loves of Elizabeth, Mark and the cops of the Love Patrol at 8:00 p.m. on Fridays. Viewers in the Cook Islands will be able to see ‘Love Patrol’ from January 2008. Stay tuned to the Patrol – it’s coming your way! For more information, please contact: Robyn Drysdale, Behaviour Change Communication Specialist, HIV & STI Section, SPC, ph: +687 26 20 00, email: [email protected] * This article was originally published in Islands Business magazine, November 2007. of information, education and for 2008. Indeed, there were many communication (IEC) materials calls for a continuation of the series for the region’s schools, with during the street poll, with some plans for support materials for respondents comparing it with the non-school environment Wan Smolbag’s radio soap opera (non-governmental organisations, ‘Famili Blong Serah’, which has clinics and village communities) now